Saturday September 18th

It was triple crown time for a young cowboy from one of the most storied rodeo families in the sport. The Pendleton Round-Up wrapped up its 111^th year of rodeo Saturday with a remarkable feat by a Utah cowboy. Stetson Wright, member of a large rodeo family that had several contestants at this year’s Round-Up, won both the saddle bronc and bull riding events, perhaps the first time in rodeo that a competitor has tackled both events and won the whole rodeo.

And that meant Wright also captured the coveted All-Around title, based on his multiple achievements during the rodeo this week. This triple crown achievement—saddle bronc, bull riding and All Around--was the first time since 1989 when the late Lewis Feild won bareback, saddle bronc and All-Around.

“The week couldn’t have gotten better,” the 22-year-old said. “To win this rodeo and walk out of here with three saddles and three buckles, it’s just awesome. The money’s not everything to me, it’s these moments. I’ll never forget my stay here in Pendleton.”

Asked how he would prepare for the National Finals Rodeo in December, the annual championship endpoint for rodeo competitors, he said he would just keep doing what he always does, his job.

And a pair of team ropers from Broken Bow, Oklahoma and Fallon, Nevada—Clay Smith and Jade Corkill—set a new arena record of 4.5 seconds on Saturday.

Other than that, it was a day when the Round-Up’s famous cry, Let’er Buck!, might have been revised to Wet’er Buck!, as the first significant rainfall in months picked the day of the Round-Up’s final championships to make everything really damp and slippery. Everyone from breakaway ropers to bronc riders slipped on the mud and the Round-Up’s infamous grass infield. That infield is always a worry for rodeo competitors where horses sometimes shy from the unusual grass in a rodeo arena.

The Round-Up is one of the premier rodeos in America, winning the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year for the seventh time and the fifth time straight in 2019. This honor is voted on by the rodeo contestants themselves, who make up the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and by other rodeo committees.

Rodeo Results for Saturday

Bareback Riding

The crowd at Saturday’s championship round got a special thrill when a local favorite, R.C. Landingham, Hat Creek, CA, won the day’s first event, bareback riding, with a high score of 89.5, which combined with his Thursday score to give him the championship cash and prizes, including the custom made saddle and boots.

Landingham is a local favorite because he attended Pendleton High School and Pendleton’s Blue Mountain Community College, where he led his college rodeo team in 2009 with a College National Finals Rodeo bareback riding championship. Earlier he won the high school championships for bareback in both California and Oregon.

As with so many rodeo competitors it runs in the family. His stepdad competed as a bareback rider.

On his ride, Landingham said that he had flown to Bismark, North Dakota Friday night and that he had stressed all night about returning to the Round-Up on time to compete Saturday. He flew into Spokane about 9:30am and raced down the freeway for a few hours to get to Pendleton with time to spare.

Of his winning ride Landingham said he had ridden the horse, Choke Cherry, a few weeks ago at the rodeo in Ellensburg, Washington and it didn’t go so well. “It went much better today.”

“It’s really cool to win this rodeo,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of memories here, a lot of family and friends so it’s really good to win in Pendleton.” He also pointed to the value of the money he won, which could move him from about 15^th in the bareback world standings to about 13^th and give him a cushion for qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo, which takes only 15 of the year’s top ranking competitors in each event.

Landingham, 31, is currently ranked 15th in the world standings of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) the “league” for professional rodeo competitors. With a rank for the year of 15^th in the PRCA standings, after 12 years in the professional rodeo world, he should earn a berth in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December, thanks to his win at Pendleton, which will give him a cushion. The PRCA admits the top 15 finishers in each event to the year’s biggest rodeo. Landingham will be there if he can maintain his 15^th place or better. His success at Round-Up is almost a last stop, with rodeo season running through September.

Landingham was followed by Clayton Biglow, 25, Clements, CA. Biglow knows the NFR, where he has competed five times and won one world title, in 2019. Currently, he leads Kaycee 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.

Two cowboys had a score that put them in a tie for third in Saturday’s championship round at the Pendleton Round-Up.

