Wednesday Afternoon Performance September 15th

The 2021 Pendleton Round-Up opened on Wednesday with 852 rodeo contestants signed up to compete for a total purse of over $500,000 and prizes ranging from silver buckles to championship saddles. An enthusiastic crowd welcomed the rodeo queen and her court who opened the event, after a rare hiatus in 2020 for the rodeo that has hosted rodeo competitors and their fans since 1910.

The rodeo is held daily Wednesday through the championship finals event on Saturday. Currently, Friday and Saturday are sold out but tickets are still available for Thursday.

Bareback Riding

In the bareback riding event, one of the toughest events in rodeo, Canadian Spur Lacasse, Calgary, AB, rode Dirty Harry to an 84 score and tied Chad Rutherford, Hillsboro, TX, who got a re-ride and 84 points after his first horse showed a reluctance to perform. The two cowboys were followed by the appropriately named Bronc Marriott, Woods Cross, UT, with 82-1/2 in second.

Lacasse, 28, has been a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, since 2014, and won the title at the Ellensburg, WA Rodeo a week earlier. He is unranked the in the PRCA world standings but finished #32 in 2020. With an 83 he topped his average for the year, 76.3 in 37 qualified rides over the rodeo season.

Like so many competitors, Lacasse gave credit to his horse. “It was a young horse and I’d only seen a couple of stats but I saw a video or two and was excited about riding this horse.”

“I heard it was a blast,” he said of the Pendleton Round-Up. “My dad was here and a lot of friends so I couldn’t wait to experience it myself. I’ve been battling injuries all year but just glad to be here and on the road.”

Rutherford, 30, has won over $200,000 in his nine-year professional rodeo career. He finished 2020 in 13^th place in the bareback event and qualified for his first trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR). He has won seven rodeos to date in 2021.

Marriott, 22, is in his second year as a pro, has entered over 60 rodeos since the beginning of the year, averaging 77.76 in 57 qualified rides.

Tie Down Roping

In the Round-Up’s first roping event, 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 Wednesday. His time of 9.6 seconds to rope his calf put him just ahead of Bo Pickett, Caldwell, ID, at 10.3 seconds. In third place, at 11.1 seconds, was Logan Bird of Nanton, AB.

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. If he can win at the Round-Up this week, it will be his 12^th championship at a rodeo in 2021. He won the title here in 2017 with an average time of 9.3 seconds.

Saddle Bronc Riding

Tegan Smith, Winterset, IA, also credited his horse for his first place finish at the Round-Up on Wednesday. “She was a great horse and I was so happy I got to draw her. When I first came out she kind of popped me but I got back down. You know, she does her part and you do yours.”

In the bucking events such as saddle bronc riding, the judges score both the rider and the horse, so both contribute to the total score.

Smith 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.”

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.

But right behind him on Wednesday, with an 87 score, was Colt Gordon, Comanche, OK, who won the event at the 2019 Round-Up, the last time the rodeo was held. Currently ranked 37^th in the world standings, Gordon will not be going to the NFR this year.

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 Wednesday’s event at the Round-Up, Newt Novich, 28, of Twin Bridges, MT, managed the feat in 4.7 seconds of frenetic action. Novich is 49^th in the current Pro Rodeo Tour and is not in the top 50 in the PRCA World standings for this event so won’t be at the NFR in December but he gave the crowd a tremendous demonstration of how steer wrestling looks when it’s done right.

Just four-tenths of a second behind him, Jule Hazen of Ashland, KS, is also low in the Pro Rodeo Tour standings and out of the PRCA world standings top 50 but like Novich put in a tremendous performance on Wednesday. Hazen, 40, has a strong history. He placed 8^th in the 2020 NFR and has qualified for that event four times.

Team Roping

In team roping two ropers, chase a running steer. One ropes the head and then the second roper, if all goes well, ropes the two hind hooves. Rope just one hind hoof and that second roper, known as the heeler, has just cost the team a penalty. Miss them both and there’s no time. It may be rodeo’s most difficult event from a skill standpoint.

On Wednesday the team of Coleman Proctor, Pryor, OK, and Logan Medllin, Tatum, NM, had the best time, 4.7 seconds. They edged out Rhen Richard, Roosevelt, UT, and Jeremy Buhler, Arrowwood, AB, with a time of 5.1 seconds. Half of the field of 12 teams was not able to complete the task, for no time.

The header in the team, Proctor, 36, has competed in pro rodeo since 2004, while his heeler partner, Medlin, 30, joined the PRCA in 2013. Last year Proctor placed 19^th in the world standings. He has earned nearly $1.2 million in his professional career and qualified for the NFR five times. He was a heeler champion in high school in Oklahoma. Medlin placed 11^th in the world standings last year. He also was a high school rodeo champion, in New Mexico, and won the National College Finals Rodeo team roping title.

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.

Bull riding

Bull rider Boudreaux Campbell, 23, Crockett, TX, turned in the best time Wednesday atop a bull named Bouchon. The two stayed together for the full eight seconds and left Campbell with a score of 88.5. The two were among six of 14 teams of bull and rider to score, with all of the scores in the respectable 80’s.

In his five-year career Campbell has won nearly $750,000 in cash prizes and placed 10^th in the PRCA world standings in 2020. He qualified for the NFR in 2017, his rookie year in the PRCA, and every year since. Sitting at 13^th currently in the world standings he is in a good position to appear again at the NFR this coming December in Las Vegas, where only the top 15 competitors in each rodeo event are admitted.

Two and a half points back, Roscoe Jarboe, 25, riding a bull named Last Cigarette, has also earned just over $750,000 in a seven-year career but placed sixth in the world standings last year and is now 17^th in the world standings, about $7,000 in cash winnings behind Campbell for 2021. It’s still possible that he could move up to the top 15 if he does well this week at the Round-Up.

Steer Roping

In the day’s last roping event, Scott Snedecor, Fredericksburg, TX caught his steer in 13.9 seconds to take first place. The 46-year-old Snedecor, 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 Wednesday—only three of the contestants were able to catch their steers—was Vin Fisher Jr., Andrews, TX, currently ranked second in the world standings and certain to make it to Las Vegas for the NFR.

Barrel Racing

In one of the few rodeo events for women, barrel racing, Amanda Welsh, Gillette, WY, just squeezed by Mary Shae Thomas, a local favorite from nearby Hermiston, OR, with a time of 28.82 seconds compared to Thomas’ run in 28.91 seconds. Welsh is currently ranked 8^th in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in the event. She should be appearing at the WPRA’s World Finals event in November in Waco, Texas, the WPRA’s counterpart to the NFR.

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