PRORODEO Sports News - March 27, 2026 Digital Edition

2025 RESISTOL ROOKIE BULL RIDER OF THE YEAR BRYCE JENSEN “In 2005 my grandma (Linda Vick was WPRA Reserve Barrel Racing World Champion) at the NFR. That was the year I was born so I don’t remember it but there are pictures of me on stage with my grandma after she won a round. That was a cool memory over 20 years ago. “I plan to be here another 10 years for the 100th anniversary of the PRCA.”

REMEMBERING LEGENDARY BAREBACK HORSE SIPPIN’ VELVET In early January of 1996, Sippin’ Velvet, one of the PRCA’s most celebrated bareback horses passed away on stock con tractor Bernis Johnson’s ranch in Cleburne, Texas. He was 27. Top Bareback Horse. In 1978, Sippin’ Velvet dominated the bareback riding, in 38 outs during the regular season only world champion Paul Mayo made the whistle on Sippin’ Velvet.

During his 22-year career, Sippin’ Velvet won five PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year awards (1978, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987), another five National Finals Rodeo Top Stock - in bareback - and was named the Bareback Horse of the Year six times. Sippin’ Velvet bucked at the NFR 18 years in a row from

Fellow world champion Bruce Ford won Round 3 of the 1978 NFR aboard Sippin’ Velvet with a 76-point ride. Sippin Velvet was retired during Round 9 of the 1994 NFR. “He had a lot of heart; it was bred in him,” Johnson said. “He never had any duck in him - he just bucked.”

1977-1994. He still owns the record for most Top Bucking Stock of the NFR Awards with five - 1978-79, 1982, 1986 and 1989. Sippin’ Velvet was a descendent of the great racehorse Man ‘O War but was bred to buck. Johnson purchased the horse when he bought Hoss Inman’s Flying I Rodeo Co., in the late 1970s. The bald-faced sorrel stood 15.2 hands and weighed 1,075 pounds. In his second NFR appearance in 1978, Sippin’ Velvet became the first bareback horse to win, in the same year, PRORODEO’s two major stock awards - PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year and NFR’s

Legendary NFR bucking horse Sippin’ Velvet. Photo by Dave Jenning

36 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS DIGITAL MAGAZINE MARCH 27, 2026