Leighton Berry, Weatherford, TX is at 28^th in the PRCA standings and is unlikely to be in the NFR. But at 22-years-old and three years in pro competition, Berry has a bit longer to reach his peak. Last year he finished at 9^th place in the PRCA ProRodeo standings and earned his first entry to the NFR. Berry was looking forward to a bigger 2021 but suffered torn ligaments in two parts of his spine at a rodeo and had to undergo surgery, requiring some time off earlier in the year.

Tied with Berry was Kaycee Feild, 34, Genola, UT, the bareback event leader currently in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).

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.

Tie-Down Roping

In the first roping event of the day, tie-down roping, the current number-one ranked tie-down roper in the world, Shane Hanchey, Sulphur, LA, also proved number one at the Round-Up on Saturday. His time of 9.0 seconds to rope his calf gave him a combined time for three rounds of 28.9 over the four-day rodeo and put him just ahead of Andrew Burks, Kiln, MS, who had a time of 7.9 seconds Saturday for a rodeo total of 29.1. Riley Pruitt, Gering, NE, won the third-place cash award with a time of 10.2 seconds on Saturday and 29.2 overall.

The 31-year-old Hanchey has competed in pro rodeo since 2008, winning nearly $2 million in cash awards during that career. He placed third in the PRCA world standings in 2020 in this event but took first place at the National Finals Rodeo, the world series of rodeo. Winning at the Round-Up this week gives him his 12^th championship at a rodeo in 2021. He won the title here in 2017 with an average time of 9.3 seconds.

The 24-year-old Burks has earned $75,794 in his four-year PRCA career, finishing the 2020 season 38^th in the standings after winning four rodeos. Burks competed in the Mississippi Junior High and High School Rodeo Association, qualifying each year. He ended up in the top 10 calf ropers at the High School National Finals Rodeo in 2015, moving tp the College NFR in 2017 where he finished third in the nation. In one interview he described his sport’s attraction: “I like tie down roping because you have to be athletic and there is a lot that goes into a good run. It’s never the same run every time and you don’t always know what to expect.”

Third-place finisher Pruitt, 29, won the tie-down championship at the last Pendleton Round-Up, in 2019. An 11-year competitor in the PRCA, he has career earnings of $755,575 and finished last year 17^th in the world standings, currently at 23^rd. He was the tie-down champion at seven rodeos this year. He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 2016 and 2019, following in the footsteps of his dad, who competed in tie-down roping and qualified eight times for the NFR, the country’s richest rodeo.

Breakaway Roping

After three years as a demonstration event, the Round-Up this year added breakaway roping as a competitive event, the second women’s event here after barrel racing.

In breakaway roping a woman gallops after a running calf and ropes it. She slackens her rope, allows the calf to run free and break a string tied to her horse’s saddle horn. The times are short, usually just a few seconds, because the run ends when the string breaks.

With a time of 2.6 on Saturday and an average of 2.5 for the week, Sawyer Gilbert, Buffalo, SD, posted the best time for Saturday and the best time for the rodeo’s four days, followed closely by Taylor Munsell, Alva, OK, 2.8 and 2.6.

Gilbert is ranked #5 in the PRCA ProRodeo Tour standings from performances in 15 rodeos while Morrissey is at #13 after 14 competitions. A typical rodeo athlete, Gilbert in an interview talked about her athletic prowess. “I concentrate on the health—the sleep and diet. We work on exercise programs, stretching and flexibility. We research nutrients for both the horses and human since it’s such a team effort.”

On her Facebook page this week she exclaimed, “Pendleton Round-Up officially my new favorite rodeo!! The grass is so fun makes me feel like a ranch kid again doctoring calves. 2.4 to split 3^rd after the slack. Love the grass.”

Second place finisher Munsell, has competed in the tour since 2019. That was the same year she claimed the championship in breakaway roping at the College National Finals Rodeo for her team at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, making her the first woman in the school’s rodeo program to win a title.

