ProRodeo Sports News | 2020 Year-End Edition | Dec.18, 2020

PRCA ROOKIES OF THE YEAR

Newcomers make good

The PRCA | Resistol Rookies of the Year were honored at a banquet at Billy Bob's of Texas in Fort Worth, Dec. 8. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Clay Guardipee

TOP 2020 ROOKIES BY EVENT ALL-AROUND Britt Smith $21,778 BAREBACK RIDING Cole Reiner $154,325 STEER WRESTLING Gabe Soileau $18,140 TEAM ROPING HEADING Tanner Tomlinson $22,534 TEAM ROPING HEELING Clay Futrell $34,502 SADDLE BRONC RIDING Riggin Smith $27,164 TIE-DOWN ROPING Luke Potter $34,301 STEER ROPING Dalton Walker $13,841 BULL RIDING Colten Fritzlan $241,447

Riggin Smith wins saddle bronc riding rookie title

BY MATT NABER M issing the final month of the regular season due to injury didn’t stop Riggin Smith from winning the 2020 PRCA | Resistol Rookie of the Year for saddle bronc riding. The Winterset, Iowa, cowboy tore his PCL, MCL and the meniscus in his right leg on Aug. 22. But Smith was gearing up to compete in the 2021 season, showing the level of grit to be expected from a cowboy from the same town as JohnWayne. “That was my goal for the year and it backs up all the hard work you put into something,” Smith said. “You only get one shot at it and it’s whoever really wants it. I think I got lucky enough and drew really good, so that helped me out.” At the time of his injury, Smith led the PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings by about $10,000 and his lead shrank to $4,591 by the end of the season when he won the rookie title with $27,164. “I’m just happy to be part of the rookie class that I was in, there are a lot of guys who ride really good,” said Smith, 22. “Recovery has been slow, but I’m walking around good now and doing a lot of physical therapy, and so I should be back in November (2020).” Smith gave his rookie season a jump-start by winning the RAMGreat Lakes Circuit Finals Rodeo and earning $9,894 on Nov. 16, 2019. Of all his rookie- season achievements, Smith is most proud of winning the Sikeston (Mo.) Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo with an 88.5-point ride onThe Cervi Brothers’ Womanizer, the 2019 Saddle Bronc Riding Horse of the Year. “She’s one of the buckingest horses in the world, and

I’ve been on colts that buck really hard, but not with a horse with that big of a name,” Smith said. “They are 90 or in the high 80s every time they get on her and it proved to myself that I can handle that caliber of horse, and that’s just really big for me.” Of course, no rookie season is complete without some learning experiences. “Don’t take a bad experience to heart, like not riding very good. I don’t like losing at all, I’m very competitive and if I’m losing that bothers me bad ,” Smith said. “Lefty Holman andWyatt Casper taught me to let it go since there’s another one tomorrow and to be more forgiving to myself.” Unfortunately, opportunities to compete were stunted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Smith has an optimistic attitude. “When it all goes back to normal, we are all going to be so happy that it’s not 2020 and that it’s not the frickin’ corona stuff,” Smith said. “In the long run it’ll make you enjoy the regular side of rodeo and it’ll make everyone happier when it goes back to normal.” It took Smith about a month to find his groove after the COVID-19 hiatus last spring. He nailed his first big win at the Black Hills Roundup in Belle Fourche, S.D., to earn $5,725 during the Fourth of July. “It didn’t matter if it was the worst horse in the pen, you were just smiling from ear to ear to get on something, and that makes it fun,” Smith said. “That’s what makes it easy being with Wyatt and Lefty since they’re so fun and they’re so positive, you can’t help but be positive.”

ProRodeo Sports News 12/18/2020

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