PRORODEO Sports News - February 21, 2025

COWBOY GRILLE with Kensie Darst-Todd

Kooper Heimburg pairs with Honeycutt Rodeo's Sir Grit for an 81-point ride to win The Kingsmen Andy Devine PRCA Rodeo in June 2023 in Kingman, Ariz . PRCA Photo by Alexis Cady

K ooper Heimburg, 20, is on the right track to have a successful PRORODEO career. Last month, the Marshall, Mo., native won the bareback riding at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. Heimburg earned $6,477 with an 87-point ride atop Cervi Championship Rodeo’s Pearl Harbor in the finals to secure the victory. He kicked off his 2025 season at the PRCA Permit Finals in Waco, Tx., winning the three-head average and pocketing $1,564.

HOW’D YOU GET YOUR START IN RODEO? My family has always rodeoed. My older brother did tie-down and team roping, and my dad used to bulldog, team rope and tie-down rope. Watch ing it made me want to start riding bulls - that's what I started doing. Once I got into junior high, I started doing the bareback and saddle bronc on steers. WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD MAKE A CAREER OUT OF RODEO? I had a lot of help through high school, and I feel like I was making good prog ress and really learning how to ride.

DID YOU DO ANY OTHER RODEO EVENTS GROWING UP? Once I started junior high rodeo in sev enth grade, that's when I started riding bareback riding and saddle bronc. Once I graduated junior high, it just went straight up from there, competing in bareback riding. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO STAY ON YOUR PRCA PER MIT THIS YEAR? I wanted to stay my permit this year because I want to dominate that per mit section and go to all the big rodeos to win as much money as I can on a

But once I came to college, that really switched to making a career out of it. I've been in college for three years now, and in the first six months I was here, I could see a major difference in my riding. WHY DID YOU DECIDE BAREBACK RIDING WOULD BE YOUR EVENT? I always wanted to ride bulls. Back at home, I met people who were used to riding bareback horses. I was able to learn more about how to ride bareback horses than I was about riding bulls. I decided to go that way, and I seem to get hurt more often when I ride bulls instead of bareback horses.

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