Thursday Afternoon Performance September 16th

It was “Tough Enough To Wear Pink” day at the Pendleton Round-Up rodeo. It’s the annual Thursday commitment to reminding the rodeo world of the battle to conquer breast cancer, when competing cowboys and cowgirls and spectators alike wear their best pink. While introducing the day, Round-Up board president Randy Bracher, a local rancher, noted that it was the 15^thanniversary of rodeo’s special commitment to raising both awareness and funding to combat the disease.

The Round-Up is one of the premier rodeos in America, winning the PRCA 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. This is the Round-Up’s 111^th year.

The Round-Up continues Friday and wraps up with the finals on Saturday.

Thursday’s Results:

Bareback Riding

The crowd at the second day of the four-day rodeo 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 87.5. Landingham is a local favorite because he attended 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 in neighboring Oregon.

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

Asked about his horse, Landingham said that “I haven’t seen much of him, I’ve seen some videos but he’s got a different trip basically every single time so I didn’t know what to expect and here at Pendleton you never know what a horse is going to do anyway. He was coming on strong and when he saw the grass he wanted to come but it was too late, we were already on it. When he hit the grass he started throwing some moves in there and

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. 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 at 86 by Leighton Berry, Weatherford, TX. At 28^th in the PRCA standings Berry 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 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.

Unlike most of the competitors who ride bucking animals, Berry also competes as a roper, after growing up roping calves and team roping.

Third place finisher Wyatt Denny, 26, Minden, NV, with 84 points, grew up on a family ranch and shares bareback pursuits with brother Grant, also a PRCA competitor. In his six-year career he has earned $520,701 in rodeo cash awards, including almost $50,000 this year. Denny is currently ranked 19^th in PRCA standings, four spots short of one of the positions in the NFR.

Tie-Down Roping

Despite a dozen competitors chasing a calf to rope it, only three could catch the calf for a qualifying time on Thursday, testimony to the difficulty of the task.

Ty Harris, San Angelo, TX, caught and tied his calf in 8.6 seconds to take first, followed by Chance Oftedahl, Pemberton, MN in 9.7 seconds. Roger Nonella, Redmond, OR, had the third best time of 13.2.

Harris, 23, currently 6^th in the PRCA event standings with $100,399 and a bit more with his finish at today’s Round-Up, joined the professional ranks four years ago. As he entered the Round-Up he had less than $1,000 to go to mark $400,000 in lifetime winnings. At #6 in the standings he’s a pretty safe bet to appear again at the NFR for the third time in a row. Last year he finished 6^th in the NFR average.

Oftedahl, 31^st in the standings with $53,241 in 2021, joined the PRCA in 2015 and has Pendleton as one of his two favorite rodeos in his PRCA bio. The 25-year-old also competes as a header in team roping. After suffering a severe concussion and breaking his neck in his first year of competition, he has worked hard to return to a high level of function and continue competing in rodeo with a motto, “If you want it work for it! Rodeo!”

Breakaway roping

In breakaway roping, one of two women’s events at the Round-Up, the contestant ropes a calf, then allows the running animal to break away. Once the rider catches her calf, she slackens her rope signaling her horse to stop. When her rope tightens it breaks a string fastened to her saddle horn, which signals the task is complete and gives her a time. After three years of demonstration, this is its first year as a competitive event.

Thursday’s winner was Codilynn McPherson, West Warren, UT. McPherson is currently ranked 5^th in the Pro Rodeo Breakaway Wilderness Circuit Standings. Second place finisher Bailey Patterson, in a tie with Britni Carlson at 4 seconds, is ranked 30^th in the PRCA ProRodeo Tour Breakaway Standings. McPherson is ranked 56^thin those standings. Patterson scored a time of 3.6 at the most recent prior Round-Up, in 2019.

Saddle Bronc

It was a Wright family reunion in Thursday’s saddle bronc event, with five of the 14 competitors coming from Milford, Utah’s famous Wright rodeo family. And three of them managed to take 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rdplace. Stetson finished at 91, Ryder 88 and Rusty 87, followed by Brody Cress, 25, Hillsdale, WY, in 4^th place with 86. Jesse Wright, 32, finished 6^th with 83 and Spencer Wright, 30, came in with 79-1/2 in 10^th place.

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.

In the World Saddle Bronc Riding standings, Ryder is #1 today with $171,950 in earnings for the year, followed by brother Stetson, who is followed by Brody Cress. The 23-year-old Ryder has earned $1,377,920 since joining the PRCA in 2016 and earned $358,471 last year while winning the world title in the saddle bronc event. He set a record for the NFR average on 10 head, with 877 points. He says that the Pendleton Round-Up is his favorite rodeo because the arena is “old-school with a cool atmosphere”.

Steer Wrestling

Landon Beardsworth caught his steer in a best time of 5.5 seconds to give him the best average in the event, thanks to a 6.0 time in an earlier round. 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.

In steer wrestling or bulldogging, the cowboy races after a stampeding steer and slides from his saddle onto the steer, grabs its horns, digs in his boot heels to brake and flips the steer over with his body. What could go wrong?

