ProRodeo Sports News - August 10, 2018

BY MATT NABER B areback rider Orin Larsen earned his first major win of the 2018 season at his hometown rodeo, the Strathmore (Alberta) Stampede. Larsen takes title in return to Strathmore HometownWin

booster, because he was feeling like he couldn’t draw anything good and hadn’t made the short round at Cheyenne (Frontier Days),” Alexa Larsen said. “I think it really helped him.” This wasn’t Larsen’s first rodeo with Trail

Dust. “I got on him three or four years ago, and he made me look kind of stupid and had his way with me, so I was happy to get on him (in Strathmore),” Larsen said. “It was pretty sweet. When my traveling partner (Seth Hardwick) and I got our callbacks for Strathmore, we knew we were going to do really good. We were excited when driving to Strathmore.” Alexa was confident in Orin’s odds after the draw was announced. “He’s known for riding eliminators, that’s what people tell me anyway. I think he’s super tough, but I’m also his wife,” Alexa laughed. “I think he just needs to keep drawing good because he rides awesome and then stay healthy. Then it’s pretty achievable.” Orin saw how much Trail Dust has progressed in the last few years when he saw him buck at the Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede earlier this summer. “He is getting better and better,” Larsen said. “I think with age, like anyone else, they get around the game long enough they’ll learn more tricks and learn how to better themselves.” Winning Strathmore is double dipping into rodeo success, as it helped Larsen in his goal of competing at the Wrangler NFR and the Canadian Finals Rodeo. “I think I’ll be pretty well safe as far as the Canadian standings go, and that in itself is a sigh of relief to have that made,” Larsen said. “Now, I can focus on making the NFR. I want to go there at the top of my game and win the gold buckle and the Canadian title.” Before winning $5,866 in Strathmore, Larsen was 13th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $65,319. Now, he’s up to 11th with $73,068. “I think he has a good shot at winning the Canadian finals, especially after Strathmore,” Alexa Larsen said. “It’ll be cool because his brothers will be there too, which is always super fun for him. And with the PRCA he has had some good years. Now he has a shot at winning that, too.”

“Winning Strathmore, I think, is more special than maybe your average guy winning it for the sheer fact I was born there,” Larsen said, adding that he spent his early childhood in Strathmore before moving, but still has family and friends in the area. Larsen, 27, remembers attending the Strathmore Stampede as a kid. “It’s a special place in my eye,” Larsen said. “I thought it was a cool rodeo. When I went to college and started rodeoing harder, Strathmore was in the back of my mind, and I wanted to do good there.” Larsen’s dad, Kevin, used to ride bulls in the 1970s and ’80s. Orin started out on calves and steers. He didn’t switch gears to bareback riding until he was about 15 years old, when he went to one of Kelly Wardell’s bronc riding schools. “He (Wardell) taught me everything I know as far as bareback goes,” Larsen said. “I haven’t looked back since.” Larsen joined the PRCA in 2011 and quickly climbed the ranks while competing in college rodeo. He was just outside the Top 15 by 2014, the same year he won his second consecutive College National Finals Rodeo bareback riding championship. He made his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualification in 2015 and has competed there every year since. “It’s not a self-made thing, that’s for dang sure,” Larsen said. “Kelly Wardell’s played a huge part in my career, my parents taking me to amateur rodeos when we were kids and getting our start there, and it’s been friends and family north and south of the (Canadian) border. My wife (Alexa) has seen me at my highest and lowest parts, and as far as the mental side of rodeo goes, she knows me better than me.” The couple doesn’t travel together all the time, so they keep in touch with Facetime. Alexa Larsen joins the rig in the winter. “He’s accomplished a lot,” Alexa said.

BACKTO HIS ROOTS

Larsen won Strathmore by a quarter-point with an 89.5-point ride on Calgary Stampede’s Trail Dust, the 11-year-old, gelding grandson of Calgary Stampede’s Grated Coconut through Majestic Rocket. (Grated Coconut was the 2008 Bareback Horse of the Wrangler NFR and six- time Bareback Horse of the Year – 2003-04, 2006-09). “I just drew the right horse at the right time,” Larsen said. “I was trying to change some things with my rigging and stuff. My old traveling partner Cody DeMers has been helping me with the technical side of it and that’s helped. It wasn’t a self-run kind of deal. My wife was telling me to go back to basics and knowing what you did before. It’s easier said than done, but she has helped me quite a bit.” A hometown win provided more than just a boost in the standings. “It’s pretty awesome and a confidence-

VIDEO

TIE-DOWN ROPING 1. Tyson Durfey .......................... 7.4 sec. 2. (tie) Morgan Grant .......................... 7.8 Tuf Cooper ...................................... 7.8 Alwin Bouchard .............................. 7.8

BARREL RACING 1. Carman Pozzobon ............ 17.199 sec. 2. Taylor Manning ......................... 17.244 3. Stevi Hillman ............................ 17.263 4. Sydney Daines .......................... 17.383

BULL RIDING 1. Sage Kimzey ............................. 89 pts. 2. Jordan Hansen ........................... 87.75 3. Ty Wallace .................................... 87.5 4. Two tied at ....................................... 86

Complete results on Page 76

ProRodeo Sports News 8/10/2018

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