Ep. 108 - Understanding How A Contestant Qualifies for the National Finals Rodeo
Co-hosting today on the show is Joe Harper, a saddle bronc rider that has been joining us as we head into the 2022 National Finals Rodeo, and Cody Cabral who is from Hawaii, Arizona and Oregon. A 2016 steer wrestling finalist, Cody is someone that I targeted from the timed event side of things to partner with Joe in representing the timed event side of things to discuss rodeo administration and qualifications.
Rodeo Administration Structure
The country as a whole is broken down into thirteen different circuits and, as contestants, you can go to your event director for the circuit who can go to your national event director. That national event director sits on the board for the PRCA and sits on the board. This is how contestants can move up through the ranks of leadership to make change happen. If you have a complaint or an issue, you can go to your event representatives and submit a rule proposal or change and then the entire board votes on that at the National level.
At the circuit level, to elaborate on the rough stock side, to head into the circuit finals to start selecting stock. The event representative communicates with the rodeo and the stock contractors to bring the bucking stock. It’s very important for that event representative to be a mediator between the parties which is a very important aspect.
The only time the timed event contestants have a say in stock is for circuit finals and stock. Everyone that qualifies for circuit finals gets to vote on what they have for the circuit finals and that’s the same for those that qualify for the NFR.
How to Make a Rule Change
“I have never really done it,” says Cody, but he’s been a part of voicing opinions but has only worked directly though the circuit director and the national director. “I put my opinion to each of those directors and hopes it gets to the board at the national level.” Typically it’s a conversation between the groups as a whole, so it’s a matter of making sure your opinion on the subject is known
Rodeo Counts - Rough Stock
One of the things that a lot of rodeo committees and casual rodeo fans are not aware of in regards to contestants trying to qualify for the NFR is that contestants are limited on the number of rodeos they can count towards the world standings. In the saddle bronc riding, they only have 100 rodeos that they can count as an official rodeo. If you don’t want that rodeo to count, you have to call in and not count it as unofficial. You still get the money, but it doesn’t count for the world standings.
One hundred rodeos is a lot of rodeos so contestants try to strategize which of the 400-500 rodeos in the U.S. that they think they have a better chance of winning more money at, meaning they’ll drive by a lot of rodeos to make it happen. To the logical fan, they won’t quite understand why you’re driving past rodeos.
Draw Out Factor
There have been issues with the entering system the last couple of years where you’ll get doubled up in two rodeos in the same day so you’ll have to “burn a rodeo.” You’ll go to the rodeo that you have the better horse at and draw out of the other rodeo and burn it in your count.
You can also doctor out of a rodeo if you’re beat up and body is hurting. You can get a 3-day or 10-day doctor release to take the time to get healthy and come back on the trail. A lot of time at a rodeo, if you see DR on the day sheet, that’s a Doctor Release.
The visible injury is where if you are at the rodeo and you are at the rodeo and you show that you’re hurt you can visible injury out for the day. If you have a horse that has a tendency to mash a guy in the gate, but you have a good one the next day, you can visible injury out for the day. They are all controversial topics, but they are necessary for the professional rodeo cowboy of today.
Rodeo Counts - Timed Events
“The counts work the same [as rough stock),” says Cody. Last year (2022) was 75 and heading into 2023 it’ll be 80 rodeos. They face the same issues of hauling past rodeos that maybe don’t make sense, but they also have to factor in using horses and putting extra miles on horses. This results into a lot of strategy at the end of the day that a lot of people don’t think about.
If you look at the qualifications standings versus the world standings, there is a lot of guys that move spots because of monies they won at rodeos that didn’t count.
End of Season Audit
“We had this issue ourselves because, and Joe can vouch for this as we tried to do ‘Way too early predictions for the NFR’ and, ironically, we did them wayyy too early,” says Katie. The PRCA doesn’t always reflect accurately across the board and that can provide a lot of confusion across the board.
Rodeo Counts Over The Years
“I started rodeoing now for ten years and I have been injured a couple years, but I don’t even remember what that count was when I started,” says Cody. In 2016 it was 70 and then it was voted on at the end of that 2016 season to 85 rodeos. It changed last year when the board made a decision to move all the timed events to 75 rodeos. This year the steer wrestlers are going up but we aren’t sure about the rest of the timed events.
It makes sense to make one standard of counts, but Cody believes it could be up to the contestants in the event to vote on what is the best number. At the Columbia River Circuit Finals, they said that the reason the board made the decision was about keeping the rodeos from traveling all over the country to chase rodeos but the actual reality was that it created a culture where contestants had to drive all over the country for the biggest rodeos to make them count.
