Friday September 17th

The 2021 Pendleton Round-Up finished day three of the four-day rodeo with a reigning bareback champion in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association taking the first spot in the day’s first event, bareback riding. Kaycee Feild accomplished the task aboard a bucking bronc named Toy Soldier, leaving the Utah cowboy with even more cash as he heads to rodeo’s richest event of the year, the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

The 111 year-old Pendleton Round-Up continues with its finals day on Saturday, as the best contestants from three days of competition meet to decide who will dominate in each event.

Bareback riding

The reigning world champion in this rodeo event reigned at the Round-Up on Friday, earning a score of 86.5 on a horse misleadingly named Toy Soldier. As in all of the bucking events, the two professional judges are evaluating both the rider and the bucking bronc or bull. Each judge gives 25 points to the cowboy and 25 to his steed for a potential 100 points, but nobody ever quite gets there. And Toy Soldier was no toy.

Kaycee Feild, 34, Genola, UT, the event leader currently in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), rode Toy Soldier to the top with competitors nipping at his heels. In second place was Clayton Biglow, Clements, CA, 85.5 and behind him Tilden Hooper, Carthage, TX, 85.

In a career that began in 2007 as a PRCA competitor, Feild has amassed a total of over $2.7 million in cash prizes. After winning nearly $280,000 last year, to date this year he has earned $112,197, not including the Round-Up. He finished in 1^st place in this event in the world PRCA standings in 2020, a year marred by a number of rodeo cancellations, including the Pendleton Round-Up. He also won the world title four years straight from 2011-14 but despite many trips to the Round-Up he has yet to win the championship here in Pendleton.

“That was a lot of fun,” he said at the end of his ride. “When you can stay on the dirt in Pendleton and not get on the grass, that’s a lot more fun. That horse stayed on the dirt real close and let me show off in the last three or four seconds…had a lot of fun today.”

Asked about his season as he ends it as the 2020 reigning bareback rider in the PRCA and currently #5 in the world standings for 2021, he said, “We’ve got two weeks to go. I’m happy but I don’t particularly want to be the first one in at the NFR, a win here and a win next week in Salinas would be awesome. My goal is to go into the NFR number one and I got to get it done here tomorrow in the short round.”

As to how he prepared for the ten rounds of the NFR he said that “when the season ends at the end of September I’ll take two weeks for my body just to totally relax and try not to do a whole lot and then after that it’s full on. Morning, noon and night ride the buckin’ machine and ride a broke horse out of the buckin’ chutes. I’m just dreamin’ of being there in the NFR and I’m going to try to get as tough as I possibly can. The second or third guy that got bucked off out there in the grass today. . . I said boy, that would take me a long time to recover now—I’m 34 years old—but I feel great, especially this late in the season. I haven’t been this healthy in my career this long so I’m really looking forward to being healthy and getting’ to Vegas with no bumps or bruises.”

The Round-Up is one of the latest rodeos in the PRCA season that’s mostly a summer sport. Acquiring the cash that earns a spot in the “World Series” of rodeo--the PRCA’s National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas in December—is largely complete but a bit more from the Round-Up could help competitors who are close. The NFR has 15 spots in each of its rodeo event for the top 15 finishers.

Second place finisher Clayton Biglow, 25, knows the NFR, where he has competed five times and won one world title, in 2019. Currently, he leads Feild in the world standings with $133,567, putting him one place ahead of Feild at #4. Clayton has won $1.2 million since joining the PRCA in 2015.

Will Lowe, Amarillo, TX, a three-time world champion in bareback, scored an 82 on Friday but won the championship in this event at the Round-Up in 2006 and 2008.

Tie Down Roping

Cooper Mills, 24, St. St John, WA, roped his calf in 10.1 seconds to win the first of the six timed events at Friday’s Round-Up. A member of the PRCA since 2017 Mills has competed in four of the PRCA rodeos this year in the Pacific Northwest. Mills also competes in team roping.

Just behind Mills was Tim Messner, Terrebonne, OR, with a time of 10.7 seconds. Messner, 26, competing in his rookie year, is paying his dues, having competed in 18 Pacific Northwest rodeos this season before the Round-Up. Just two-tenths of a second later, at 10.9 seconds, was Coy Surrett, Buhl, ID. The 26-year-old two year PRCA veteran is competing in his 21st PRCA rodeo this year.

Breakaway Roping

The best time of the day for breakaway roping turned out not to be the best time after a 10 second penalty for breaking a barrier. In breakaway, as in other roping events, the calf runs just ahead of the roper as they exit the alleys side by side. If the rider exits too early--breaks the barrier--she or he is penalized. In this case, McKenna Hickson, Lipan, TX, went from 2.6 seconds to 12.6 in one of the Round-Up’s two women’s events.

The winner was sister Texan Bailey Gubert, Hungerford, TX, with a time of 3.4 seconds, followed one-tenth of a second later by another Texan, Madison Outhier, Fulshear, TX, at 3.5 seconds.

