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LAS VEGAS – He’s a bit soft-spoken, but Cole Franks has no problem hiding the joy he is experiencing during his second trip to the National Finals Rodeo.

He’s a bareback rider, and he makes a living riding bucking horses. This is the best chance he has to really cash in on his season, so he’s making the most of every opportunity. On Wednesday night, he rode Powder River Rodeo’s All Eyes on A & K for 84.5 points to finish fifth in the seventh round.

It marked the sixth time in seven nights that he’s earned a paycheck in the Nevada desert.

“It’s always fun,” said Franks, 21, of Clarendon, Texas. “If it wasn’t fun, I don’t think I’d be able to do it. I like having fun. I like challenges. It has been challenging, for sure, but it has been a blast being here. I love it.”

The NFR is 10 rounds of the best rodeo has to offer. Only the top 15 contestants in each event qualify, and the bareback riders select the top 100 horses to be part of the sport’s richest rodeo. All Eyes on A & K fits into that category.

RELATED: Franks Keeps Adding WNFR Cash

“That’s just a really nice horse and has been nice all year,” Franks said. “I was pretty excited to have her.”

He should have been. By finishing fifth, he added $7,462 to his bankroll and pushed his NFR earnings to $63,319. He is eighth in the world with nearly $180,000 collected this season. He’s also in line to add more to his pocketbook. Franks is tied for third in the average race with 592 points on seven rides. If he stays in that position when Saturday’s final round ends, he will add more than $41,000.

All this happened after he got off to a rocky start. Bareback riders use a rigging that is supposed to be strapped tightly to the bronc’s chest. They wear specially made gloves that have binds in them, then put their hands into the handhold of the rigging to lock themselves onto the horse. If the equipment is set up right, then the rest is muscle memory.

“I didn’t really pull my rigging very good,” Franks said, indicating that it was a bit looser on his horse than it should have been. “We started pulling (the cinches) a little early. (Arena director) Tom (Neuens) started us a little early, and I didn’t think about finishing it off.

“I chased my rigging most of the time.”

It served as a lesson learned for the young bronc buster. He’s gained a lot of those over his first two years in ProRodeo. He’s earned a lot of money in a short time, but much of that came toward the bottom end of the round payouts. He’d love to win a round and earn almost $29,000, but he’ll wait it out and see what the future holds over the next three nights.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. “Everything is moving up, and that’s the only way it’s going to hopefully go.”

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com

LAS VEGAS – When nickels are mixed with dimes, they eventually add up to dollars.

That seems to be how Cole Franks is playing his game in Sin City this week during his second appearance at the National Finals Rodeo. He’s placed five out of six nights, so that’s good. He even finished in a tie for second in Round 4. That was his biggest paycheck of the week at $20,000.

Beyond that, he’s added just he’s earned just shy of $26,000, which is a significant payday for four days’ work. Alas, go-round winners earn more than that every night, so it’s sub-par in the eyes of the men who are competing at the biggest rodeo all year.

Besides Round 4, his biggest payday came in Tuesday’s sixth go-round, when he rode J Bar J Rodeo’s Yum Bugs for 87 points to finish fourth, worth $12,125.

“I’m happy with it,” said Franks, 21, of Clarendon, Texas. “I got on that horse in this round last year. That horse is awesome and so much fun to get on. I feel like I made a couple bobbles there at the end. It could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. It was still fun either way.”

He sits ninth in the world standings with $172,284. He is also tied for fourth in the average race with 507.5 cumulative points on six rides. By placing in the aggregate at the end of the NFR, he would be able to add a significant bonus to his earnings.

Of course, having the right horses makes a big difference in how things go.

“The horses we had tonight were the kind that everybody wants to get on,” he said. “Anywhere you’d go, you’d want these by your name. There were a lot of thee horses that were out tonight that could be in the TV pen; they are just a step down from the TV pen.”

The animals are separated into five pens, and the bareback riders are the ones making the selections (in order of Round 1-5, the Rounds 6-10): souped-up hoppers, semi-eliminators, eliminators, hoppers and TV pen. That means the toughest-to-ride horses are featured in Rounds 3 and 8, and the flashiest horses are in Round 5 and 10, designated TV pen in a look back to when the NFR was only broadcast during the final round of the 10-round championship.

“These horses that were out tonight were versatile,” Franks said. “If you put them in anybody’s pen, you’d be able to win most of the time.

“Things started out slow for what I was hoping for, but it is still good. I’m ready for it to pick up more. I’m trying to set the bar higher and keeping going for the round every time. If it don’t happen, then it don’t happen, but I’m going to be swinging for it.”

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com

LAS VEGAS – He looks a bit battered, but if asked, Garrett Smith doesn’t seem to mind.

