STARS IN VEGAS: First timer, veterans prepare to throw a loop or two the Wrangler NFR
A new face from the Tri-State Livestock News region will compete at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this December.
JC Yeahquo
The 23-year-old has been roping professionally for the past five years, finishing last year in 27th place in the world standings.
As a kid in Oklahoma, he roped with his older brother, LJ, in the seventh and eighth grades, and again as a high school junior and senior.
Professionally, the brothers roped together till this rodeo season, when JC looked for another heeler, someone who “knew the ropes.”
“I was wanting to rope with a veteran, to help me get better. And it seemed like it was hard with two rookies who didn’t hardly know anything or hadn’t rodeoed much (professionally). It was easier to go with a veteran.”
He paired up with Buddy Hawkins II, who will make his seventh Wrangler NFR appearance this year.
Buddy “definitely knew the play,” Yeahquo said, “and knew what to expect, when we got to each rodeo. He was pretty knowledgeable about it.” Yeahquo and Hawkins made a good team. “He caught a lot of steers to keep us winning when I wasn’t catching a bunch of steers.”
Yeahquo will be aboard his 14-year-old sorrel, El Chapo, who he has owned since 2019. The sorrel “is good at the short setups,” which is what the Thomas and Mack Arena, home of the Wrangler NFR, has.
“He helped me get there, and I plan on riding the same horse,” he said.
Yeahquo’s paternal great-uncles, Pete Fredericks and Joe Chase, both competed at the National Finals Rodeo in the late 1950s and early 60s, Pete in the bareback riding three times and Joe in the saddle bronc riding three times.
It was different for Yeahquo, rodeoing without his brother this year.
“My whole life, I went with him,” he said. “It sucked at times because I was out there by myself, and I’d never been out there by myself. It was a big change to do it by yourself, but this is what I want to do, so I told myself it would get better.”
Yeahquo, whose last name is pronounced “YAY-kwoh,” is enrolled in the Mandan, Hidatska, Arikara (MHA) nation. Even though he and his family left North Dakota 18 years ago, he still lists Mandaree as his hometown.
“My grandma called me one day and said, ‘this is where you’re from, this is where your family is,’ and I said, ‘yes, ma’am.'” Rodeo daysheets have Mandaree as his hometown, “just to make her happy. You have to do what grandma says, you have to listen to grandma,” he chuckled.
He’s proud of being native.
“I got to go to North Dakota and see the younger generation coming up and roping, and it was sure neat to get to talk to them. They were sure happy for me, and they were like, if an MHA can make it (in rodeo), we can too.”
He’s excited to make the Wrangler NFR.
“This is exactly what I’ve been dreaming of since I was knee high to a grasshopper.”
Shelby Boisjoli-Meged
World champion Shelby Boisjoli-Meged will return to Vegas to defend her breakaway roping title.
Ranked number one going into her fifth National Finals Breakaway Roping this December, the Canadian native had a strong finish to the season.
She won the Cinch Playoffs in Sioux Falls, S.D. in late September, vaulting her from fifth to first place.
Her award-winning horse Onna (a two-time Breakaway Nutrena Horse of the Year winner) will be her primary mount.
Boisjoli-Meged rode Onna the entire summer. “I owe pretty much everything to her, all my success the last five years, and she’s been great for me.”
She purchased Onna from a reining barn in Canada when the horse was a four-year old.
“I vividly remember standing in her stall hugging her, and I thought, I have to have this horse.” Onna is fast, but doesn’t have much “cow” bred in her.
“The only problem I have with her is getting her to cow (following the calf). A lot of what we work on in the practice pen is following the calf. Sometimes she gets to running first, then looking for the calf.”
Her husband Haven Meged will compete at the Wrangler NFR in the tie-down roping. He enters the Finals in second place; he is the 2019 world champion.
The National Finals Breakaway Roping is held Dec. 3-4 at 2 pm PT each day, with five rounds per day, for a total of ten rounds.
Going into the Breakaway Finals as the reigning champ doesn’t change anything, she said. “I don’t feel like a world champion. I just feel like I’m trying my hardest to keep up with the girls and stay competitive.”
She and Haven spend their winters in Stephenville, Texas and their summers in Miles City, Mont.
Rickie Engesser Fanning
Another breakaway roper is preparing for the Breakaway Finals.
Rickie Engesser Fanning, Martin, S.D., will compete at her third National Finals Breakaway, entering this year’s championship in ninth place.
It’s been a good year for Fanning. A long year, but a good one. “We didn’t get to come home as often as we usually do,” she said, “and my sister and I are homebodies.”
She and her older sister, Taylor, travel together nearly all year.
“I don’t know if I could do this if she wasn’t going with me,” Fanning said. “Travel partners are always great, but it’s also hard to be with them all the time, so having a sister that knows you in and out is way easier.”
Taylor helped drive, which helped out as well. “It was a long year, a lot of driving, a lot of late night slacks which lead to all night drives.”
Fanning had to make a horse switch this year, after her main horse, Rollo, died in early June, of an intestinal bowel disease.
She rode her gray horse, an eight-year-old named Copper, for the rest of the season.
“When Rollo got sick this winter, I rode Copper at all the winter rodeos. He was dang sure good enough. I rode him in every setup this year, from short scores to long scores and fast cattle. He’s taken to it great.”
She had never given Copper a chance because Rollo was always available. But Copper was up to the challenge.
“It was a difficult transition (from Rollo to Copper) because I wasn’t comfortable riding him in the short scores because he doesn’t rate as much as Rollo did, but as the season progressed, he got a lot better.
“He’s solid, he’s easy, he’s fast,” she said. Her husband Rhett’s grandfather raised Copper as a ranch horse and had the stud Copper was out of, till that horse passed away. “So Copper is a sentimental one, and he won’t go anywhere,” she said.
Traveling with her sister Taylor made it easier for the sisters’ parents, Shorty and Punky, and their brother, Jace, to visit them at rodeos. “It’s such a family thing,” Engesser said. “If my parents and Jace wanted to come out, it was easy to have them with us.”
This being her third qualification, Fanning has a better idea of how to prepare, physically and mentally.
She’s working out, plus roping the dummy and riding horses.
“I think the big thing is, there is no break from the end of the season. You can’t afford to take a break.”
The Finals “is a huge deal to get to do this, and it’s a blessed opportunity, but you have to know how to control the nerves, how to bounce back, and what to prepare for. Each day, you’re going to rope five calves, two days in a row.”
Other timed event qualifiers from the Tri-State Livestock News region include steer wrestler Ty Erickson, Helena, Mont. (tenth place); team roping heeler Levi Lord, Sturgis (first place); and barrel racer Lisa Lockhart, Oelrichs, S.D. (sixth place.)
The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo takes place Dec. 5-14 and determines the PRCA world champions. It consists of ten rounds of competition, with year-end and average champs decided at the end.
The Wrangler NFR is live on the Cowboy Channel. It starts at 5:45 pm PT each night.
The National Finals Breakaway Roping will be broadcast live on the Cowboy Channel. It starts at 2 pm PT each day.
For more information, visit ProRodeo.com.
