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The competitiveness that Tim O’Connell has in his soul is one reason why he’s a three-time world champion and is always a contender to add more gold buckles to his collection.

It’s what drives him and makes him push himself beyond the limits. It’s why he will return to the National Finals Rodeo for the ninth consecutive year. He will be in the mix for another bareback riding title when he arrives for the 10-day rodeo, set for Dec. 1-10 in Las Vegas.

His nature, though, tends to add an element that takes away from the enjoyment of the occasion. It’s the richest rodeo in the world with a payout of $1.4 million. Go-round winners will collect nearly $29,000 each night. With that comes a bit of a burden to excel.

“Until you get into a world-title race, it’s hard to describe the pressure you feel and that you put on yourself,” said O’Connell, 31, originally from Zwingle but now living in Marshall, Missouri, with his wife and two sons, Hazen and Stratten. “It’s one thing to make the NFR, but it’s another thing to be in a world-title race.

“I put an exceptional amount of pressure on me to be perfect, so that makes those 10 days very stressful.”

That changed with the sudden thump at last year’s finale. Big Stone Rodeo’s Mayhem bucked O’Connell off during Night 7 of the 2021 NFR, officially ending his hopes of walking away with another Montana Silversmiths gold buckle.

“One of the best things that ever happened to me in my career to this point was getting bucked off in Round 7,” said O’Connell, who credits a great deal of his success to his sponsors, Treetop Ranches, Frontier Rodeo Coffee, 12 Gauge Ranch, Polaris, Panhandle Rock and Roll Clothing, Justin Boots, Veach’s Custom Leather, Ingram Quarter Horses, MRT Racing Tires, Capri Campers, Twin Cities Featherlight, American Hat Co., Windmill Ceiling Fans, Farm Girl Marketing Solutions, Kleinschmidt Western Wear and Ranch Interior Designs.

“I had built up a lot of anger from what happened in 2020. When that horse put me on the ground, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I really enjoyed the last three go-rounds of the NFR. I didn’t have anything to lose. There was nothing that made me anxious about the draws. I joked a lot more in the locker room, and I really seemed to enjoy the finals for the first time.”

That episode did more than change his behavior last year. It carried over into the 2022 regular season, and he’s expecting it to ride with him when he arrives in Las Vegas.

“I’m looking forward to coming into this finals and remembering what it was like to have enjoyment at the finals,” he said. “I expect to show up there and get myself into a world-title picture again, hoping I can get off to a hotter start than I normally do. This time, I don’t have the other 14 guys looking at me as the target. I’m the hunter.

“We have an outstanding group of bareback riders going to the finals. It’s fun rodeoing with these guys.”

O’Connell had another fantastic year. It started off a bit weak, and an injury he sustained a year ago in which his tailbone was removed was a cause of that. He was able to turn things around during the lucrative Fourth of July run, and he steamrolled through the next month and a half.

“I was back to riding how I expect to ride on a daily basis,” he said. “I was drawing great. The summer couldn’t have gone any better. It was close to 90 days where I felt like I could do no wrong. I had a great Calgary and finished third there. I went back-to-back in Cheyenne (Wyoming) to get my third Cheyenne saddle. I think I was placing wherever I went.”

He was in the middle of a race to see which bareback rider would lead the world standings with his traveling partner, Jess Pope, and Cole Reiner as they rolled through August.

“It was fun,” said O’Connell, who attended Iowa Central Community College before becoming an intercollegiate champion at Missouri Valley College. “It was really fun when we were within $300 of each other. It just made for a fun little race. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of it, but you are jockeying to see who’s going to be called No. 1 the next week. We just kept banging heads.”

He was on top of the world when he suffered a freak injury during a ride Aug. 23 in Kennewick, Washington. He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb and underwent surgery two days later. In an injury called “skier’s thumb,” he had a Grade 3 tear, and surgery was the best choice. That ended his regular season, and he fell from atop the bareback riding mountain to to No. 4 with $137,760.

Now on the injured reserve for the second straight year, he watched as other cowboys passed him in the standings. Stress never entered the equation. He found the positives in what many would consider a negative situation. He and his wife, Sami, had welcomed baby Stratten into their family in April, and time at home meant time spent with his bride and their sons.

“Every time I left in the heart of the summer, Sami was left home with a 4-year-old and a newborn that didn’t want to sleep,” O’Connell said. “It was nice to be able to come home and give her some relief.

“Stratten might be the most chill child. The only time he fusses is when he’s hungry. We’re sleep-training now, but he didn’t sleep through the night for a while. Hazen loves him. Hazen took on the big-brother role as perfect as you could ask of a big brother.”

After weeks of rehabilitation and therapy, O’Connell got on his first horse in 11 weeks during an early November practice session. By the time he arrives in Las Vegas for opening night, he will have tried his repaired thumb at four horses and will have confidence in the digit’s reconstruction.

