FIRST TIME FINALISTS: Mason Moody, Sam Petersen set for maiden voyage to top rodeo
Two men from the Tri-State Livestock News area have punched their tickets to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and for both men, it’s their first qualification.
Mason Moody, Letcher, S.D., will go in the bull riding, and Sam Petersen, Helena, Mont., will compete in the bareback riding.
Moody has qualified in twelfth place, with $156,060 in regular season earnings.
The 2025 rodeo season started out well for the 22-year-old, with an average win at the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, and continued in San Antonio, Houston, and then San Angelo, where he won the Xtreme Bulls. “That set up my summer run,” he said.
July, though, wasn’t so great. He only covered three bulls for the entire month and dropped from sixth place to fifteenth place in the world standings.
“There’s been some highs and lows, but that’s why we rodeo,” he said.
Moody the bull rider is also Moody the entrepreneur.
At age twelve, he had a $30,000 loan from the bank, with his dad as co-signer, to buy a herd of sheep. He paid off the loan in part with bull riding wins. He also paid for and built an indoor arena.
As a high school sophomore, he blew out his knee playing basketball. That was enough to tip him towards pursuing rodeo.
“I was good at sports, but I knew I wasn’t going to go anywhere with them,” he said. “I pretty much dedicated my life to riding bulls and rodeo.”
In high school, he and his dad shared calving and lambing duties (his dad owns some cattle.) Moody took the 10 pm and 5 am shifts.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do, since I was five years old, was to be a cattle rancher and a bull rider.”
He also owns a herd of bucking bulls. His dad, Perry Moody, is a S.D. High School Rodeo board member, so the bulls are used for practice for high school kids and for Moody as well.
“We have lower-end bulls to help the kids get going, but it also allows me to have three or four good practice bulls when I need them.”
To prepare for the Wrangler NFR, Moody has gotten on some practice bulls after a few weeks off to heel his riding wrist, which was injured in September. The wrist feels good now, which “is a big relief, going into the Finals,” he said.
He’s also ranching. “We worked 150 head of calves today and put in a quarter mile of fence, and tomorrow we preg cows,” he said. “I come home and we’re way behind so I get put to work.”
He also works out. His uncle is a physical therapist who has designed a workout plan that focuses on the muscles used in riding bulls. Moody works out with his uncle twice a week and by himself the other times.
Going to his first NFR hasn’t sunk in yet, he said. “Part of that is because I’ve been home and working. I haven’t had time.”
Everyone in town is buzzing about Moody’s making the NFR, but he’s not having it.
“I don’t want to be known as Mason Moody the bull rider. I want to be the Mason Moody that everyone grew up knowing.”
His parents, Perry and Terry Moody, will be in Las Vegas, as will his granddad, Jerry Moody.
That doesn’t leave anyone at home to do chores.
Moody hopes it doesn’t snow while they’re at the Wrangler NFR.
‘The cows will be on stalks, and that cuts down on chores,” he said. “If there’s snow, somebody’s going to have to feed every day.
“We have good neighbors who help out, but all of them are going to the Finals, so I don’t know who will do chores.”
Bareback rider Sam Petersen enters this year’s Wrangler NFR in second place, with $221,901 in season earnings.
Last year was motivation for the 2025 season. He finished in twentieth place, five spots out of going to the Finals.
“After falling short of my goal the last couple of years, there was a fire lit under me. I worked on my physical side and my mental side and I just became an all around better athlete and better bareback rider,” he said.
This year he drew good bucking horses, which was a “huge blessing, for sure. You’re only as good as your dancing partner.”
He is preparing in several different ways for the Wrangler NFR: working out, riding the spur board, riding a saddle horse bareback, and doing mental repetitions: visualizing the perfect ride on different kinds of bareback horses, and “visualizing myself at the Finals and as the world champion, and preparing mentally for that.”
Riding bareback on a saddle horse is beneficial, he said, because the movement of a saddle horse parallels the motion of a bucking horse.
Petersen does the mental reps throughout the day, visualizing the movements of a bareback ride. He often does it while he’s on the saddle horse.
He grew up wanting to be a bull rider, after tagging along with his cousin, Mesa Pate, who owned PBR bucking bulls.
He started riding calves at age seven, then progressed to steers, then mini bulls.
But when he saw the mini bareback horses as part of the Montana Mini Buckers, he changed his mind.
“I saw them and said, that’s what I want to do. I want to be a bareback rider.”
When his mom sold a house to Heath and Britney Ford, Heath, a two-time Finals bareback rider, took Petersen under his wing.
“He poured all his knowledge into me, developing my riding. He was my mentor. I had a really good start there.”
Petersen is a third-generation rodeo contestant. His dad Pete was a steer wrestler, his mom Tara still runs barrels, and his granddad, Gordon Clark, was a steer wrestler and bareback rider. They competed professionally but didn’t have the resources to make the National Finals.
Petersen is confident in his abilities at the Finals.
“I’ve competed against these same guys all year long, and for the past three years,” he said. “I’m sure the environment (at the Finals) will be electric and insane.
“Aside from that, I’m going there to ride ten bucking horses and make ten perfect rides. I’m going to go there, show the world who I am, and capitalize on the opportunity.”
Other contestants from the Tri-State Livestock News area include bareback rider Garrett Shadbolt, Merriman, Neb.; and saddle bronc riders Brody Wells, Powell, Wyo.; Sage Newman, Melstone, Mont., and Brody Cress, Hillsdale, Wyo.
In the timed events, tie-down ropers Riley Pruitt, Gering, Neb., and Haven Meged, Miles City, Mont. have qualified for the Wrangler NFR, as have steer wrestlers Bridger Anderson, Carrington, N.D. and Ty Erickson, Helena Mont.; and team roper Levi Lord, Sturgis, S.D.
The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is Dec. 4-13, with performances starting nightly at 6:45 pm Mountain Standard Time. It takes place at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas, and is televised nightly on the Cowboy Channel.
For more information on the Finals, visit Prorodeo.com.
