Harris ‘brings it’ to repeat as Reno X Bulls champion
RENO, Nev. – There aren’t many places where J.W. Harris feels more comfortable than the Reno Livestock Arena.
With his June 14 triumph in the $47,000 Reno Xtreme Bulls Tour event, Harris has won four titles on that dirt in seven years – three X Bulls and the 2009 Reno Rodeo.
“If I didn’t love Texas so much, I’d move here,” Harris said with a grin.
A 92.5-point ride on Flying U Rodeo’s Bring it allowed him to become the first man ever to repeat as the champion of the Reno X Bulls and he won it in much the same fashion as he won his other two X Bulls titles here, with a dominating finals performance.
He won his first Reno X Bulls in 2006 with a 96-point ride on Flying U Rodeo’s Werewolf, which still stands as the highest-scored ride in the history of the Xtreme Bulls Tour, and he won last year with a 92-pointer in the finals.
“You’ve got to get the bulls rode,” Harris said. “You’ve got to have the intestinal fortitude to ride one, and then know that the next one is going to buck even harder.
“I’d been on that short round bull (Bring It) once before – he broke my hand at the 2009 (Wrangler) NFR. So this was a little bit of revenge.”
It was an especially gratifying performance for Harris, given that he has just recently returned from an extended layoff while recovering from a Feb. 29 knee surgery.
He won Texas rodeos in Gladewater and Canton last week and finished second in Crosby. On June 13 he had a winning 87-point ride at the Parker County Frontier Days Pro Rodeo in Weatherford, Texas.
“I told my wife, no matter how hard a bull bucks right now, it seems like it’s in slow motion and I’m able to just slow down and make those moves before I even realize it,” Harris said. “I’ve never felt that before. I hope it keeps coming.
“This is just my second week back. I had that same ACL injury in 2004, but I was younger then, and you heal faster. As far as rehab this time, I’ve never worked that hard in my life.”
Already fifth in the world standings at the start of the week, the $11,762 he banked at Reno plus another $1,881 at Weatherford puts his season total at $54,764, just $201 out of second place.
“It (the money) doesn’t matter,” Harris said. “I just try to ride everything I get on. If I ride more bulls than everyone else…the money will take care of itself.
“Winning this event at Reno is a great start to the Fourth (the Cowboy Christmas run); when you’ve got money in your pocket and confidence. I’ve won this bull riding three times and the rodeo once. This week, I’m up in the rodeo the 21st. I’m going to try to sweep Reno this year.”
It would be unwise to bet against him.
• It was a happy Father’s Day indeed for Oregon’s Bobby Mote, who has three kids with wife Kate. The four-time world champion bareback rider is already placing second in the average standings of his main event at the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo, but on June 17 he put a rope in his hand and went to the lead in the second round of team roping, too.
Mote struggled with his dally in the first round, but connected on his second steer with 1984 World Champion Mike Beers in a smoking 4.8 seconds. The time could be worth about $4,600 and help Mote win the coveted Reno Rodeo all-around title when the Wrangler Million Dollar Gold Tour, presented by Justin Boots, ends on June 23. Mote is attempting to become the first cowboy since the likes of Ace Berry and Phil Lyne in the early 1970s to qualify for the Wrangler NFR in both a roughstock and timed event.

Reeves follows northern route toward Wrangler NFR
INNISFAIL, Alberta – Matt Reeves missed competing during the month of January with a leg injury and he missed May with a staph infection. He has no intention of missing December.
That much seemed clear enough after his one-day stopover at the Daines Ranch Rodeo on June 17.
Reeves put down a 5.0-second run to edge traveling partner Hunter Cure by two-tenths of a second for the steer wrestling title (“A good day for our truck,” Reeves said) and a check for $8,278.
The win lifted Reeves from 24th in the world standings all the way to eighth and reinforced his belief in the northern strategy he has employed since 2010 – driving his rig over the border into Canada for a big chunk of the summer months.
