L&CB Wrangler NFR Recap

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is over for another year. This means we can all start to catch up on some sleep, our non-rodeo friends can talk to us about civilian matters again, and those of you who unfollowed me on Facebook for fear of seeing live results before you witnessed the run, can “follow” or “friend” me again.

First things first. HOLY INTENSE BARREL RACE!!! Huge congrats to Mary Burger and Mo on their world title. Though her and Mo may not have the prettiest pattern each night, he still managed to make up time with his huge stride, probably saying to Mary, “hang on tight lady, here we go!”

Queen B beat Ambereigh Moore by $10,793.24. Moore came into the finals in 15th position and finished 2nd! Amber & her mare Paige were amazing to watch and quickly became all anyone could talk about. They even tied Taylor Jacobs arena record of 13.37 and could’ve beat it but tipped a barrel to be a 13.31. Now, you may say “Cass, she tipped that barrel, if she went around it she wouldn’t have been that fast.”  But when you watch that run, the horse had to take an extra stride around the tipped barrel and she didn’t hustle the mare home. So I still believe she would’ve had the new record. I got in on a WNFR Barrel Draft and after I had made my picks, watched Amberleighs runs on Facebook from earlier in the year, and KNEW I should’ve put her on my team. Paige works phenomenal indoors. They are a great team and hope to see a lot of them in the 2017 season.

Lisa Lockhart and Mr. Consistency himself/Louie, won the Average title staying clean for all ten rounds, and have the new average record of 137.98! They always make just the prettiest runs. Sherry Cervi broke her own WNFR earnings record which was $155,899 from 2013; Sherry earned $164,634.63 this year and Amberleigh Moore earned a whopping $187,692.29. Poor Mary Walker & Latte were unable to pull a single cheque and only had a few clean runs. I was completely shocked that Tibbie ducked third barrel on the first night and second barrel on the last night. Hats off to Ivy for riding the hair off of that power house each night. They are still one of my favourites to watch! I was also happy to see a Facebook Live feed with Sarah Rose McDonald where she was asked how she feels about all the talk regarding her riding, where she happily replied “I don’t care.” Round 7 was my absolute fave to watch of her and Bling where they ended up 2nd with a 13.66. Also, how about Cervi and Arson bringing the heat! She rides him so so well (duh, Cassie it’s Sherry, she could ride a camel at finals and do well) but they also won (tied for 1st) the last round the same as she did last year on him. Way to be Sherry!

My recommendation for all barrel racers for next year that will be watching, go follow Blaine McDougal on Facebook. He’s a barrel racer out of Kansas and did hilarious 20 minute live feed recaps of each round. He also has perfect brows. You’re welcome.

Lastly regarding the barrels, kudos to those who were able to bring new ground into the Thomas & Mack, which allowed the top 15 to give us the most exciting finals to watch!

Okay, okay, now onto other WNFR excitement. Canadian’s brought home THREE World Championship titles. Holy sweet maple syrup, we’re really doin’ it Harry!

Levi Simpson won the world with $249,133.31 and the average along side his pard Jeremy Buhler who took home a grand total of $258,311.13. They were the first all Canadian team to make it to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and the first to clinch the world title. Though it was not Buhler who started #FearTheBeard, ropers across the world now do, fear the beard.

Zeke Thurston beat out Jacobs Crawley for the world title by $2,831.39 after winning the average and a 3/4 place split in the final round where Crawley received a no score for missing his horse out of the chute. Jake Watson made it into the finals just by a few hundred bucks, and silently flew under the radar during the first bit of the finals, slowly climbing up by dominating the average. Watson ended up 2nd to Thurston in the average, and finished 5th in the world!

Jake Vold finished second in the world with $240,161.06. Vold had 3 go-round wins which launched him towards the top. Orin Larsen finished third in the world with $219,372.59 and had a go-round win despite all the pain he was in with his ribs during the finals. Kolton Schmidt came into the finals first in the world, but the pressures of the finals may have got to him with several misses, though he and Shay Carroll did win Round 9, they finished 10th in the world. We all know that Kolton is one hell-of-a roper and all of Canada looks forward to watching his 2017 season!

Also I would like to give a shout out to Dennis Halstead for being Alternate Barrel Man during the WNFR, and to Gary Remple as one of the pickup men! As well a shout out to Calgary Stampede as their 6 year old mare Xplosive Skies was named top Bareback Horse of the 2016!

Other Canadian’s who were making it big in Vegas this December were Daryl Thiessen, Travis James &  Monty Philips who competed at the Bull Fighters Only Championships, Thiessen making it to the short round, Monty was out early with a bad knee, and Travis did not advance.

Veronica Swales won the 2D taking home $10,000 at the All In Barrel Race in Las Vegas that ran during the WNFR. Sandy McGinnis & Jordyn Schuett also competed at the All In. McGinnis figured she may as well go big or go home while down in Sin City, she entered the American Qualifier finishing 20th against NFR horses and some of the best out there right now. Rylee Shields & Lindsay Sears also entered and finished in the Top 10 and will be competing at the Semi-Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.

Canadian Matthew Mousseau won the Pro Fantasy Rodeo draft that thousands of people enter.

Dang, the Canadians sure cleaned up down south the past ten days, eh?

Full World Standings are below.

