NFR News

By the end of the week, tie-down roper Kincade Henry will have traveled more than 4,000 miles in just three days, hitting up four rodeos along the way.
 
Such is life for a young cowboy fighting to qualify for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
 
“It’s not ideal, you know,” said Henry, 19. “Ideally, I wish I already had the Finals made, but I don’t right now. So, that puts me in a situation to where I have to. It’s the two-minute warning and we have to win.”

RELATED: Tristan Martin battling for first Wrangler NFR berth
 
Henry is competing in the Lion’s Dixie Roundup in St. George, Utah, Friday night, then he’ll make the 858-mile drive to the Pendleton, Ore. Roundup for the short round Saturday. He was one of 12 cowboys to qualify for the finals with a 20.6-second average on two head.
 
“This is actually my first time through Pendleton,” Henry said. “So, the first round I was definitely a little weary. I didn’t know what to expect. I feel like I made a couple of good runs for the calves that I had.”
 
The next 10 days will decide Henry’s fate for the rest of the season. He sits 17th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings, looking to get to the Finals this December in Las Vegas. He’s $2,220 away from the No. 15 spot. He says while every run is important, the ProRodeo Tour Finale in Salinas, Calif., will ultimately decide who’s in and who’s out.
 
RELATED: PRCA RAM World Standings
 
“I’m just going to go out there (Pendleton) and try to tie one down, whatever they pay me, they pay me,” Henry said. “The Tour Finale pays so much money now that you know those guys that are way down in the pack will have a chance if they get to Salinas. So, I think Salinas is where it’ll become a life-or-death situation for some of us on the bubble.”
 
No matter what happens, he’s enjoying competing in meaningful rodeos in September.
 
“I’m just grateful to still be out here rodeoing, and I still have a chance,” Henry said. “You know we have 13 days left in the season and I’m 18th in the world, that’s a dream for me. Two years ago, I was sitting in class watching these rodeos on the edge of getting in, and now I’m one of those guys.”
 
The ProRodeo Tour Finale will provide cowboys with a last opportunity to qualify for the NFR in Salinas Sept. 23-26.

Source: ProRodeo

For more information for Wrangler NFR, please visit www.nfrexperience.com. and ProRodeo.com Check out our latest news at www.nfrnetwork.com or through social media at /LasVegasNFR and use #WranglerNFR.

Bull riders JB Mauney and Laramie Mosley, both with 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo aspirations, were injured this week.

Both entered the week among the Top 15 in the PRCA | RAM World Standings but are expected to miss the remainder of the PRCA regular season, which concludes Sept. 30. That could hurt their chances of qualifying for the Finals. Neither has qualified before.

Mauney told ProRodeo.com that he suffered a lacerated kidney on Sept. 9 after a 90-point ride at the Tri-State Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa.

PRCA | RAM Bull Riding World Standings

“I didn’t make a very good dismount and I ended up landing right in front of him,” said Mauney, 34. “He stepped on me right underneath my vest at my beltline, but I got up and walked out of the arena. I was fine until about 2 or 3 in the morning on Friday then decided I should probably get checked out. It ended up being a lacerated kidney.”

As of 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, Mauney remained hospitalized in Iowa City, Iowa. Mauney is hoping to be released from the hospital by noon. He may be sidelined for a while but still has his sights set on returning if he qualifies for the Wrangler NFR, which will be Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas. He is seventh in the world standings with $105,078.

“With how my run has been going lately, I do believe I’m just going to try and get healthy for the NFR,” Mauney said. “That’s still a long way away, so we will see what happens.”

Mosley also will be out of action the remainder of the regular season. He suffered a break in his neck at the C7 vertebrae and T1 at the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup Division 2 Qualifying Event Xtreme Bulls Sept. 8.

“I lost my bull rope coming around one of the turns, went straight up in the air and came down head first into the ground,” said Mosley, 25. “It was a pretty scary situation.”

Mosley was admitted to the hospital but was released on Sept. 10. He is back in Texas where he plans to recover and start his rehab. Mosley is 11th in the world standings with $83,456. The 16th spot in the standings has $69,433.