“I’ve had some bumps and bruises (since the third round),” said Smith, of Rexburg, Idaho, competing at his fourth National Finals Rodeo. “I feel pretty good. We are sore, but when we ride bulls for a living, we’re going to be sore. I had a few stitches, but it’s not a big deal.”

Ah, the life of a bull rider.

After sharing the third-round win, Smith returned to the pay window after an 84-point ride on New Frontier Rodeo’s Mad Money for a fifth-place finish during Round 6 on Tuesday. It was worth $7,462 and pushed his Las Vegas earnings to $43,344.

It was an eventful night for him. His first bull, Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Punchline, didn’t cooperate. The bull was having trouble in the chute, and Smith was unable to get on and try his hand at the athletic bovine. The judges provided Smith with a re-ride opportunity and a chance at Mad Money, and he took it.

“That first bull wasn’t very happy at all in the chute,” he said of Punchline. “Once he got mad, he didn’t stop at all.”

It was Mad Money to the rescue. Oklahoman Trey Kimzey rode him for 86 points to also place fifth in the opening round of the NFR.

“I didn’t know much about that re-ride bull,” Smith said. “They said he went left, and I really liked that. I was pretty happy about it.”

Sometimes unfamiliarity with a bull can pay dividends. Bull riders train on using muscle memory and reaction to make an eight-second ride. If an animal has a tendency to do something and a cowboy prepares for it, things may be washed away in one jump.

“A lot of not knowing it is great, because they are animals,” he said. “They have their own brains. There are a lot of times they are not going to do what they are supposed to do. It’s kind of like little kids: They are not going to do what they’re supposed to do. You take them jump for jump and go at them.”

It’s been a rough stretch for Smith to kickstart. He’s ridden three bulls but placed twice. He is seventh in the aggregate race, so he stands a chance to collect a bonus when the NFR ends Saturday night. How does he handle the disappointment when things don’t go his way?

“Usually by the time we get back to the hotel, I’m over it,” said Smith, who has enlisted his father, Lynn, to help get him around Las Vegas. “We’ll talk about it a little bit, but once we get back to the room, it’s over with and done. You’ve got to be moving on. If you only remember the last thing you did wrong, it’s going to stick in your brain; it’s going to be in your subconscious.

“Figure out what you did right, what you did wrong, forget about it and move on.”

He’s got four more nights in the 2022 season to collect his bright spots and more money.

“This is the healthiest I’ve ever been at this point of making the National Finals,” Smith said. “I’m so excited. I’ve always made it this far, but some things have been broken. This year has been really good.”

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com

LAS VEGAS – Steer wrestler J.D. Struxness didn’t let a bad night ruin the rest of the week, and it very well could have.

He came into his fourth National Finals Rodeo in strong contention to win a world championship, but a steer escaped his grasp Sunday night. That no-time was costly, but he didn’t sulk about it and he didn’t let it bother him long. In rodeo, there will be down times, and the next opportunity is not far away.

In his case, it came during Tuesday’s sixth go-round, when he stopped the clock in 4.0 seconds to finish fifth and pocket $7,462. He pushed his Las Vegas earnings to just shy of $25,000.

“That should help for the final five nights,” said Struxness of Milan, Minnesota. “Going into tonight, I told myself it is a fresh five. The second half of the finals is here, and there are still five steers to go and a lot of money left to be won.”

Because of his trouble, Struxness has fallen a bit in the aggregate race for the bonus dollars that go to the top eight cowboys with the best cumulative score on 10 runs. He’s not letting it bother him any.

“There is still a lot of stuff that could happen average-wise,” he said. “As far as that part goes for me, we’ve got a fresh start tonight and placed, so hopefully it’s just a good start for the second five (nights).”

It’s been a bit of tough luck for the steer wrestlers since the NFR began last Thursday. Only seven of the 15 cowboys in the mix have qualified times on all six nights. That offers a different dimension to the world-championship race

“It has been a tough year in the bulldogging,” Struxness said. “I really don’t know what it is, whether the steers are running harder or what’s going on. It has been tough, and guys have been missing. Hopefully to my advantage, we get the momentum rolling and keep taking advantage of the situation. Maybe we can slip on in there in the end for an average check, too.”

He also made an adjustment. He began the NFR riding Curtis Cassidy’s horse, Tyson, but things weren’t working out well. He switched to Ringo Robinson’s palomino, Monroe, and now has Matt Reeves hazing. He plans to keep that team together for the final four nights of the 2022 season.

“I rode Tyson all year, and it was a great year and we won lots of money,” Struxness said. “He was working good here, but there kept being little things that happened, my mistakes or being on the wrong steers or whatever. It was time to change. We needed to change something, so we decided to change the horse and see if that will shake it up.”

It did, and now the dice are rolling in his direction.

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com