Hickson, 53, is ranked 27^th in the world in the ProRodeo Tour in this event with 41 rodeos this year prior to the Round-Up. Gubert, a PRCA rookie, is close behind at 29^th with 37 rodeos. She is the granddaughter of Karen Gubert, a three-time All Around Champion in the early 1960s. She also competes for the Sam Houston State University Rodeo Team. In July she topped the leaderboard at the Sheridan, WY rodeo, which like the Round-Up, came back strong after a year hiatus in 2020.

Second place finisher Outhier says she has competed in rodeo since she was one but didn’t start roping on the ranch until she was eight. As a 16-year-old sophomore in 2019 she won both the Junior American and the American titles in breakaway roping in Arlington, TX. She also has honed her horsemanship skills by playing polo, something her mother did professionally for 25 years.

Saddle Bronc

Two Canadians from Alberta tied for the lead in the Friday edition of the saddle bronc competition. Logan James Hay, Wildwood, and Ben T Andersen, Rocky Mountain H, both received scores of 87.

Hay, currently 25^th in the PRCA world standings with just over $24,000 in winnings this year, has won $60,553 so far this year, his most since joining the PRCA. So far the 24-year-old has won the championship in this event at seven rodeos, starting in February and stretching from North Carolina to Texas and Idaho.

Andersen is in 34^th place, putting him out of reach for a spot in this year’s NFR, although the 21 year-old has enjoyed a good year, pocketing almost $80,000 in cash awards. He earlier won the Crooked River Roundup in Prineville, OR. He names the Pendleton Round-Up as his favorite rodeo.

In second place, Logan Cook, 23, Alto, TX and a two-year member of the PRCA with $53,771 in prize cash this year, took an 86 on Friday in the saddle bronc event. Logan dropped from 15^th in June to 20^th in the PRCA world standings for the event. That’s important because only the top 15 competitors in each event are admitted to the NFR in December. There’s about $14,000 or $15,000 between Cook and Spencer Wright, who currently occupies spot number 15, and who performed well in the Saddle Bronc event on Thursday at the Round-Up, adding to his award cash for the year.

Steer wrestling

Steer wrestling or bull dogging is the only rodeo event where the cowboy deliberately leaves his horse. Both the cowboy on his horse and a steer run side by side for seconds until the rider slides from his horse onto the steer, grabbing its horns, braking with his boot heels dug into the dirt and then flipping the steer over. The winner does it the fastest.

And the fastest on Friday at the Pendleton Round-Up was number 18 in the PRCA world standings for the event, Eli Lord of Sturgis, SD, with a time of 5.8 seconds. He was followed by Ryan Bothum of Pendleton’s neighboring town of Hermiston. Bothum was just behind Lord at 6.0 seconds. In third was Chance Gartner, of nearby Touchet, WA with 6.4 seconds.

Lord, 27, is also a team roper but unranked in that event. But as a steer wrestler he has won over $50,000 this year, with more to come from the Round-Up, adding to his career (began 2012) earnings of nearly $250,000. In addition to winning this event at six rodeos this season, he also took the All-Around title at two, much better than the abbreviated 2020 season. As with so many rodeo competitors it’s a family affair. His dad J.B. Lord still rodeos in the same events as Eli and brother Levi qualified last year for the NFR. He admires the guys who, like himself, compete in more than one event.

Local favorite Bothum, 32, has competed in 35 rodeos this season throughout the Pacific Northwest, taking first in Toppenish. The son of former professional saddle bronc champion, David Bothum, Ryan earned his first championship saddle in 2003 at the age of 14 at the Toppenish, WA Junior Rodeo.

Team Roping

In team roping, an event combining the skills of two ropers on one steer, the header first catches a running steer by its head, dropping the rope around the horns if all goes right. Then the heeler completes the job by roping the steer’s two hind hooves. Miss one hoof and there’s a penalty, miss both and there’s no time. It’s challenging, as demonstrated on Friday when only two of 12 competitors caught their steers for a time.

Caden Camp, Belgrade, MT, partnered with heeler Delon Parker, Worden, MT for the best time of the day in the team roping event, 5.8 seconds.

Camp, 22, joined the PRCA in 2018 and is currently unranked among headers. He has also competed in steer wrestling, steer roping and tie-down roping, a rarity among rodeo competitors, where most focus on one or two events. So far this year, including the Round-Up he has competed in 56 rodeos in this event, and in many of them he included his other three events.

His partner, Parker, competes in the same rodeos and same roping events but skips the steer wrestling. Parker, 36, joined the PRCA in 2018 and is also unranked this year.

Local favorites Troy Murray, Echo, OR, and B.J. Roberts, Hermiston, OR, placed second with a time of 7.1. Murray, 40 has competed in the PRCA since 2001 and is currently unranked, as is his heeler partner, Roberts.

Bull Riding

Four stock contractors supplied the bulls for Friday’s event. With names like El Diablo, Floating Fury, Riot Control and Double Threat it’s apparent some of the contractors want to make the threat of a raging bull sound even more threatening. Not needed. It’s obviously a threat when a bull rider’s hand is caught after he’s thrown or when the bull accidental steps on the recently departed rider on the dirt.

