THE YELLOW CHUTES OF VEGAS: Bronc riders, bareback riders to compete under the bright lights at Wrangler NFR
Seven bucking horse riders from the Tri-State Livestock News region will represent the northern plains at this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
Weston Timberman, Columbus, Mont.; Cole Reiner, Buffalo, Wyo.; Garrett Shadbolt, Merriman, Neb.; and Richmond Champion, Stevensville, Mont., will compete in the bareback riding.
Brody Cress, Hillsdale, Wyo.; Sage Newman, Melstone, Mont. and Brody Wells, Powell, Wyo., will compete in the saddle bronc riding.
Two of those seven, Timberman and Wells, are rookies, making their inaugural trip to the yellow chutes at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas.
For Weston Timberman, bareback riding runs in his blood.
The son of Chris Timberman, a former bareback rider, a nephew of the 2004 World Champion bareback rider Kelley Timberman, and the grandson of Lonnie Timberman, an all-around hand who also rode barebacks, the 20-year-old heads into the Wrangler Finals in seventh place in the world, with $154,099 in season earnings.
“I’ve been surrounded in the sport of rodeo, especially bareback riding, my whole life,” he said. “It is such a blessing to finally go and live that dream of rodeoing hard. I just took every day (of the season) as it was, and was super blessed to be able to do it.”
While he competed this year, he finished his second and final year of schooling at Clarendon (Texas) College, earning a welding certificate. And while a college student, he won the College National Finals Rodeo in June.
“It kick started my summer and gave me the confidence to go through the year and accomplish all the cool things I did, like win Pendleton (Ore.) and Ponoka (Alberta).”
His parents, Chris and Lucinda, didn’t push bareback riding or rodeo on him when he was a kid.
“It was something my dad didn’t want me to do a lot of,” he said. “He didn’t push me away from it, but he definitely didn’t encourage me. He wanted me to go through high school and enjoy playing football and wrestling. He never really let me get on as much as I’d have liked to. That kept the fire in me.”
Timberman leads the Resistol Rookie Race, with a $9,000 lead on the number two bareback rider, Wacey Schalla, Arapaho, Okla.
Schalla won’t be able to catch Timberman to win the Rookie Race in the bareback riding, but he’s headed to the Wrangler NFR in the bull riding.
The two were college roommates, and it was Timberman who encouraged Schalla to do more bareback riding. “He wasn’t planning on taking bareback riding so seriously, but we became close and I helped him throughout the season, and now he’s sitting behind me in the rookie race.”
Saddle bronc rider Brody Wells is also gearing up for his first trip to the Wrangler NFR.
The Powell, Wyo. native got his PRCA permit in 2021.
Last year, he tore his quad muscle and had a bone spur on his femur that needed attention.
The bone spur happened in July of 2023, when the bucking horse he was on caught his left leg between a concrete wall and the saddle. His leg grazed the concrete wall and the bone didn’t break, but it became infected, requiring surgery to drain the leg and heal the infection.
Doctors told him he shouldn’t get back on until mid-October, but he couldn’t wait and came back in September.
“I wanted to win a little bit more money so my qualifications were good for Rodeo Houston and the winter rodeos,” he said. “I definitely should have sat it out. I got on a little too early, but in true rodeo cowboy fashion, I had to do it,” he laughed.
This was the first year Wells rodeoed full-time, and it opened his eyes to how hard it is to go down the rodeo road.
“I knew it was going to be a grind,” he said. “I have more respect for those guys who have done it and made the Finals multiple times. They have a ranch and a family at home, and I feel stressed and busy enough as it is, and these guys have families they have to feed and take care of.”
The rodeo road is grueling, but it’s worth it, he said. “The amount of times I ate jerky and drank coffee from a gas station, and whatever else you can get your hands on, then getting back in the rig and driving all night, with three or four hours of sleep, then flying to another state, it’s crazy but it’s a lot of fun.”
Wells isn’t letting the enormity of the Wrangler NFR get to him.
“In a way, it’s just a different atmosphere, and I’m excited for that. But it’s the same horses I’ve been getting on. I feel like a guy should take in the moment and not downplay it, but it’s the same horses we’ve been making good rides on all year, it just happens to have a lot of good money at it.”
In the bareback riding standings, Reiner enters the Finals in twelfth place; Shadbolt in thirteenth, and Champion in fifteenth.
In the saddle bronc riding, Cress goes into the Wrangler NFR in fifth place and Newman in eighth.
The Wrangler NFR runs Dec. 5-14 and is held in Las Vegas at the Thomas and Mack Arena on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. It will be broadcast live on The Cowboy Channel starting at 5:45 pm PT each night.
The total payout for this year’s Wrangler NFR is $11.5 million. Each round pays six places, with first place winning $33,687. The average, the fastest combined times or highest combined scores after ten rounds, pays $86,391 for first place.
More information can be found at prorodeo.com
Photos by Jackie Jensen
1 Weston Timberman scores 90.5 points on J Bar J Rodeo’s Miss Delta at the White Sulphur, Mont. pro rodeo in September. Photo by Jackie Jensen.
2 Bareback rider Weston Timberman is headed to his first Wrangler NFR. The Montana man is ranked seventh in the world heading into the Finals. Photo by Jackie Jensen.
Pictures 3-4-5
Saddle bronc rider Brody Wells wins the White Sulphur, Mont. rodeo with a score of 86.5 points on the J Bar J Rodeo horse Painted Commotion. The Wyoming cowboy has qualified for his first Wrangler NFR. Photo by Jackie Jensen.