“I’m back on my spur board, I’m back in the gym again and I’m back on the bucking machine,” he said “Everything’s going ahead as planned … actually a little ahead of what I’d planned. I consult a lot with Shawn Scott (with the Justin Sportsmedicine team), and we’re very pleased. I got on that practice horse to see if my hand would hold together. Everything we wanted to do was a huge success.”

Through all the challenges he’s faced this year, O’Connell has found the blessings. Having surgery so quickly helped his rehab time, and getting to enjoy so much time with his family was good for his heart and soul.

But being away from the game he loves has served as another form of motivation for the three-time champ. He has his mind focused and is enjoying the game of rodeo. He’s ready to see what will happen during those magical 10 nights in the Nevada desert.

“The world title is anyone’s ballgame,” O’Connell said. “There’s not a single weak link in this group of 15 guys going to the finals. In my head, I see it being a 10-round war with five or six guys in it at the end.” He expects to be one of them.

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com

Oftentimes there is a fine line between great and awful.

Garrett Shadbolt walked that line over the summer of his 2022 ProRodeo regular season. In a two-week stretch from the end of July to the first of August, he experienced the highest of highs as a bareback rider, but it also led to some pretty big lows.

“The highlight of the year actually was those couple of weeks where I was just on a roll and was drawing really well,” said Shadbolt, 26, of Merriman, Nebraska. “It all started when I finished third in Cheyenne (Wyoming), but I won my performance and my semifinals. I got a check in Deadwood (South Dakota) that week, then the next week, I got a good check out of the long round in Dodge City (Kansas) and in Lovington (New Mexico), and I won Phillipsburg (Kansas).

“I went back to Dodge City and won the short round and got the Dodge City win. It was a really good stretch.”

In all, he pocketed nearly $22,000 in just two weeks of riding bucking horses, and it’s a big reason why he returns to the National Finals Rodeo for the second straight year. He finished the regular season with $103, 949 and holds down the 15th and last spot to qualify for the December championship in Las Vegas.

His championship round- and event-winning ride in southwest Kansas came on Aug. 7 when he rode Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire for 91.5 points. That ride capped off an impressive stand, and he added $6,014 to his earnings.

Gun Fire is also impressive, a powerful buckskin mare that was named the 2022 PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year based on voting by the cowboys that have ridden bucking broncs all season. Her power came into play right as the eight-second buzzer sounded, as she launched Shadbolt forward and the two combatants smacked heads together.

Shadbolt crashed to the dirt, and the victor needed a bit of assistance getting out of the arena after having suffered a concussion because of the collision. That incident, in essence, put him out of competition for the better part of the final two months.

“I’ve been rodeoing for quite a while but a career wrestler who competed at the college level was also part of that, so it’s been a pretty rough lifestyle,” said Shadbolt, who has support not only from his family but also his sponsors, East Sandhills Beef, Romsa Farm & Ranch, The Lodge at Deadwood, Raise American and Fuel Grill.

“When you have that kind of history and you take a hit like that, it can affect you for a while. I didn’t really feel right until recently, and that was affecting me. I tried to go at it again, but I just didn’t feel right.”

All the while, he kept watching more bareback riders pass him in the standings. Because of his excellent run in the winter and spring, he was able to hold on to his spot among the top 15, but he had fallen from fifth in the standings to 15th.

“I was pretty confident I could make it this year,” he said of the NFR. “I had a great winter, spring and early summer, then I was having some hard luck. I wasn’t drawing very good. I got on a lot of questionable horses in a row. I went to six rodeos over the Fourth of July run and didn’t win any money.

“I don’t think I made any mistakes, but bareback riding is just so competitive right now that it’s hard to win, especially over the Fourth run when everybody’s rodeoing.”

Cowboys are matched with their animals by random draw, and the better the horse, the better the score and the better the opportunity to win big money. While he was being matched with good horses through a stretch of the season, he was hoping other match-ups would help increase his earnings.

That’s just an aspect of rodeo that remains out of his control, though. He can control how he rides and how he approaches the game mentally. That’s been a big plus for the Nebraska cowboy. It’s also why he’s been a bit conservative when it comes to his head injury.

“I’ve had concussions in my past,” said Shadbolt, who lives on his family’s ranch outside Merriman with his wife, Katie, son George and daughter Mavis. “I don’t want to be brain dead when I’m 40. I’ve got a wife and kids to think about. It’s definitely not a fun injury to have. It’s hard to tell when you’re ready to go back and when you need to just stay home.”

There’s definitely a competitor deep in the heart of his 132-pound body, and it’s what drives him. Having been able to match moves with a powerful horse like Gun Fire is something that he can build on.

“For me, getting a match-up like that and getting tested and coming out on top is the pinnacle of success in bareback riding,” he said. “That’s the feeling I’m chasing. I like to say every man should know what he’s capable of. I enjoy that; some people don’t. There were a couple jumps on Gun Fire where I was riding a razor’s edge.”