Guys that are hunting for the National Finals Rodeo are always asking “What’s my count?” and “How many rodeos do I have to hit by this time of the year?”
“No more than 15 rodeos by the end of March,” was the advice that Joe got from his buddy Tyrell Smith who got him started.
Creating A Rodeo Strategy
Cody’s Strategy in 2022 - What Worked & Didn’t
“I had quite an interesting year on rodeo count and situation,” says Cody who was hurt in 2020 and did mostly circuit rodeos in 2021. “I didn’t have much plans in 2022 and I wouldn’t say slowing down, but just seeing how it went… I started winning a little bit and I got into Colorado Springs at the NFR Open and won two rodeos and the NFR Open… I went from not even Top 50 to Top 15 in the world.”
“I was counting every rodeo I entered so I was taking every dollar that I was winning and counting it,” says Cody. Then the Puyallup Playoffs was on the radar but he was unable to hit the number of rodeos required to be able to make it to the finals which ended up costing him in the long run.
Impact of Tour Rodeos
All of the tour rodeos add at least $10,000 to be a tour rodeo so if you’re going to go to a $10,000 added rodeo in the steer wrestling, you are probably going to official it. You do have to official the Tour Finals and there’s no reason you wouldn’t official those.
Tour rodeos have to meet the PRCA requirements and those rodeos have point brackets to them. They have their own tour standings and you have to be in the Top 23 to make it and there is a lot of money to win at the finals. If you had won at the Tour Rodeos you could have gone from the bottom of the Top 50 to the top. In the steer wrestling, it’s kind of made a bunch of guys come out of nowhere and make the NFR.
The Tour Finale had a count to make it and a lot of guys were close and had made the money, but hadn’t been to enough rodeos to count for the finals. Joe, for example had gone to 10-15 rodeos one year and the count was roughly 30 rodeos and he missed the Tour finale because he did not have the count. Sitting 19th, he couldn’t go to the Tour Finale when he needed it the most sitting at the end of the year.
Especially in 2020 when they had the count on it, they had guys flying all over the country trying to go to limited rodeos and didn’t make it. They dropped the minimum count because of that because of because of the confusion it created.
One of the issues is that if you have a 30 minimum count of tour rodeos but then you burn up your official world standing counts at the top level. You have to manage strategy for tour finales and more. If there is someone putting on a $5,000 added rodeo the same weekend as a Tour Rodeo, those smaller rodeo committees don’t always understand that there is an issue with counts which is why they are driving past them.
Circuit Rodeos
Contestants have to designate rodeos at the start of the year and if they don’t, it’ll be automatically designated to the circuit that their home address is in. It’s been back and forth since 2016 with your circuit finals monies and the NFR Open (formerly known as the Ram National Circuit Finals) counts towards the next years standings. Both are counting for 2023 as of now.
A circuit final at the end of the season is the Top 12 at the year end for each of the events with the winner of the rodeo and the winner of the circuit overall will go to the NFR Open. This means that each of the 13 circuits will send two contestants and both the circuit finals monies and the NFR Open monies counts towards the 2023 World Standings.
“This was the topic I brought up at our circuit finals meeting to discuss with our circuit directors, contestants, and the rodeo committees,” says Cody. “For the monies won at circuit rodeos to count towards the circuit finals, you have to official it.” In the past, you wouldn’t have to official it but it would count regardless to the circuit finals. This meant that even though it was an unofficial rodeo for the contestants, they could use that as ground coverage for money in the pocket and money for the circuits and the next years standings. Now, if he’s not going to count it, they aren’t going to go if they are going to go for the NFR.
The circuit is secondary when you are strategizing to the NFR. This will remove them from taking a green horse to an unofficial circuit rodeo that would count towards finals. There would be no reason to pay for the extra miles or put those miles on your body. The reality is that there are a lot of circuit guys, but there are a lot of young guys in a lot of the events that are trying to make the NFR so they are going to be strategizing in that regard.
In the Columbia River Circuit, for example, there are 25 steer wrestlers max and there were six in the Top 40 alone which meant six guys not going to those circuit finals. You just dropped your entry numbers down by five alone for the finals. Five out of twenty guys is a big chunk out of your rodeo and that makes this an issue that really needs to be visited.
Circuit Finals and Impacts with Monies Counting for the Next Year
From a committee perspective, a lot of committees aren’t aware of these issues. From a Circuit Finals Committee perspective, I think that with all of these changes and how the monies will count for next years world standings, how would contestants be picking their circuits.
