Zeke Thurston scored 89.5 pts on Sammy Andrews’ All Or Nothin’ to split the 10th round of the WNFR, presented by Teton Ridge. Zeke won his third World Championship and the Average, tying the record. Notice Dawson Hay on the back of the chutes riding with him. PRCA photo
It feels like we just wrapped up our 2022 rodeo season and the 2023 season is already right around the corner — and what a 2022 it was!
We had a full slate of rodeos with packed grandstands. Our committees, sponsors, stock contractors, contract personnel and athletes delivered on every level. And there were so many amazing moments.
We saw a new world record in the bronc riding (Logan Hay, 95.5 points on Calgary Stampede’s Xplosive Skies, Hardgrass Bronc Match) and a new Canadian record in the team roping (Tate and Kagen Schmidt, Maple Leaf Circuit Finals). And to top it off, the new CFR record (set by Zeke Thurston and Kole Ashbacher) stood only 48 hours before Zeke Thurston matched up with his old friend Macza Rodeo’s OLS Tubs Get Smart to establish 93.25 points as the new CFR mark.
Speaking of Zeke Thurston, congratulations to this amazing bronc rider on winning a third World Championship. The entire Canadian rodeo family is very proud of what he accomplished. And that pride extends not just to Zeke, but to the nine cowboys and breakaway roper, Shelby Boisjoli, who represented Canada in Las Vegas as well as all of the CPRA athletes from both sides of ’49 who did such a great job. Our stock contractors and our Canadian stock were also outstanding all ten days of the Finals.
There have been some changes in our office personnel and I want to congratulate Denny Phipps as our new General Manager. Jeff Robson will be staying involved to assist with CFR. Special thanks also to Randa Nugent who is leaving us after six years of dedication and service as the CPRA Rodeo Administrator. As well, we wish CRES Manager, Dakota Schultz, all the best as she embarks on maternity leave. And welcome to Crystal Cyrankiewicz who is joining the CPRA team as interim CRES Manager.
And finally to all of you, thank you for your continued support and get ready — the 2023 rodeo season is almost here.
APRIL
Medicine Hat, AB April 14-16
Dawson Creek, BC April 21-22
Crowsnest Pass, AB April 28-29
Taber, AB (1) April 28-29
MAY
Drayton Valley, AB May 5-7
Taber, AB May 6-7
Falkland, BC ....................................... May 20-22
JUNE
*Grande Prairie, AB
June 1-4
Leduc, AB June 1-4
Hand Hills, AB June 2-4
Bonnyville, AB June 3-4
Brooks, AB June 9-10
Rocky Mountain House, AB June 9-11
*Lea Park, AB June 9-11
Gleichen, AB **(SB) June 14
Stavely, AB ..................................... June 15-17
Innisfail, AB ......................................... June 16-18
Wildwood, AB **(SB) June 17
*Wainwright, AB June 23-25
*Sundre, AB June 23-25
High River, AB June 23-24
*Ponoka, AB June 26-July 2
*Williams Lake, BC June 29-July 2
Raymond, AB June 29-July 1
*SMS Equipment Pro Tour Rodeo
** SB=Saddle Bronc
FloRodeo Network broadcasts Canadian Finals Rodeo, Maple Leaf Circuit Finals and SMS Equipment Pro Rodeo Tour rodeos.
Terry Cooke, President, Canadian Professional Rodeo Association
Junior Nogueira, made it back-to-back World titles, finishing second in the average and topping $340,000 in season earnings.
Waverly, Kansas bareback rider, Jess Pope added his first world title to an already impressive resume. Pope ended up with 860 points over the ten rounds for his third Average win and won $390,620 in season earnings. The lone Canadian in the field, Orin Larsen, went out after the fourth round with a thumb injury that required surgery.