“I was traveling with Olin Hannum (in 2010) and he scheduled us up here,” Reeves said. “When you are competing in the Northwest already it’s easy to go up to the big rodeos in Canada. That first year I went to 17, won a rodeo at Lethbridge (Alberta) and qualified for the Canadian Finals Rodeo. I’ve been coming back ever since.”
It seemed like an easy enough call, given that 2010 turned out to be the best season of his career. He qualified for this third Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (finishing eighth in the world standings) and also qualified for the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, the All American ProRodeo Finals in Waco, Texas, the Justin Boots Championships in Omaha, Neb., and the CFR in Edmonton (where he won $28,000).
“I went to every final there was to go to that year,” Reeves said. “I’ve been told that I’m the only one who’s ever done that in one year. Counting everything, I won about $160,000 that season. That was also the year (wife) Savanah won the barrel racing at the Calgary Stampede for $112,500 and finished with about $150,000.”
Buoyed by his biggest regular-season check at a Canadian rodeo, Reeves is aiming to push toward another NFR/CFR double with upcoming stops in the Alberta cities of Ponoka, Airdrie, Wainwright and High River during his Cowboy Christmas run.
All of this must have seemed fairly remote when Reeves was laid up in an Amarillo hospital for three days last month. In what he describes as “kind of a freak deal,” Reeves received a staph infection behind his right knee while competing at the Guymon (Okla.) Pioneer Days Rodeo.
“It swoll up really bad for a while there,” Reeves said. “When we finally got all the tests back, it was determined that it could be treated with an antibiotic that I could take orally. Savanah is a PRN (part-time registered nurse) so I was in good hands.
“It was the same leg I injured on New Year’s Eve when a horse flipped over on me in the practice pen and knocked me out of competition for a month. I could have done without that. Well, actually I could have done without either of (the health setbacks).”
The other champions at the $245,458 Daines Ranch Rodeo were bareback rider Dusty LaValley (88 points), team ropers Dustin Bird and Paul Eaves (4.4 seconds), saddle bronc rider Kyle Thomson (87 points), tie-down roper Shane Hanchey (7.1 seconds), bull rider Garrett Green (87.5 points) and barrel racer Carlee Pierce (15.678 seconds).

Elshere, from Faith (S.D.), draws hope from Buffalo Bill title
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. – Cole Elshere is having the best year of his rodeo career, and his eight-second saddle bronc ride at the Wild West Arena was just the latest piece of testimony.
Elshere won the June 13-16 Buffalo Bill Rodeo with an 84-point ride on Beutler and Son Rodeo’s Dipsy Doodle – who was in a new role this weekend.
“She was a bareback horse and this was one of the first times she’s bucked in the bronc riding,” Elshere said. He didn’t know what to expect of his ride, but the horse worked. “She kind of came out (of the chute), took a little scoot, was real wild, and then got really nice. She was a good horse.
“Now guys will want to get on her because we’ve seen how good she is.”
Elshere, who entered the week ranked sixth in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world standings, is on a roll, having won titles at the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City, S.D., Guymon, Okla., and Medford, Wisc. It hasn’t changed his strategy for qualifying for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
“I’m just trying to stay real consistent, trying to stay healthy and eat healthy, stay flexible, and focus on the things I did right on the good rides,” Elshere said.
And the sandwich restaurants in North Platte have figured into his healthy eating habits.
“As much as I’m home (in Faith, S.D.), I get to eat a lot of good cooking there,” he said. “This month, we’ll be gone a lot. We eat a lot of Subway.”
On the other side of the coin from Elshere is bareback rider Tom McFarland.
The four-time Wrangler NFR qualifier is off to one of the sloweststarts of his career – outside the Top 50 in the world standings at the start of the week – and he is just hoping that his win in North Platte will give him momentum heading into the summer season.