Mosley said it’s out of his control if he makes the NFR, but if he does, he hopes to be able to ride.

“Right now, it looks like I’m going to be out four to six weeks, but I’ll know more after I meet with Dr. Tandy Freeman on Monday (Sept. 13),” Mosley said. “Sadly, at this point it isn’t up to me anymore if I make the NFR, I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Source: ProRodeo

For more information for Wrangler NFR, please visit www.nfrexperience.com. and ProRodeo.com Check out our latest news at www.nfrnetwork.com or through social media at /LasVegasNFR and use #WranglerNFR.

Coming into the last month of the season, Orin Larsen had three rodeo wins. Over the past three days, he added two more titles to the list.
 
The Manitoba bareback rider won back-to-back rodeos at the Magic Valley Stampede in Filer, Idaho, and the Walla Walla (Wash.) Frontier Days.
 
Larsen said the wins, especially Walla Walla Sept. 5, are coming at the right time of the season.
 
“Especially this time of year, it’s pretty important,” Larsen said. “Everybody, including myself, is getting worn out from the travel and getting on a lot of horses.
 
“It’s pretty crucial for me in my situation to just get as much as I can going into Vegas. So a win like Walla Walla is definitely huge to me.”
 
Larsen rode Mayhem of Big Stone Rodeo Inc. to 91 points, the highest score on that horse this season.

This wasn’t the first time Larsen and Mayhem met. The two battled at the 2019 National Finals Rodeo, where Larsen was also victorious, posting a 90-point ride.
 
Sitting 10th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings heading into the weekend, Larsen is looking to finish the season strong and end it with a ticket to Las Vegas Dec. 2-11.
 
“(My goal is to) make the NFR and nod for a gold buckle, just like every other card holder,” Larsen said. “That’s what’s on our minds and that’s what we strive for – I think just to ride to the best of our abilities and when there’s an opportunity to make sure we capitalize on it.”
 
A 2021 NFR qualification would make for Larsen’s seventh consecutive trip to the Finals.
 
Having multiple seasons and trips to the NFR under his belt is something Larsen thinks will help him at rodeos like the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up and the ProRodeo Tour Finale in Salinas, Calif.
 
“I think experience has definitely played a factor into really anything and anyone’s craft,” Larsen said. “To say it’s been, you know, an asset throughout my career would be correct, for sure.”
 
Larsen is headed to Ellensburg, Wash., next, where he hopes to keep the win streak alive by keeping it simple.
 
“It’s not rocket science,” Larsen said. “It’s just the basics. The basics will get you to the Finals. If you can do that consistently on the right horses, it’ll win you a lot of money.”
 
Other winners at the $190,853 rodeo were steer wrestler Kyle Irwin (8.2 seconds on two head); team ropers Kal Fuller/Cullen Teller (9.4 seconds on two head); saddle bronc rider K’s Thompson (85 points on Big Stone Rodeo Inc’s Rubels); tie-down roper Justin Smith (16.5 seconds on two head); barrel racer Jordon Briggs (17.02 seconds); steer roper J. Tom Fisher (37.3 seconds on three head); and bull rider Matt Palmer (88 points on Big Stone Rodeo Inc.’s War Cry).

Source: ProRodeo

For more information for Wrangler NFR, please visit www.nfrexperience.com. and ProRodeo.com Check out our latest news at www.nfrnetwork.com or through social media at /LasVegasNFR and use #WranglerNFR.

OLS Tubs Spilled Perfume, an award-winning bareback horse from the Macza Pro Rodeo stable, passed away Aug. 24 as a result of complications from colic. She was 13.

“She was down at Cullen Pickett’s (in Fairfield, Texas),” Ward Macza said. “I bred her to Night Jacket’s son. A month and half ago, on grass, it’s impossible, but she coliced. Mandy Pickett rushed to her to a specialty vet by Houston, and they did surgery and saved her life, and she was doing good. With big horses like her, they are susceptible to founder because of all the anesthesia they have to give them to knock them down (for surgery). She was getting better, (but) she was favoring a foot, and the founder got so bad her foot fell off. She was in pain so I put her down.”