When steer wrestling leaders, Will Lummus and Stetson Jorgensen, broke the barrier and took a no-time respectively in the final round, the door was opened for Tyler Waguespack to claim his fourth gold buckle. The Gonzales, Louisiana hand wound up third in the average and earned $268,881 to edge Lummus by just $2700. Kyle Irwin and Jesse Brown finished 1-2 in the average; both men rode Canadian Curtis Cassidy’s award-winning bull dogging horse, Tyson
Big Valley, Alta. bronc rider, Zeke Thurston, continued to fashion a storybook career as he won his third World Championship at the recently completed Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. With $399,915 in season earnings, the second-generation cowboy placed in all but one round over the ten days, earning a record-tying 876.5 points to capture the NFR Average title along with the Top Gun Award that goes to the top money earner in a single event.
“Those other fourteen guys in that dressing room are the bronc-ridingest sons of guns you will ever see… I really had to work for this one,” Thurston acknowledged.
Fellow Canadian, Logan Hay, competing at his first NFR, wound up second in the average and third overall. The other four members of a strong Canadian bronc riding contingent were Dawson Hay, Kolby Wanchuk, Layton Green and Kole Ashbacher.
Team ropers, Jeremy Buhler and Rhen Richard, came alive in the final two rounds. Buhler, the 2016 World Champion Heeler, from Arrowwood, Alta. and his Utah heading partner, Rhen Richard, were 3.8 for the win in round nine and 3.7 for a three-way split of top spot in round ten. Kaleb Driggers, from Hoboken, Georgia, and the talented Brazilian,
Cotulla, Texas cowgirl, Hailey Kinsel, collected her fourth barrel racing championship despite hitting two barrels and finishing only eighth in the lucrative average. Kinsel and her mare, Sister, won the second, third, ninth and tenth go-rounds and split 1-2 in the fifth round in capturing the title. South Dakota veteran, Lisa Lockhart, a four-time Canadian Champion, rode her way from fourteenth place at the outset of the Finals to third in the average and fourth overall.
Caleb Smidt locked down his fourth tie-down roping championship in a masterful 10-round performance that saw him win $374,736, leaving him more than $100,000 ahead of second place finisher Shad Mayfield.
Stetson Wright continued to re-write history, riding eight of ten bulls and finishing with $592,143 in season earnings to win both the Average and overall honours.
It was one of two titles for Wright as he was, once again, the All-Around Champion, establishing records in both the bull riding and All Around. Maple Creek, Sask’s Jared Parsonage, concluded an outstanding season that saw him win the Canadian bull riding title, and the PBR Canada Finals before wrapping up his year with his first NFR appearance.
Canadian NFR competitors brought home $796,052 US dollars while stock contractors from north of the 49th parallel sent 42 of their four-legged stars to Las Vegas, including all of this year’s Canadian champions: Duane Kesler Championship Rodeo’s Alberta Prime Devil’s Advocate, Macza Pro Rodeo’s OLS Tubs Stevie Knicks in bareback riding and the much celebrated (and now retired) OLS Tubs Get Smart in the bronc
c
riding.
1. Curtis Cassidy with his Nutrena Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year trophy, presented by the AQHA. This is the second time Tyson has earned this honour. PRCA photo by Clay Guardipee.
2. Jared Parsonage on Powder River Rodeo's Chiseled in Round 3; on the back of the chutes is Layton, Zeke and Logan cheering him on. PRCA photo by Phil Doyle.
3. Jeremy Buhler and his header partner Rhen Richard winning round nine. PRCA photo by Hailey Rae.
Bull rider Coy Robbins capped off his 2022 season in style going four-for-four at the Maple Leaf Circuit Finals at Regina Agribition en route to winning both the Finals and the Maple Leaf Circuit season title. Robbins won two rounds, split 1-2 in another and added a 2-3 split as he earned $4,383 for the Finals title and $27,178 for the Maple Leaf season.
“This is definitely the longest run of my career,” the Camrose, Alta. athlete admitted. “I put in the work all year and it helped that even though I was a bit banged up, I stayed pretty healthy over this last month of the season.”
And there was plenty of excitement in the team roping as well as Barrhead,
Alta, brothers, Kagen and Tate Schmidt, lit up the Brandt Centre with an arena and CPRA record time of 3.3 seconds for the final round win.