That’s what happens when two determined athletes meet. When the NFR begins its 10-day run Dec. 1, he will have more opportunities to ride rank horses. Not only does the NFR feature the top bareback riders from this past season, but it also is home to the top 100 bucking horses in the game.

“Everything’s going to buck really hard, and I may have been a little overconfident in that first round and came out swinging for the fence last year,” Shadbolt said. “It really pays to recover from mistakes you make and finish your rides. I don’t want to safety up; that’s not my style or my strategy. I’m definitely going to try to finish all my rides.”

Only $57,000 separates first to 15th heading into the NFR. With go-round winners earning $28,914 per night, that difference can be made up after Night 2. That would put Shadbolt into contention for a world championship race in a hurry.

“It’s going to be tough this year,” he said. “There are a lot of very good bareback riders right now. If you safety up at the NFR, I don’t think it’s going to help you win checks. One of my goals this year is to win a round. I could be more conservative and go for a better spot in the average, but that’s not my style.

“It’s better for me to just go for it.”

That’s the mindset he needs as he battles for ProRodeo gold.

Courtesy of twisTEDrodeo.com

Due to unique and unusual circumstances, the PRCA has made the decision to take 16 bull riders to the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge.

Cole Fischer will now make his Wrangler NFR debut Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

“I don’t really know if this has sunk in yet,” said Fischer, 30. “Any cowboy who puts his hand in a bull rope it is their dream to make the NFR. You can dream it, but there is a lot that has to go right, and it is a long year.”

Fischer, of Elk City, Okla., is optimistic about what he can accomplish in Vegas.

“I have faith in my talent,” he said. “My talent has got me this far and I’m just going to go and have fun and enjoy it. It is a dream come true, but I don’t want to take it too seriously. I want to go in and enjoy every minute of it. You never know when you will get the chance to be there again.”

Courtesy of PRCA

The Cowboy Channel offers 24/7 programming dedicated to Western sports and lifestyle, with distribution in 42 million homes through cable and satellite partners and online streaming platforms. You can catch all the action of the 2023 NFR right on the Cowboy Channel.

The National Finals Rodeo is set for 7-16 December 2022. The NFR Streaming Pass is now available for $99.99 and includes access to Cowboy Channel + from now until March 1, 2023. If you’ve already purchased the NFR Streaming Pass, you’ll still have access to Cowboy Channel + through March 1.

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The Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo in Salt Lake City takes pride in setting a high standard in rodeo and in 2023 it will bring that standard to the ranks of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).

The 2023 event will payout an estimated $750,000 and will play an important role in determining Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifiers and eventual world champions. Not only will PRCA and WPRA contestants have a chance to walk away with a pocket full of cash but they will get the opportunity to win a gold, silver or bronze medal, a staple at this rodeo since 2017, making it the only Gold Medal Rodeo in the world.

“We are excited to once again partner with the PRCA, WPRA and their members that dream of qualifying for the NFR each year,” stated Dan Shaw, Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo President & CEO. “It is our hope we can make that dream come true for a number of contestants, while also bringing world class rodeo action to our fans here at the Days of ’47 Arena. July has always been a profitable month for rodeo athletes, and we are honored to now elevate that even more and put Utah on the map among top paying ProRodeos.”

The 2023 Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo presented by Zions Bank, is slated for July 19-22, 24, and will take place at the $17.5 million state-of-the-art Days of ’47 Arena at the Utah State Fairpark, custom designed and built for rodeo. The venue – an outdoor arena located in the heart of Salt Lake City – features over 10,000 stadium-style seats.

“We are excited to have the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo return as a PRCA rodeo and it will offer contestants a great opportunity to win even more money and capture a gold medal as they chase their NFR goals,” PRCA CEO Tom Glause said. “It also will be a key rodeo for contestants as part of the lucrative PRCA Playoff Series presented by Pendleton Whisky.”

Beginning in 2023, the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo will be the largest paying professional rodeo in the State of Utah. At the PRCA Playoff Series stop in Salt Lake, contestants will earn points to compete at the Cinch Playoffs in Puyallup, Wash., in September.

The top four finishers from each event in Puyallup, and the top eight out of the standings of the PRCA Playoff Series presented by Pendleton Whisky will qualify for the Cinch Playoffs which will have athletes competing for the Governor’s Cup and vying for the more than $1 million purse Sept. 28-30, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Only the top 60 regular season rodeos are part of this televised series.

“This is exciting news for our members and we are thrilled to have the Utah Days of ’47 Rodeo back on the WPRA schedule,” stated Jimmie Munroe, WPRA President. “This will be the first time we will sanction the breakaway roping at this prestigious event and what a great opportunity for our breakaway ropers to compete for equal money similar to the barrel racers. I have no doubt that many of our members will be adding this to their scheduled stops in 2023.”

For more information on the event and when tickets will go on sale visit www.utahdaysof47rodeo.com.

Courtesy of PRCA