“It makes a big difference!” Says Cody. “We had multiple guys from outside states in the tie down roping and team roping, if they aren’t going to make their circuit count but if they can’t go to enough in their circuit, they’ll choose Columbia River because a lot of those big northwest rodeos they are going to official those rodeos anyway. It made big decisions for them to switch in that way.”
The other side of this, is that steer roping isn’t in every circuit so it could factor into the all around for circuits so that could be a factor as well with the northwest and Texas being big in circuit rodeos. For example, Taylor Santos is in the California Circuit but they don’t have steer roping so he can designate a different circuit for that one event.
Rodeos Count For Only A Percentage
The American and Calgary Stampede only have a percentage that counts towards the world standings. Additionally, in the Texas Circuit they have San Antonio that doesn’t count for their circuit finals because if you won that rodeo then you would be winning the whole circuit. Texas Circuit also has a 30 rodeo minimum count.
The Columbia River has been a good one, because as a non resident, you have a lower count. This does mean more guys are starting to claim Washington and Oregon addresses to because of the resident to non-resident. There is also a grandfather rule for if you have claimed it long enough, you can keep claiming.
Co-Approving Rodeos
There is no downfall to being a co-approved rodeo, but to be one, unless it has changed, you could only have $5,000 maximum added to co-approve. It’s a great thing to be co-approved to help your contestant numbers for a small rodeo. There are a couple rodeos in Idaho that co-approved with Columbia River Circuit that were over $5,000 in the rough stock but they don’t count for your circuit count which kind of defeats the purpose.
“If it’s co-approved, then it should count for monies and for rodeo count because if they are going through that work to co-approve, it should count,” says Joe. Some of those rules go through and the contestants don’t know where it came from and the mindset behind it unless you call and ask your event representative.
Sometimes your event representative will have a different opinion than you and that’s why it is good to get on the phone and talk with them to discuss different options. That’s how things get changed for the better. “I advise you do it respectfully,” says Joe with a chuckle.
If you were to start over, what would your strategy be for efficiency with rodeo counts and circuits?
Steer Wrestling with Cody Cabral
“At the end of the day, if you are just coming in and, if you’re like me in my rookie year coming in blind,..” I would hook up with a veteran in the event that is making the NFR already. Unless you are some how aware of these rules, rodeo counts and more than you need to find someone who knows what is working rather than learning it on your own.
Saddle Bronc Riding with Joe Harper
“It’s really the same in a lot of ways,” says Joe. The steer wrestlers have a great comraderie and so does the rough stock riders. That’s really important when you are going down the road and traveling. You need guys that are entering and know what they are doing.
“I busted my butt going to the stupidest rodeos and rodeo runs you have ever seen,” says Joe. “If you can get in with someone that has knows what they are doing and are with guys that have gotten to the finals or have entered with the guys that have gotten there, that’s what you need… You need guys that are positive and build you up - that’s what you need.”
If you are negative, it will eat on you and you need to surround yourself with positive mindset. It can be all over the board. When you are getting started, you don’t always think about the stock that is at rodeos and the added money, where people are going that weekend, etc. The top 20 people in the world could be at the $10,000 rodeo and you could go to the $5,000 rodeo where you could win and make more money than you would have at the other.
Those veterans can plot you a chart to make it.
“Most of the time, you are going to try to find a team, a horse or a group, to get in and go with … to be entered with the same four guys in theory,” says Cody discussing the horse power issues for timed events. There is a lot of strategy around stock, horses, contestants and more - just like with the rough stock guys. “I have been lucky enough that guys with great horses that would let me on,” says Cody. Entering all over, he was calling down the list to find a horse and was lucky to get in on some of the top horses in the country. Whether entering with guys or entering around horses are going to be is a big factor.
Finding good horses and being able to use them is a huge factor. That comes in stock with rough stock as well for great bucking animals. As a bronc rider, they show up and go once at a majority of the rodeos. There are Cheyenne Frontier Days and San Antonio that will have a semi and short as well but, on the timed event side, guys are entered twice more often than not. Someone may be entering a slack and then be in a different performance which results in a lot of driving back and forth. Sometimes one or two guys will make it to a finals and the horse will go somewhere else with the rest of the crew when they have to fly back and go for the rodeo finals they made.
RULE CHANGES
Cody Cabral - Steer Wrestling
Change: Needing to official the circuit rodeos and go back to unofficial circuit rodeos and have them count towards the circuit finals without burning the NFR counts.