In second was J.J. Rosenberg from Arlington, OR, a town near host town Pendleton so he received the local favorite cheers. With a time of 9.9, Rosenberg, 31, has spent the season competing in rodeos in the Pacific Northwest. He joined the PRCA in 2013 and is unranked this year.

Ringo Robinson, Huston, ID, took 3^rdplace with a time of 10.2 seconds to bring down his steer. Robinson, 27 and a six-year PRCA member, is also unranked.

Team Roping

Team roping’s a tough skill and takes two to make it work. The two cowboys chase a running steer and one, the header, ropes the head, followed by the heeler, who ropes the hind hooves. Miss the hooves and no time is recorded, catch one hoof, as three of Thursday’s teams did, and also catch a penalty. It’s a tough enough task that only six of today’s 12 competitors managed a time.

Two competitors broke the barrier, meaning one of their team left the alley early. The steer gets a slight lead time. That left only one competing team that caught its steer unpenalized.

The winner for the day was one of the four Oregon teams—Shane Erickson, Terrebonne, OR with Andy Carlson, Hermiston, OR--with a time of 6.1 seconds. In second was the team of header Hayes Smith, Central Point, OR and Justin Davis, Cottonwood, CA with a time of 11.7 seconds after catching one leg. The other one-leg-catching teams followed them, both with times of 11.8 seconds. They were Cole Patterson, Pratt, KS with heeler Thomas Smith, Barnsdale, OK and the team of Tyler Wade, Terrell, TX and heeler Trey Yates, Pueblo, CO.

Erickson, 41, joined the PRCA in 1999 and is unranked in his job as a team roping header and also in his other pursuit, tie-down roping. He has competed in six rodeos this year. His heeler, Carlson, is 35 and a professional since 2009, also unranked and competed in 35 rodeos in 2021.

Hayes Smith, 28 and a PRCA member since 2015, is ranked 16^th in team roping headers world standings, making him one rank short of the 15^th spot, which would make him eligible to attend the NFR in Las Vegas this December. If he does well at the Round-Up it could be just the boost he needs. He and his dad both shoe horses and both are ropers. His heeler partner, Justin Davis, is in the 21^st spot in the PRCA standings, giving him long odds for a shot at the NFR, although at $48,074 he’s just a little over $4,000 behind current 15^thspot holder Cory Petska. For Davis too, a Round-Up victory could be just the boost he needs.

Bull Riding

Stetson Wright took 1^st place in bull riding, just as he did earlier in his other event, bronc riding, this time with a score of 87. He appears to be working his way toward the Round-Up’s 2021 All-Around title.

In second with 85 was Jordon Hansen, Amisk, AB. The 28-year-old Canadian stands in the 23^rd position in the PRCA world bull riding standings with $60,167 for the year, quite some distance from #15 Ruger Piva with $82,436. A member of the PRCA since 2014, Hansen qualified for the NFR in 2017 and 2019 but finished 40^th in the standings in 2020 with earnings of $20,187, although for his seven-year career he’s earned $548,379. Earlier this year he won the bull riding event at the grand dame of Canadian rodeos, the Calgary Stampede.

Wade Berg, Chaffee, ND, road his bull, Road Kill, to a score of 81.5 and 3^rd place in the event Thursday. Berg, 22, joined the PRCA this year and has competed in 63 rodeos in his rookie year.

Steer Roping

In a field of 11, J.D. Yates, Pueblo, CO, was one of three steer ropers who actually roped their steers and the only one to do it without a penalty so yes, he won at Thursday’s edition of the Round-Up, with a time of 12.7 seconds. He was followed by Colt Bruegman, Wheatland, WY, 20.6, and Clay Long, Stephenville, TX, 20.9.

Ropers tend to have longer rodeo careers than their bronc and bull riding brothers and J.D. Yates, 61, is a good example. He joined the PRCA in 1976, has qualified for the NFR 21 times, and although he finished 153^rd in the 2019 PRCA standings and passed on the 2020 season, he is still a rodeo competitor of great note.

Much of Yates career was spent as a team roper and he won early, capturing the College NFR team-roping championship in 1979-80. In fact, he is still the youngest PRCA NFR team-roping qualifier ever, at 15 years, 4 months, in 1975. He is was also one member of the only father-son-daughter trio to compete at the NFR in the same year. He was the son. At the Pendleton Round-Up Yates has won the steer roping title in 1991, 1994 and 2001.

And like so many who compete in rodeo, Yates gives credit to his horses. “ . . . the horse is what makes you successful. And if you don’t have a good horse, somebody’s going to beat you. You know there’s no other way to put it. The horse is what makes a person successful.” Yates has spent many years as a horse trainer and a trainer of horse trainers.

And his son, Trey, 26, is also making a career in rodeo and making an appearance at this year’s Round-Up.

Barrel Racing

A regional favorite, Cheyenne Allan, Mabton, WA, 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.

Eng, 41, and a member of PRCA since 2005, is competing in her 27^throdeo this year in Pendleton.