PSN_Dec3 2028

READY TO ROCK ROCKER STEINER ENTERS NFR WITH SIZABLE LEAD By Alex Dodd BAREBACK

F or the sec

ond-straight year, Rocker Steiner

shored up his spot as the season leader in bareback riding atop the PRCA | Bill Fick Ford World Standings at the conclu sion of the PRORODEO regular season. But this year, he set out with another goal – to make history. “I don’t know if the season earnings record was something I looked at too much until last year,” Steiner said. “I was riding in the car with Jacob Lees and he mentioned to me that he thought I could set the season earnings record if I really wanted to. And after that, I was like, you know what? Next year, let’s go win the sea son earnings record.” Steiner finished the season with $303,547 in regular-season earnings to

qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo as the season leader with an $81,646 lead over sec ond-place bareback rider Sam Petersen. The total surpassed Keenan Hayes’ regular-season earnings record of $265,896 set in 2023. “At the start of the year, it seemed kind of far-fetched, but then I won RodeoHouston and I won over $200,000 in July,” Steiner said of besting the record. “So then I wanted to get to $300,000. So every time I nodded my head it was just a dollar more to the season earnings record.” The 21-year-old cowboy from Weatherford, Texas, bolstered his season with a signature win at RodeoHous ton this winter. As the season wore on, he pulled away in the standings with a red-hot summer run that included victories at the Snake River Stampede, Ponoka Stampede and Greeley Stampede. “Whoever wins Houston, there’s always talk that, ‘if you didn’t win you Houston you wouldn’t have made the Finals or gone in No. 1,’” Steiner said. “The whole time I

was thinking that if that happened to me, that’d be some thing people were saying. So I made it known that even if I didn’t win Houston, I’d still be number one.” Even without Steiner’s $71,000 pocketed at Rodeo Houston, he’d still lead the world by $10,646. Last season, Steiner arrived in Las Vegas with a $14,236 lead in the standings. But his advantage dwin dled when he was bucked off in Round 2. This season, he plans to enter his fourth NFR with the same aggressive mindset, but to stay on all 10 head in hopes of winning his first PRCA World Championship. His father, Sid Steiner, won the PRCA Steer Wrestling World Championship in 2002, and his grandfather, Bobby Steiner, won the 1973 RCA Bull Riding World Championship. “It’s great (to have a lead) but you’re never safe,” Stein er said. “These guys are so good and there’s so much money in Vegas that you’re never safe. The game plan is the same every year, just this time we’re going to stay on all ten of them.”

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