PRYOR, Okla. – The 2022 ProRodeo regular season was one of the best of Coleman Proctor’s career. Roping with New Mexican Logan Medlin for the second straight year, Proctor battled his way to fourth in the heading world standings, earning $110,691 as he prepares to compete at his seventh National Finals Rodeo, set for Dec.[...]

INGLIS, Manitoba – There’s something deep in the mind of bareback rider Orin Larsen that he pulls out when he needs it. Take the 2022 ProRodeo season, one in which he had to overcome more injuries than ever in order to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo for the eighth straight year. He suffered a[...]

MANDAN, N.D. – The bareback riding competition in ProRodeo continues to get tougher, with great young athletes stepping into the spotlight. Ty Breuer is a veteran who has been around for 13 years. He’s qualified for the National Finals Rodeo seven times in his career – an injury forced him out of the 2020 championship[...]

REXBURG, Idaho – Garrett Smith wasn’t happy. He’d arrived in Heber City, Utah, the first weekend of November with hopes of a dominating performance in bull riding at the Wilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo, the regional finale for contestants and rodeos primarily in Utah and Idaho. Things didn’t go as planned, so he opted for Plan[...]

WAVERLY, Kan. – The truest form of competitor comes out at the most unexpected of times. Michael Jordan’s defining moment came in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, when he battled the flu but still scored 38 points in the Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Utah Jazz. For bareback rider Jess Pope, that moment[...]

CLARENDON, Texas – Cole Franks made an impressive statement in 2021 during his inaugural season in ProRodeo: He’d claimed the collegiate all-around and bareback riding titles. He was named the Bareback Riding Resistol Rookie of the Year. He qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo and finished third in the world standings. It was a[...]

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. – Any athlete can attest to injuries throughout a career and even through a season. In bareback riding, the strain and stress the body takes during an eight-second ride can make injuries stack up. Cowboys wedge their hands into a tight-fitting handhold on a rigging that is strapped tightly to a bucking[...]

MERRIMAN, Neb. – Oftentimes there is a fine line between great and awful. Garrett Shadbolt walked that line over the summer of his 2022 ProRodeo regular season. In a two-week stretch from the end of July to the first of August, he experienced the highest of highs as a bareback rider, but it also led[...]

ZWINGLE, Iowa – The competitiveness that Tim O’Connell has in his soul is one reason why he’s a three-time world champion and is always a contender to add more gold buckles to his collection. It’s what drives him and makes him push himself beyond the limits. It’s why he will return to the National Finals[...]

MILAN, Minn. – When the chance came for steer wrestler J.D. Struxness to ride one of the best steer wrestling horses in rodeo, the Minnesota cowboy didn’t hesitate. “One of the biggest keys for my year is that I got to ride Curtis Cassidy’s horse, Tyson,” said Struxness, 27, originally from Minnesota but now living[...]