Ep. 26 - NFR Round 3 Recap
December 9, 2019 (Las Vegas, Nevada) - As the nights progress, Round 3 is always highly anticipated at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. On the rough stock end, it means ELIMINATOR pens and that means the best broncs and bulls are chomping at the bit for an opportunity to show the world what they can do on CBS Sports Network in the Thomas & Mack Arena. Did the pen show up or did the cowboys?
Read our Round 3 Recap and listen to the podcast NOW to be in the know for all things Wrangler National Finals Rodeo!
Round 3 Quiz Questions
Our daily quizzes involve current rodeo facts, NFR happenings, rodeo terminology and history!
Another tricky question, we were sure to stump you all on the That Western Life podcasts third round of the NFR Quizzes! The answer was 21 rides! Fourteen in the bareback bronc riding, four in the saddle bronc and three in the bull riding. Most of you just forgot about bareback which has been showing up!
The RAM Top Gun award is handed out to the contestant at the NFR that wins the most monies in a single event through the ten rounds of competition. These options may have caught you off guard if you saw the questions after the round because we may have jinxed Richmond Champion - he dropped out of a tie for first with barrel racer Emily Miller.
Most of you answered 60 years old but you may be premature in guessing that first time WNFR qualifier and 60 year old cowgirl Dona Kay Rule and her WPRA Horse of the Year, Valor, are going to take home the 2019 gold. The record is 58 years old, set by Mary Burger. She had broken the record previously set by Mary Walker in one of the most iconic Gold Buckle wins in 2013 when she was riding then horse of the year, Latte!
The very first cover of Western Runway was graced by photographer Tiffany Cooper, married to Tuf Cooper earlier this year. Western Runway is the go-to magazine for all the inside stories about the families, shopping, and fashion of the NFR. You can join them nightly on the Cowboy Channel where they have rolled out the Turquoise carpet for photos, fashion, and great commentary!
What is one rule you would create, modify or remove from the PRCA? Fan write in.
The drug testing in the WPRA and applying the money towards educating committee’s on ground.
A write it, Katie was very intrigued and asked for more information. We were excited to get a wealth of knowledge from the WPRA rulebook and look forward to looking into this one a little more indepth.
Roughstock
Fans continue to write in about frustrations when it comes to the mark out rule in the PRCA. We’ve talked about this nightly but we began the discussion on the podcast tonight about the connection to the fact that bronc riding is slowly starting to dwindle in numbers and the continued frustration in fans at the judging and scoring.
Fan Questions: Round 3
Miss Rodeo America Update Post Coronation
Congratulations to South Dakota’s Jordan Tierney for winning Miss Rodeo America 2020! It was an exciting pageant with a few plot twists during the coronation. Horsemanship, a major category award, was given for the first time (as far as we can see through our research) since 2013 to someone outside of the Top 5; that honor went to Miss Rodeo Iowa and a huge congratulations to her!
Written Test: Miss Rodeo Nebraska
Speech: Miss Rodeo Nebraska
Appearance: South Dakota
Personality: Miss Rodeo Kansas
Horsemanship: Miss Rodeo Iowa
Fourth Runner Up: Miss Rodeo Utah
Third Runner Up: Miss Rodeo Kansas
Second Runner Up: Miss Rodeo Nebraska
First Runner Up: Miss Rodeo Washington
Miss Rodeo America 2020: Miss Rodeo South Dakota
Congratulations to all of the young ladies that got the opportunity to go through the pageant, we can’t wait to see what you do next!
Round 3 Event Recap
Bareback
Tanner Aus gets the round win with a 90 point ride. The eliminators didn’t claim as many as we anticipated for Round 3 after the rough round 2 of saddle bronc but these are two totally different events even though they both ride broncs. Only two riders, Austin Foss and Ty Breuer, didn’t get qualified rides and Foss may have had the matchup of the night.