His 88-point ride on Beutler & Son Rodeo’s Empty Pockets served to fill his pockets with $2,081.
“I’ve had a slow year, but we’re entered up about every day until dang near July 7, so we’ll be getting after it,” McFarland told the North Platte Telegraph. “We enter here every year. Besides the nostalgia of this being an old-time rodeo, it’s Bennie Beutler’s horses, and he brings buckers.
“We’re bareback riders, and we feed off getting scared. Bennie’s got some big, scary (horses), and we love coming to his rodeos.”
The other champions in the $97,209 Buffalo Bill Rodeo were steer wrestler Stockton Graves (8.3 seconds on two head), team ropers Garrett Nokes/Matt Wilkens and Scott White/Jade Nelson (5.4 seconds each), tie-down roper Cody Quaney (20.4 seconds on two head), bull riders Shawn Coleman and Wes Wahlert (79 points each) and barrel racer Randa Kellogg (17.23 seconds).
• For just a moment there, the bareback riding standings had a new leader for the first time since last Oct. 1; or, to put it another way, a new wolf at the head of the pack. Three-time World Champion Will Lowe won or shared titles at the Parker County Frontier Days ProRodeo in Weatherford, Texas, and the Coleman (Texas) PRCA Rodeo, in addition to finishing second to McFarland at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte, Neb., to earn $4,009 and briefly move ahead of his “Wolfpack” traveling partner Wes Stevenson. But Stevenson came back on June 17 to tie for sixth place in Innisfail and that was just enough to retake the lead over Lowe – by $19. The second-closest race entering the summer season is the saddle bronc riding where Wade Sundell has moved within $2,859 of leader (and two-time World Champion) Cody Wright.
• This here is Tierney Country: Brothers Paul David and Jess Tierney – the sons of ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee Paul Tierney – are pretty tough anyplace you can find arena dirt, but especially in their home state of South Dakota. The brothers represented .004 percent of the 456 contestants at the Sturgis Wild West Days and took away 11 percent of the total prize money. Paul David Tierney won the team roping with Cody Doescher (4.9 seconds), the tie-down roping (9.6 seconds) and the all-around titles, while his seven-years-older brother, Jess, won the first round of the steer roping, placed in another round and finished second to two-time World Champion Rocky Patterson in the three-head average.
• PRCA cowboys were pretty much everywhere you looked on the victory stand at the June 13-16 College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo. That would be eight men’s champions and eight PRCA card holders – bareback rider Tanner Aus (Missouri Valley College), steer wrestler Ben Carson (Utah Valley University), team ropers Tyler Schnaufer (University of Wyoming) and Shay Carroll (Northeastern Junior College), saddle bronc rider Tyrel Larsen (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), tie-down roper Chant DeForest (Western Oklahoma State College), bull rider Tag Elliott (Utah Valley University) and all-around cowboy Bryce Palmer (Walla Walla Community College). Two of the three men who tied for the top rookie award at the CNFR with 210 points were PRCA permit holders, Lane Santos-Karney (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo) and Will Woodfin (Weatherford College). They shared the award with Lucas Screws of Frank Phillips College.
• Brazile Watch: All $3,273 of Trevor Brazile’s winnings from the June 14-17 weekend came from his team-roping partnership with Patrick Smith. They won the title at the Parker County Frontier Days Pro Rodeo in Weatherford, Texas, and finished sixth at the Coleman (Texas) PRCA Rodeo. Brazile leads the all-around world standings by more than a two-to-one margin over his nearest competitors with $86,730 as he bids for a record seventh consecutive (and 10th overall) all-around gold buckle. He also leads the steer roping world standings, is sixth among team roping headers and 28th in tie-down roping.
For full results of the weekend’s 21 PRCA rodeos visitwww.prorodeo.com.

McDaniel cleared to resume comeback
Justin McDaniel, the 2008 world champion bareback rider, has been cleared by his doctor to resume his bid for a fifth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualification.