Laminitis (also termed founder) is inflammation of the laminae of the foot – the soft tissue structures that attach the coffin or pedal bone of the foot to the hoof wall. The inflammation and damage to the laminae causes extreme pain and leads to instability of the coffin bone in the hoof.

“She was at Pickett’s ranch for a year and a half getting bred with Night Jacket’s studs,” Macza said. “I want to give a great thanks to Mandy and Cullen Pickett because they went above and beyond to do the best they could and give her the best care.”

Spilled Perfume has a 2-month-old colt. Spilled Perfume weighed 1,400 pounds and was 15.3 hands.

Spilled Perfume competed at the National Finals Rodeo from 2015-20. At the 2020 Wrangler NFR at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Spilled Perfume bucked off Jamie Howlett (Round 3) and Richmond Champion (Round 8).

She finished second in the Bareback Horse of the Year voting at the 2018 and 2019 NFRs and was third in the voting at the 2017 NFR.

Spilled Perfume also was the Bareback Horse of the Rodeo at the 2018 Ponoka Stampede.

“She was good from the first time we bucked her,” Macza said. “She’s out of Major League and Juice Newton, and she was good right from the get-go. Even until the end, she wasn’t one of those quiet horses. My favorite saying on her was she was for the advanced rider. There was nothing easy about her.”

Macza recalled two memorable outs for Spilled Perfume, both in 2019 – Caleb Bennett’s 93-point ride on her in the finals of the San Angelo (Texas) Rodeo and Kaycee Feild’s 91-point trip on her in the short round of the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo.

“That was the only two times they rode her that year,” Macza said. “Cowboys were either a bunch of points on her or they were eating dirt. Cowboys did not ride her very much.

“This is a super tough loss to have her pass away. She helped my rodeo career. She was the first horse I had ranch-raised of that level. She was nice to be around, but once you started sorting her and getting her in the chutes her mane didn’t lay on the proper side all the time.”

Source: ProRodeo

For more information for Wrangler NFR, please visit www.nfrexperience.com. and ProRodeo.com Check out our latest news at www.nfrnetwork.com or through social media at /LasVegasNFR and use #WranglerNFR.

Bareback rider Tim O’Connell’s quest to win his fourth world title is on hold for the time being.

O’Connell confirmed to ProRodeo Sports News on Aug. 23 he will be sidelined the remainder of the regular season after suffering a tailbone injury in Lovington, N.M., Aug. 5.

The Zwingle, Iowa, bareback rider, a three-time PRCA World Champion (2016-18), talked to ProRodeo.com about the injury.

“It’s something that’s been hurting really bad the last couple of weeks,” said O’Connell, 29. “I broke my tailbone or my coccyx to be exact. At first, we were going to try and go the adjustment route, but once my X-rays were out there, they decided it was something that probably needed to be removed.”

O’Connell is first in the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $156,056. He is set to undergo a coccygectomy (removal of the tailbone) surgery on Aug. 24 in Dallas.

“I was setup with one of the best and most trusted guys in the country to do this surgery and right here in Dallas,” O’Connell said. “So, tomorrow morning (Aug. 24) Dr. Dossett is going to go in and remove my tailbone.

“It was one of those things that really couldn’t wait, it became dangerous to not only my health in the sport but my overall health. It was something that had to be done, I really had no other option.”

O’Connell said having surgery at this point will allow him to be competing at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo scheduled for Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas.

“That’s not really a goal, that’s when I’m going to be back regardless,” O’Connell said. “I’ll be back for the opening round of the NFR. My plans haven’t changed for winning a gold buckle this year. I’ll have four months to take off, recover, get myself ready, and we can throw down in Vegas.”

Source: ProRodeo

For more information for Wrangler NFR, please visit www.nfrexperience.com. and ProRodeo.com Check out our latest news at www.nfrnetwork.com or through social media at /LasVegasNFR and use #WranglerNFR.