Bareback
1 Tim O’Connell $374,271.53, 2 Jake Vold $240,161.06, 3 Orin Larsen $219,372.59, 4 Caleb Bennett $217,167.12, 5 Tanner Aus $213,152.41, 6 R.C. Landingham $211,986.10 7 Clayton Jon $171,064.17, 8 J.R. Vezain, $159,508.019,Winn Ratliff $153,679.51, 10 Wyatt Denny $148,861.91, 11 Richie Champion $129,092.09, 12 Jake Brown $120,282.43, 13 Evan Jayne $119,081.12, 14 Ty Breuer $114,329.92, 15 Jessy Davis $79,916.05

Steer Wrestling
1 Tyler Waguespack $298,675.58, 2 Matt Reeves $226,542.67, 3 Clayton Hass $213,111.08, 4 J.D. Struxness $213,107.74, 5 Jason Thomas $205,136.76, 6 Dakota Eldridge $176,672.53, 7 Ty Erickson $145,672.82, 8 Riley Duvall $129,103.74, 9 Josh PeekP $119,156.51, 10 Nick Guy $118,308.09, 11 Billy Bugenig $109,330.21,12 Trevor Knowles $101,336.11 13 Cody Cabral $101,331.34, 14 Jacob Talley $96,686.36, 15 Baylor Roche $93,635.63

Team Roping (Headers)
1 Levi Simpson $249,133.31, 2 Kaleb Driggers $230,283.97, 3 Luke Brown $228,435.76, 4 Riley Minor $220,166.07, 5 Clay SmithB $218,611.20, 6 Dustin Bird $200,102.27, 7 Erich Rogers $189,184.93, 8 Matt Sherwood $145,906.76, 9 Zac Small $143,787.19,10 Kolton Schmidt $132,378.12, 11 Colby Lovell $122,245.15, 12 Tyler Wade $114,529.41, 13 Garrett Rogers $109,731.45, 14Cody Snow $100,717.73, 15 Coleman Proctor $92,049.18

Team Roping (Heelers)
1 Jeremy Buhler $258,311.13, 2Junior Nogueira $230,283.97, 3 Jake Long $225,091.16, 4 Paul Eaves $219,900.02, 5 Brady Minor $218,658.07,6 Russell Cardoza $193,441.35,7 Cory Petska $190,411.17, 8 Quinn Kesler $145,876.06, 9 Wesley Thorp $138,221.06, 10 Dakota Kirchenschlager, $120,755.43, 11 Shay Carroll $110,968.20, 12Jake Michael $109,152.43, 13 Dugan Kelly $106,510.45, 14 Travis Graves $106,450.23, 15Billie Seabees $98,833.62

Saddle Bronc
1 Zeke Thurston $265,449.45, 2 Jacobs Crawley $262,618.06,3 CoBurn Bradshaw $219,867.17, 4 Ryder Wright $211,758.01, 5 Jake Watson $204,101.75, 6 Cody Wright $196,927.15, 7 Allen Boore $184,385.46, 8 Jake Wright $166,818.43, 9 Rusty Wright $163,903.88,10 Jesse Wright $150,423.80, 11 Clay Elliott $139,759.79,12 Cody DeMoss $138,768.01,13 Sterling Crawley $132,376.23,14 Heith Allan DeMoss $110,986.86,15 Chuck Schmidt $83,244.36

Tie-Down Roping1 Tyson Duffey $212,445.46, 2 Marcos Costa $208,926.95, 3 Hunter Herrin $205,572.94,4 Marty Yates $194,212.48, 5 Cade Swor $187,566.02,6 Caleb Smidt $183,776.78, 7 Riley Pruitt $180,585.78,8 Shane Hanchey $180,124.45,9 Matt Shiozawa $161,281.32,10 Cory Solomon $160,853.54, 11 Ryan Jarrett $143,688.19, 12 Blane Cox $141,473.40,13 Timber Moore $118,539.17,14 Reese Riemer $99,640.71,15 Ryle Smith $94,386.06

Bull Riding1 Sage Kimzey $311,451.27, 2 Brennon Purcell $287,803.29, 3 Shane Proctor $272,364.58, 4 Joe Frost $217,032.70, 5 Garrett Smith $171,698.16, 6 Scottie Knapp $159,290.93, 7 Cody Rostockyj $153,286.71, 8 JW Spears $151,801.83, 9 Roscoe Jarboe $149,765.04, 10 Tyler Smith $139,891.07, 11 Jeff Askey $134,993.09, 12 Tim Bingham $132,782.74, 13 Garrett Tribble $129,118.08, 14 Rorey Maier $127,584.16, 15 Cody Teel $112,194.16

Barrel Racing (Un-Official from Miles McNarland)
1 Mary Burger $277,553.51, 2 Amberleigh Moore $266,760.27, 3 Lisa Lockhart $251,974.96, 4 Sherry Cervi $248,313.36, 5 Kimmie Wall $242,602.87, 6 Pam Capper $171,966.29, 7 Jackie Ganter $169,540.54, 8 Ivy Conrado $161,775.49, 9 Jana Bean $159,085.63, 10 Sarah Rose McDonald $159,018.24, 11 Stevi Hillman $156,527.60, 12 Michele McLeod $144,706.52, 13 Cayla Small $133,698.17, 14 Mary Walker $122,815.95, 15 Carley Richardson $103,990.71