A scary incident on June 9 at the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo looked like it might have derailed his plans when the horse he was on flipped on him while still in the bucking chute.
“She flipped over backwards, and smashed me into that little gap in the top of the sliding gate,” said McDaniel, who has been back in action for a couple months since recovering from posterior labrum surgery performed on his left (free) shoulder by Dr. Tandy Freeman last September. “It mashed that shoulder I had fixed pretty hard. I couldn’t pick my arm up the day after, and it’s pretty bruised up, but it’s feeling better every day. I can lift it now, and Tandy says I have some bicep issues, but I should be able to keep riding.”
McDaniel had just begun to feel like he was riding well again, and is determined to make another run at qualifying for the Wrangler NFR after failing to make it in 2011; the first time he wasn’t in the field since 2007.
Though only 25 years old, McDaniel is a veteran on the ProRodeo trail, and has experience with comebacks. In 2010, he didn’t get his season started until June after recovering from back surgery, but qualified for his fourth consecutive Finals, won his second WNFR average title, and rode all the way to finishing runner-up to World Champion Bobby Mote.
That experience, and a renewed love for the game he discovered when forced to stay home and rehab from his latest surgery, have the cowboy from Porum, Okla., eager to get back to work.
“When I was forced away from it for so long this time, I remembered why I ride bucking horses – because I love it. I came back in the middle of the season in 2010, and had one of my best years. I’m not satisfied with one championship. I’m looking for another gold buckle in the bareback riding.”
(A full story of McDaniel’s ongoing comeback will appear in the June 22 issue of the ProRodeo Sports News).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“His name is Trouble because his full name is Trouble With The Chicks, so we just call him Trouble. The guy we bought him from bred him and named him that; my dad always said it was bad luck to change a horse’s name.”
– Oakdale, Calif., cowboy Ryle Smith, on his new tie-down roping horse’s name; Smith is 10th in the all-around world standings and 24th in tie-down roping.

News and notes from the rodeo trail
A special presentation honoring Wade Leslie’s 100-point bull ride will be a part of this year’s Cowboy Ball, July 13, on the eve of the 2012 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Colorado Springs, Colo. Leslie will be on hand to accept the award and a plaque will be hung in the Hall of Fame, commemorating his record 1991 ride on Growney Brothers’ Wolfman in Central Point, Ore. … The PRCA will be offering free roughstock clinics during the June 25-27 Junior High Finals Rodeo in Gallup, N.M. The lineup of instructors includes four-time World Champion Bareback RiderBobby Mote and 2000 World Champion Bull Rider Cody Hancockalong with NFR qualifier Heith DeMoss. Also instructing will be saddle bronc riders Curtis Garton and Darrell Triplett. The clinics are free to all NHSRA members and will run from 1-4 p.m. as follows: Monday, June 25 – Bull Riding; Tuesday, June 26 – Bareback Riding; Wednesday, June 27 – Saddle Bronc Riding …Laura Lee Barry, the wife of longtime PRCA barrelman and Columbia River Circuit President Rowdy Barry, underwent successful neck surgery on June 14 at St. Charles Hospital in Walla Walla, Wash., to repair fractured vertebrae. Dr. Nick Arredondofused the C5 and C6 vertebrae and stabilized them with a plate. The injury occurred when Barry was bucked off a borrowed horse while herding calves out of the arena at the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo on June 9 and landed on her head and neck. Barry also suffered a herniated disc. She was fitted with a rigid collar at St. Charles Hospital in Bend, Ore., and released on the night of June 10 so she could return home with her husband