“I knew we were fast,” the heeling half of the team, Kagen admitted, “but I didn’t know how fast until I saw Tate hootin’ and hollerin’; then I looked up at the clock. Even then it didn’t sink in right away that we’d broken the record.”
Kagen noted that the steer they had was one they’d wanted at the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Red Deer and throughout the Regina event, “but we didn’t get him until last night. He’s good, fast, strong — just what you want.”
The 3.4-second record, held previously by Mike Beers and Shane Schwenke, had stood since 2009.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2022 MAPLE LEAF CIRCUIT FINALS AND YEAR-END CHAMPIONS:
Bareback: Cole Goodine
Steer Wrestling: Stephen Culling
Tie-Down Roping: Clayton Smith
Barrel Racing: Jennifer Neudorf
Bull Riding: Coy Robbins
Saddle Bronc: Ben Andersen, Finals Champion
Hunter Sawley, Year-End Champion
Team Roping: Tristen Woolsey/Trey
Gallais, Finals Champions
Dillon Graham/Dawson Graham, Year-End Champions
Breakaway: Jenna Dallyn, Finals Champion
Bradi Whiteside, Year-end Champion c
1. Record-breaking action of Kagen and Tate Schmidt. 2. 2022 MLCF Champion Coy Robbins. Photos by Wildwood Imagery/Chantelle BowmanIn 2022, the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association changed the names of two coveted year-end awards. The All-Around championship became the Kenny McLean Award, while the High Point Award was changed to the All Around. The first name to be scribed on the newly named All Around buckle is Wyatt Hayes.
“It took me a couple of days to get through all the messages,” chuckles Hayes, describing the support he received after winning the award. “It opened my eyes to how much support I have around home.”
The 27-year-old, Granum, Alta, cowboy had an advantage going into the Canadian Finals Rodeo in November 2022. He was the only contestant to qualify in two events at the CFR.
“It was my first full season in the team roping,” explains Hayes, who also qualified in the tie-down roping. “I was always the guy everybody picked up for a weekend.”
“I guess I never really looked super-hard for a partner. Maybe I didn’t put myself out there enough for anyone to ask me, either. But I’ve been team roping since I was five years old. It’s always come easy for me.”
His partnership in 2022 with Lochlan Christianson paid off. Well, at least for Hayes.
“If we’d have placed in the top three or four, it would have been fine,” offers Hayes in describing how his heeling partner missed the CFR cut by $1,500 when four teams split the team roping win at the final regular season rodeo in Edmonton, leaving the pair splitting fifth.
Ironically, one of those teams to split the win was Tuftin and Tyce McLeod, the latter who would become Hayes’ partner for the CFR. Together they would win $8,387 in Red Deer, including an important fourthplace cheque in round six.
“It didn’t kick in until Curtis (Cassidy) won the last round (in steer wrestling),” says Hayes, who grew up near Val Marie, Sask. “Then, I realized I was actually competing against a guy who had won it (former High Point award) so many times before.”
‘I didn’t really think about the All Around coming into the CFR. I knew I had a chance because I was in two events. But I was concentrating on those events. In the back of my mind, I thought if I did good in each event, I would be OK.”
In the end, Hayes beat out the nine-time High Point champion by just over $3,500,
buoyed by a third-place cheque in the tiedown on the final day.
“The tie-down roping is hard for me,” confides Hayes, who credits the tutelage of Saskatchewan roper Shawn Williamson and his New Mexico college rodeo coach, Marty Eakin, for helping him refine his skills. “I actually got my yellow mare (Score) from Shawn and used her at college.”
It was that 12-year-old horse that Hayes used at the CFR and the one he plans to use in 2023.
“The goal is to qualify in both again. And maybe win a championship in both or one of the events.” c
From the archives... a Cowboy favourite from 2013!
"Ya, summers are pretty short in this country... THEY USUALLY FALL ON A TUESDAY!!"