Sarah Morrissey, 30, in third place on Saturday, has been a ProRodeo member since 2019, and has captured first place at six rodeos or roping competitions this year.

In a departure from Gilbert’s thoughts on the grass at the Round-Up Morrissey added her own.

“Well, Pendleton didn’t quite go the way I had in mind. Junior (horse) and I managed to be 3.0 seconds . . . ,” said Morrissey on her Facebook page on Tuesday after the slack. “ . . . and then had a little bit of a ‘whoops’ moment! We are fine and I suppose I now have the title of the First Breakaway Roper to Hit the Grass!” Like many horses before him Junior slipped in the Round-Up’s unusual grass infield and dumped Morrissey.

Saddle Bronc

The Wright family magic visited the Round-Up again at the rodeo’s Saturday championship session, with brothers Stetson and Rusty taking first and third respectively in the event. The family from Milford, UT has numerous champion rodeo competitors in their ranks, including Stetson, Ryder and Rusty, all of whom competed in Saturday’s saddle bronc event.

First place finisher Stetson, 22, a PRCA competitor since 2018, and currently the World All-Around Leader, has in his short career won $764,777, with $354,030 coming this year, not including this afternoon’s cash. Last year he finished 1^st in the standings in the PRCA’s Saddle Bronc and Bull riding events, to achieve first with an All Around world title for the second straight year, a phenomenal feat in rodeo, where most competitors limit themselves to one event. In 2021 he has won 23 rodeo All Around titles, meaning he was the top competitor at each rodeo. He is in excellent position to again win the World All-Around Leader title and is certain to appear at the NFR in December.

Stetson had a score of 91.5 on in Saturday’s championship event and an average for the rodeo of 91.25 in two appearances.

Just behind Stetson Wright, Tegan Smith, 23, Winterset, IA, expressed the hope he would make it to the NFR this year. But “if I make it I make it. I just keep doing what I can. Two more weeks to go. It will help if I can win some money here.” Smith had a score of 88 on Saturday and an average of 88.5 for the rodeo. With three years in pro rodeo Smith has collected just over $80,000 in cash awards after winning the championships at five rodeos this year.

The National Finals Rodeo, where the most successful rodeo cowboys are admitted to compete, takes place each December in Las Vegas. The Round-Up is one of the last rodeos of the long rodeo season and can sometimes put a competitor over the top if they can win here. Tegan is currently at #16 and the PRCA admits only the top 15 competitors in each event so he’s right on the edge, with a chance to move up if he’s a Round-Up winner.

Third place finisher Rusty Wright is one of five Wrights at this year’s Round-Up and in a seven-year career the 25-year-old has earned nearly $1.8 million in cash winnings. He’s 29th in the world standings currently. He finished 2020 in 4^th place in the world standings in saddle bronc riding and finished in 5^th place in the NFR where he won $114,641 in the long, 10-round rodeo. Rusty had an 88.5 score on Saturday and an average of 87.75.

Steer Wrestling

Although the bucking events at the rodeo appear challenging to a cowboy’s health, the idea of slipping off a galloping horse onto a stampeding steer, grabbing the bovine by its horns and flipping it, all while pressed up against or under the steer, has left many a steer wrestler, AKA bulldogger, limping from the field of battle.

In Saturday’s championship event Tristan Martin, Sulphur, LA, whipped out the fastest time of the day, 4.4 seconds, and the fastest average of the rodeo, 5.23 seconds, with Landon Beardsworth in 2^nd with 6.0 Saturday and 5.9 for the average, followed by a local favorite Dalton Massey, Hermiston, OR, with times of 4.7 for the day and a 6.16 seconds time for the average.

Martin, 25, joined the PRCA in 2015. Ranked 15^th in the PRCA ProRodeo standings with $53,614 in cash awards in 2021, he would make the qualification cutoff of 15 entries for this December’s NFR in the steer wrestling event, so long as he maintains that position or better. His winnings at the Round-Up will help him get there.