to Kennewick, Wash. Dr. Arredondo examined her on June 13 and determined that it was urgent to go ahead with the surgery to stabilize her neck and relieve nerve pressure. The horse Barry normally used in her role as a Lady Wrangler had become ill with colic the day before and Barry was using a borrowed horse when her belt buckle caught on the saddle horn. While trying to get unstuck from the bucking animal, her face collided with the horse’s head. The blow left her stunned and contributed to her landing in a bad position. It also left her with two black eyes … Ryan McKenzie, of Jordan Valley, Ore., was stepped on after being bucked off his saddle bronc horse at the Daines Ranch Rodeo in Innisfail, Alberta, suffering fractured ribs, a punctured lung, possible shoulder fracture and possible damage to his spleen … Also on the injured list from Daines Ranch: Jack Daines. The 76-year-old founder, chairman and announcer at the rodeo broke his shoulder in five places when he suffered a fall off the bar fence at the timed-event end of the arena. The on-site doctor wanted to send Daines to the hospital so he could be operated on immediately, but Daines refused and put it off until Monday because he said he had to be at the rodeo … The Tom Eirikson who showed up in the team roping results in Innisfail, is in fact the same Tom Eirikson who won the Linderman Award for excellence at both ends of the arena in 1982, 1985 and 1987. Eirikson, 58, and his son, Wyatt, finished ninth and earned $586 apiece … Bull rider Shawn Hogg, who qualified for the 2010 Wrangler NFR, will return to competition at the June 27-30 West of the Pecos Rodeo in Pecos, Texas, after a five-month hiatus due to injury. A bull stepped on Hogg at the SandHills Stock Show Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, in January, breaking his shoulder blade and causing a small fracture of a vertebra … Vic Sliester, a PRCA Gold Card Member who competed in team roping and tie-down roping before going into business manufacturing bits and spurs, died on June 1 in Van, Texas. He was 94. Sliester founded Frontier Suppliers in 1953 and turned it into a successful enterprise with his bits being used by cowboys nationwide. Some of his work is on display at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo. … PRCA Gold Card Member Vidal Garcia, who rode bulls all over the United States for 20 years (1962-81), died June 13 after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 67. The Gans, Okla., cowboy won titles in San Francisco, Cowtown, N.J., Yuma, Ariz., Sidney, Mont., and Mercedes, Texas … The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo awarded 40 4-H members scholarships and awards totaling $235,000 during the Texas 4-H Roundup in Lubbock on June 11.

Upcoming Events
June 18 Reno (Nev.) Rodeo ongoing
June 20 Rodeo de Santa Fe (N.M.) begins
June 20 Strawberry Days, Pleasant Grove, Utah, begins
June 21 Wainwright (Alberta) Stampede begins
June 21 Big Spring (Texas) Cowboy Reunion & Rodeo begins
June 21 Crystal Springs Ranch Rodeo, Clear Lake, S.D., begins
June 21 Edgewood (Iowa) Days PRCA Rodeo begins
June 21 Alamosa (Colo.) Round-Up begins
June 21 Buffalo (Minn.) Championship PRCA Rodeo begins
June 21 Western Fest Stampede Rodeo, Granite Falls, Minn., begins
June 21 Raton (N.M.) PRCA Rodeo begins
June 21 Crooked River Roundup, Prineville, Ore., begins
June 22 Steamboat Springs (Colo.) ProRodeo Series begins
June 22 Davie (Fla.) ProRodeo begins
June 22 Sundre (Alberta) ProRodeo begins
June 22 Guy Weadick Days, High River, Alberta, begins
June 22 Days of ’56 PRCA Rodeo, Ponca, Neb., begins
June 22 Daniel Dopps Memorial RAM PRCA Rodeo, Mountain Home, Idaho, begins
June 22 Thermopolis (Wyo.) Cowboy Rendezvous Rodeo begins
June 22 Mesquite (Texas) ProRodeo Series begins
June 22 Bear Paw Round-Up, Chinook, Mont., begins
June 23 New England Wild West Fest, Marshfield, Mass., begins
June 23 Cowtown Rodeo, Woodstown-Pilesgrove, N.J.
June 24 Augusta (Mont.) American Legion Rodeo