And when all of that danger is not enough to engage the crowd, there’s always the bull that knocks down the fence and runs unencumbered throughout the arena, sending the cowboys sitting in the grass scattering like windblown leaves. As one did on Friday, then absolutely refused to leave. Just another day at the rodeo.

Billy Quillan, Fallon, NV, took the best score on Friday with 88.5 aboard a relatively tame sounding bull named Vegas. But about half the score of any ride on a bucking animal at the rodeo comes from the animal’s performance and that means it bucks like crazy if it scores well. But Quillan, 24, held on for the full 8 seconds required, unlike 11 of the 16 riders Friday, to capture first place. Quillan hasn’t captured much prize money in his second year since joining the PRCA but has put in the effort big time, traveling to numerous rodeos all over the United States to compete, from Florida, to Texas, to Pendleton, Oregon. If fact, of 37 rodeos, including the Round-Up, he’s managed to place in five, providing clear evidence of the difficulty of bull riding, no matter the bull’s name.

Close behind with 88 points was Trevor Reiste, Linden, IA, riding Pass the Booze. A six-year PRCA veteran, the 28-year-old Reiste has won nearly $300,000 in those six years and qualified in 2017 for the NFR where he wrapped that year by placing 13^thand winning over $100,000 in cash awards. According to his Facebook page Reiste has a mission, to “be so busy loving my life that I have no time for hate, regret, worrying, fret or fear”. Word to live by when you’re riding bulls for a living. He says he was introduced to rodeo by his dad, who roped calves and that Trevor mounted his first bull at the age of eight. He also competed in high school in saddle bronc riding and in 2008 qualfied for the National High School Finals Rodeo in both events.

Third place finisher Parker Breding, Edgar, MT, finished his 8 second ride with 85 points. Breding, 29, has won nearly $100,000 this season, winning seven rodeos up to the Round-Up for a career winnings total of $825,000 and coming back from the truncated 2020 season where he took in just under $30,000. His dad, Scott, was a five-time NFR qualifier as a bull rider in the 1990s and judges bull riding in Montana. Parker qualified for the NFR three times, in 2013, 2015 and 2018. Now positioned at #9 he’s very likely to end up there again in one of the 15 spots held for qualifying bull riders.

Steer Roping

As more testament to the difficulty of roping anything, only three of 12 competitors in the steer roping event on Friday managed to get it done for a time.

In first was Cole Patterson, Pratt, KS, the current world leader in the event with a time of 15.3 at the Round-Up.

Patterson, 26, and a PRCA competitor since 2018, will add to his winnings of just over $100,000 this year in the PRCA. A win at the Pendleton Round-Up would be number nine for the year in the event. His earnings this year put him in the ProRodeo record book, for the most money ever won by a steer roper in the PRCA regular season, before getting to the NFR, the richest rodeo in the world. He accomplished that in August at the Days of ’76 Stand Alone Steer Roping in Deadwood, SD.

“I don’t know if it’s totally hit yet that I’m now the record holder,” he said at the time. “A big win takes a couple days before you realize what happened and I think that’s the case for me now.”

Right behind him was Mike Chase, McAlester, OK with 15.6. In third place was Chet Herren, Pawhuska, OK at 18.9 seconds.

Chase, 49, is ranked 13^th in the event in the PRCA world standings, with career winnings of over $420,000 since he joined the PRCA in 1995. He comes off a recent win last week at the Lewiston Roundup, with an average time of 10.2 seconds. Herren, 31, currently ranked 11^th in the world standings and a PRCA member since 2001, has career earnings of over $930,000 and finished 2020 #11 in the world standings in steer roping. He has qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping 15 times, beginning in 2002.

Barrel Racing

In one of the two women’s events at the Round-Up, the winner for Friday, a regional favorite, Emily McKinnies of just-over-the-border West Richland, WA, put in the best time over the longest barrel racing course in rodeo, 28.83 seconds. And despite the length of the course, which leaves many barrel racers and their horses unhappy, McKinnies said in an interview that her horse loves the course at the Pendleton Round-Up because of its length.

The 32-year-old McKinnies competed in the last Round-Up, held in 2019 and came in second behind Rainy Robinson on the Friday two years ago. Today Robinson, from Caldwell, ID, was not so fortunate, coming in at 35.02 seconds.

In second place on Friday was Katie Pascoe, Morro Bay, CA, with a time of 29.81, ahead of Riata Goemmer, Battle Mountain, NV, at 30.26.

Pascoe comes from a rodeo family. Her dad, John W. Jones, Jr., is a three-time PRCA world champion steer wrestler, the son of another champion steer wrestler. She grew up around rodeos and has described barrel racing as a natural progression for her. As she puts it, she likes to rope but she loves to run barrels. Pascoe is currently #6 in the ProRodeo standings.

Goemmer comes from a ranching rodeo family. Her name, Riata, and her sister’s name, Dally, come from the tools of the cowboy. Both her dad and mom competed from their Nevada ranch. She competes on the Treasure Valley Community College rodeo team in Battle Mountain.