Interviewed after his arrival at the Pendleton Round-Up Martin said he’s turned a corner. “This fourth quarter has been great for me,” he said. “Everything’s just clicking and rolling right along . . . I started riding Cade Staton’s (travel mate) horse and started winning. And Hunter (Hunter Cure, a travel mate) is a great person to be around. We have a lot of fun and it’s straight business . . . He (Hunter) is a great mentor and I’m thankful to be around him.”

Beardsworth, 25, Red Deer County, AB, joined the PRCA in 2018 and is currently unranked. Beardsworth competed in rodeo through junior high, high school and college and while he has tried team roping, he considers steer wrestling the event he knows best. He also competes at the Canadian professional rodeos. He competed in college rodeo at Eastern New Mexico University.

Massey ranks 29^th in the world standings with $37,213 in winnings for the year.

Team Roping

Clay Smith, Broken Bow, OK, and his partner Jade Corkill, Fallon, NV, did not win Saturday’s championship in team roping, given their average time for the rodeo over four days but they managed to get the best time Saturday and set an arena record, at 4.5 seconds, topping the record set in the most recent Round-Up by Jason Stewart and Calgary Smith in 2019 with 5.7 seconds. Given the rarity of a time under six seconds in this event, that 4.5 seconds time is expected to remain the record for quite a while. The two had an average time for the four-day rodeo of 6.2 seconds.

While the record-setting marks a first for the 30-year-old Smith at the Round-Up—he’s currently at 4^th place in the team roping world standings—his partner Corkill, 34, also 4^th in the standings, has won the event in Pendleton as a heeler in 2010 and 2015. Corkill’s professional earnings since entering the PRCA in 2005 total over $2 million. For three years straight, 2012-14 Corkill won the world title as a heeler, winning the title for the event at the NFR in 2014.

Smith has won nearly $1.4 million since he joined the PRCA in 2012 with $155,011 last year, $85,308 from his appearance at the NFR, for which he has qualified for six years straight through last year.

But Saturday’s team roping championship went to the team of Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, UT, and Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, AB. They posted a time of 6.0 for the day but an average for the rodeo of 5.7 seconds. Behind them in second place on the average was the team of Chad Masters, Cedar Hill, TN, and Joseph Harrison Marietta, OK, with 6.1 seconds for the rodeo.

Richard, 32, has competed professionally since 2007 and this year has won the event title at eight rodeos. His heeler partner, Buhler, 33, entered the PRCA ranks in 2010 and won one rodeo this year while teamed with Richard. He began his career teamed with his brother Clint, but has competed on and off with Richard since 2014.

Masters, 40, won at the Round-Up as recently as 2018 in this event with Tyler Worley. In his 20 year career with the PRCA he has collected over $2.4 million in cash awards and stood in 10^th place in this event last year among headers. He’s currently #16 so close to being in the top 15 who are qualified for the NFR, the richest rodeo in the world, where he won the championship in 2007 and 2012. He’s roped with multiple partners this year but has won three rodeos with Harrison. Like so many in rodeo he’s following in the footsteps of his dad, who started him roping at the age of eight. His bio says his mother, Debbie, also aided in his success by opening the roping chute every day during practice.

Harrison, 34, has been in pro competition since 2007, collecting nearly $750,000 in that time. He finished 2020 in 3^rd place, which took him to his fourth straight NFR. His bio says his entire family ropes and like his dad, he trains horses when he’s not competing.

Behind them, tied with Smith/Corkill at 6.2 seconds, was the team of Shawn Bird, Cut Bank, MT, and Justin Viles, Cody, WY.

Bird, 27, is unranked in the standings and has competed in 22 rodeos this season, finishing first in one event at the Big Timber Weekly PRCA Rodeo in Big Timber, MT. Partner Viles took first place in eight events while competing in 47 rodeos beginning in January.

Bull Riding

The bull riding event at the Round-Up this year was unique. A cowboy won both the saddle bronc and bull riding events and they’re checking the PRCA record books—has this ever happened in rodeo? Stetson Wright, already the winner in the saddle bronc event as described earlier, won this event with the biggest score of the day and the biggest average of the rodeo. In fact, he was one of only two competitors in the 12-man lineup that managed to stay on the bull long enough for a score.

