UP TO TRICKS: Montana, Oklahoma cowgirls to trick rider, roman ride at the Wrangler NFR
A trick riding duo entertained at this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
Madison MacDonald Thomas and Haley Ganzel Proctor, performed trick riding and roman riding at the 66th annual Wrangler NFR December 5-14 in Las Vegas.
For Thomas, it’s the eleventh time she will perform at the Wrangler NFR. A native of Canada, her first time at the PRCA’s world championships was in 2011 when she was eighteen years old.
For Proctor, it’s her first time to be selected to perform.
Thomas’s plan was to make a trick riding lap in the opening, during the pyro fireworks show, doing the hippodrome and carrying a flag. The pair entertained during commercial breaks also.
It takes special horses who are proven for the prestigious rodeo.
Thomas, of Helena, Mont., rode her old faithful, a 26-year-old black gelding named Vegas, for the pyro lap.
The arena at the Thomas and Mack, on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, is small and loud, and it requires an experienced horse, Thomas said.
“Your horse needs to be very confident,” she said. “You have to trust the horse, and the horse has to trust you, because if they don’t trust you, and you throw them in that arena, it’s a whole other ball game.”
Horses put in high-pressure situations like the Wrangler NFR need to be strong and confident, she said, with “nothing that phases them. They don’t spook, and they’re the ones that when you smooch to them and throw them the reins, they take off. You need a horse that will run in there with full confidence.”
Thomas has used Vegas sparingly this year at her other rodeos, because of his age, but he’s a pro at the big shows which are loud and high energy.
“Vegas is my go-to for any type of crazy opening, or anything I have to do. I can control him, and he’s very bold, very strong, and doesn’t second-guess me when I send him somewhere.”
For the commercial breaks, when Thomas trick rides with Proctor, she rode another of her horses, Bonnie, her 9-year-old buckskin mare. Like Vegas, Bonnie is sure of herself and of Thomas, and vice versa.
Proctor, who lives in Nowata, Okla., brought her “old favorites,” Geminey and Cricket, as her roman riding team. “They’re the ones who have made my career,” she said. Both are 19 years old; she’s been roman riding on them since 2016.
She brought two extras as backups: Lawman, a six-year-old horse her husband Shane raised, and Clyde, her big cremello – her liberty horse.
The arena is unique; the closest comparison Thomas can make to a regular-season rodeo is Monument Arena in Rapid City, where Rodeo Rapid City is held.
Like the Thomas and Mack arena, “it’s indoor, it’s a smaller arena, and they like to use pyro in the openings. The (atmosphere at the) Finals is very hard to replicate. The energy, the noise, the pyro, the lasers, it’s a whole new level compared to what we deal with year round.”
The first few days of the ten-day rodeo are more wired, she said. “Everybody’s wound up, especially the first couple of rounds. Everybody’s excited and nervous. The middle performances, it’s more routine, but at the end, they’re giving it all they have.”
Vegas requires a buddy horse in the alley for the Wrangler NFR.
“If he doesn’t have a buddy in the alleyway, he won’t fire. He did it to me (in 2021). He locked up and wouldn’t go.” Her husband Keegan will have one of the couple’s six-year-old horses there, to act as buddy, and give that horse some experience, too.
Proctor has been trying to replicate the Finals experience at her arena at her home in Oklahoma.
Her husband Shane “is making it easy for me to be prepared. He has everything set up: fog machines, laser lights, and he has our arena decked out. We’ve been practicing at night, and it looks like a mini NFR in there.”
This year has been a memorable one for Thomas.
She and Keegan had their first child, a boy, Koda, in late April.
Being a mother has changed her perspective.
“You start thinking about a lot of other things compared to when you’re eighteen,” she said. “When you’re eighteen, you’re invincible.
She was back to trick riding two months after her son was born, performing, often with Proctor, at rodeos across the nation.
“My body was completely different, and my strength wasn’t 100 percent,” she said. “Then you start thinking, what we do isn’t safe. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. You try to do everything possible to make sure things don’t go wrong, but at the end of the day, you can’t control everything. So that’s definitely a whole other mind game.”
But it was worth it, to rodeo this summer. It was more special, in a way, because she got to rodeo with her little one. “I was very thankful Keegan was able to travel with us all summer. He put everything of his aside to make it possible.”
Haley and Shane have a three-year-old daughter, Coulee, who has performed with her mom at several rodeos this summer.
Proctor is a second generation Wrangler NFR entertainer; her uncle, Shawn Brackett, roman rode and performed his liberty horse routine at the Wrangler NFR in 1999-2000 and 2010-2011. Proctor’s husband Shane is the 2011 PRCA world champion bull rider and has qualified for the Wrangler NFR six times.
Thomas and Proctor have been performing together as a specialty act since 2021.
“Haley and I get to perform a ton together,” Thomas said, “so to be there for her first year (at the Wrangler NFR) is pretty special and exciting and I’m glad I get to share that experience with her. And we’re so used to working together, anything they throw at us, we’ll be able to do.”
Being selected to work the Wrangler NFR is an honor.
“It makes it all worth it,” Thomas said, “all the struggles. That’s what for sure makes it worth it.”
Mexican charro Tomas Garcilazo also entertained at the Wrangler NFR; this is his 27th year.