What is impressive about these eliminators, however, is that they are all big, powerful athletes and not many cowboys were able to stay in front of the ride for the full eight seconds. I think most were either one jump or one second from coming off! This is such a testament to the stock contractors that are raising, breeding, nurturing and training these horses!
One of the craziest moments of the night was Kaycee Feild’s flank strap falling off. A soft fleece or neoprene girth that fits snugly around the horses flank, where a belt would lie on a human, it is not painful and is only used to encourage the horse to kick out. This is a safety precaution for both the horse and cowboy. Case and point, Feild’s horse ran a little lost through the arena without the flank strap which led to a re ride option that he took. Feild’s subsequently scored an 86 in the reride.
Steer Wrestling
Hunter Cure took the Round 3 win with a 3.8 second run. Dakota Eldridge broke the barrier and, while still technically in the average, that 10 second penalty really matters in this extremely fast sport and close world standings.
Talk about a big night but it was still an overall strange night of happenings! Will Lummus threw a steer with an impressive show of sheer strength and quickness. Steston Jorgensen threw his steer left handed. Scott Guenther had a run that took the entire length of the arena!
Team Roping
Tyler Wade and Cole Davison take down their second round win with a 3.7 second run, a time that beat out a second place time of 3.9 seconds that we thought was going to hold up all round! Clay Smith missed and we didn’t see that coming! That’ll hurt them BIG time in the average and projected world standings. Erich Rogers also broke the barrier and, while pretty consistent through the first few rounds and technically still alive in the average, this round may come down to haunt them by Round 10.
Saddle Bronc
Chase Brooks of Nevada takes the Round 3 win on a tough pen of horses with a 90 point ride! Round 3 was definitely better for most than Round 2 was. Only three guys didn’t cover so, for those saddle bronc fans at home, it was a great show of the classic event of rodeo!
One thing to note is the underperformance of Sterling Crawley. An amazing competitor, he’s not having the NFR that anyone would have thought that this veteran cowboy would have had. He’s a great athlete and a great bronc rider, it makes you worry that he’s either in his own head psyching himself out or that he’s nursing an injury. Cowboys are tough and we never like to see them hurting, we’re hoping he can get a qualified ride in Round 4 and get himself back on track soon!
Tie Down Roping
Tuf Cooper got his first round win of the NFR with a 6.9 second run. In his post run interview with CBS Network’s Kadee Coffman he not only stated that he’s been battling the flu all week but you could definitely tell. Major props to Cooper for toughing it out and doing what he has to do to compete; it’s the for sure sign of a World Champion.
While we found out that we have been saying Haven Meged’s last name wrong on the podcast, we did make the cool realization that we can save voice messages on our Instagram direct messages and put them into the podcast! Thomas from Idaho gave us THE best answer when we asked for a voice memo to pronounce “Meged” and he didn’t disappoint so we wanted you to take a listen as well.
Barrel Racing
It was fast when it was fast and it was not when it was not in the barrel racing for Round 3. Amberleigh Moore took home her first round win of 2019 on her stellar mare Paige, clocking just one hundredth of a second faster than the hot hand of Emily Miller (read more about her start in Ep. 24 - NFR Round 1 Recap here).
Bull Riding
Koby Radley was one of three to cover their bulls in Round 3 and, with a 92 point ride on Big Stone Rodeo’s Spotted Demon, he got not only the win but also just under $34,000 for the day. The bull fighters really performed and shone in Round 3. While you never want to have to NEED them, we are so thankful for the cowboy lifesavers. Daylon Swearingen took a HIT and we look forward to seeing the Justin Cowboy Crisis Fund report before the rodeo tomorrow to see if he is okay.
One PRCA Rule Change, Remove or Create
On every podcast episode we ask our guests for one rule that they would change, remove or create to the PRCA or WPRA. Keeping up with tradition, we are sharing our thoughts or our fans’ suggestions on each episode of the NFR Podcast rounds.
Today’s rule change came from a big night of rank bulls and that the PRCA should make it mandatory for helmets in the bull riding.