While he has brothers aplenty in the saddle bronc event, Stetson was the only Wright family member in the bull riding during the rodeo, a double feat that he has obviously mastered. He managed a score of 89 on Saturday and an average of 88 for his two rides on Thursday and Saturday.

In second place in the championship was Parker Breding, Edgar, MT, who managed a score of 79 on Saturday but posted an average of 82.

Breding, 29, won the bull riding event at the Pendleton Round-Up in 2012. He 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 in the world standings he’s very likely to end up there again in one of the 15 spots held for qualifying bull riders so he’ll get yet another opportunity to face off against the amazing Stetson Wright.

None of the other riders on Saturday posted a score so none earned an average score for the rodeo.

Steer Roping

Of the 12 competitors on Saturday, only six of them managed to catch a steer in this event. But that was better than Friday’s showing, three of 12.

Scott Snedecor, 46, who won this event at the Pendleton Round-Up in 2008 and 2013, struck again on Saturday, winning the championship with an average time of 14.4 in three events over the four-day rodeo. His time on Saturday, 15.4 seconds, was actually a bit slower than that of the #3 finisher of the day, Chet Herren, 15.1 seconds. However, Herren finished with an average of 16.03. In second place for the average was Roger Nonella, Redmond, OR, with an average of 15.43 and a time on Saturday of 17.0 seconds.

Snedecor, Fredericksburg, TX, a PRCA member since 1996, has won nearly $1.5 million in his professional rodeo career, and placed 2^nd last year in the PRCA world standings. He is 8^th in the standings currently so should be appearing at the NFR in December. One of the 12 contestants he bested on Saturday was Vin Fisher Jr., Andrews, TX, currently ranked second in the world standings and certain to make it to Las Vegas for the NFR. But on Saturday Fisher Jr. failed to catch his steer.

Second place finisher Nonella, 34, has appeared at the Pendleton Round-Up a number of times but has yet to capture the title in this event, although he won the tie-down roping title here in 2013, one of his proudest moments in rodeo he said at the time. In a 15-year professional career he has lifetime earnings of $256,308 and won two rodeo titles this year. His passion for the sport began early and he qualified for the High School National Finals Rodeo three times and the same number for the College National Finals Rodeo, where he placed third in tie-down roping twice.

Barrel Racing

In one of two women’s events at the Round-Up, Leia Pluemer, Bosque Farms, NM won the Barrel Racing championship at the Pendleton Round-Up with an average time of 28.83 seconds in two outings this week, after she posted a time on Saturday of 28.84. In second place was a local favorite, Mary Shae Thomas, of nearby Hermiston, OR, with an average of 28.95 and a Saturday time of 28.98.

Pluemer, 26, a competitor in the ProRodeo Tour since 2017, was ranked in the top 15 of barrel racers as recently as 2019. She attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas on a rodeo team scholarship and was the national runner-up as a senior in 2017.

Thomas placed first in the barrels first go at the Waterville, Washington rodeo in August and second at the Cashmere, Washington rodeo last week.

A regional favorite, Cheyenne Allan, Mabton, WA, took third place with an average of 29.07 and a Saturday time of 28.98 after she won the barrel racing event on Thursday with a time of 29.16 seconds, just ahead of local favorite Chandra Eng, Stanfield, OR, with a time of 29.31. Allan, 64, and a PRCA member since 2000, has competed in 37 rodeos this season, including the Round-Up, which she won in 2018 and 2019 with times of under 29 seconds. She is currently ranked 65^th in the PRCA ProRodeo Tour Barrel Standings.

Allan attended the Round-Up as a child and loves the Round-Up. She had said in 2019 after her victory that winning the Round-Up in 2018 was a dream come true and that she was thrilled that she won a second time in 2019 on a different horse. “The older you get, the more you realize how special this is,” she said.