ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 4, 2022

BY TANNER BARTH T here aren’t many sports out there like rodeo. It puts the athlete to the ultimate test nearly 365 days a year. Those who can withstand the grind are often among ProRodeo’s best at the end of the season. In 2021, Josh Frost was the epitome of a rodeo road warrior and it paid off for the Randlett, Utah, bull rider when it was all said and done. He claimed the Linderman Award and finished second in the PRCA | RAM World Standings, only trailing seven-time world champion Sage Kimzey. It wasn’t an easy ride for Frost to say the least. Last season alone he traveled over 85,000 miles to 125 rodeos in 100 different cities. He said the heartbreak of missing the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in 2020 played a major factor in him going all in this past season. “This whole story really starts at the beginning when I came up short of making the 2020 NFR,” said Frost, a two-time NFR qualifier (2019, 2021). “A lot of guys want to take a break when the season is over, but not making the Finals just really lit a fire under me. “I kept it rolling right into October. I went to every PRCA rodeo they had ROAD Warrior COWBOYS ON THE ROAD

along with any amateur opens out there. If there was a place where I could compete riding bulls I was there and I was entered.” He said while it was important for him to enter as many rodeos as possible it was also about being mentality and physically prepared for each and every ride along the way. “We have a grueling season, and we can go to as many rodeos as we want,” Frost said. “That was one of the things I’ve taken away from it was I can be sitting at home, or I can be out there trying to win a gold buckle. “That’s probably how I ended up going to

Josh Frost’s winding road to the NFR

more rodeos than about anybody in the bull riding. The main goal wasn’t just to go to as many as possible but that was part of the goal. The other one was to show up mentality prepared and ride at all of them too.” Fellow PRCA bull rider Tim Bingham has traveled alongside Frost from time to time over the last several years. He said you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who cares about the sport of rodeo as much as Frost does. “He’s all about rodeo,” said Bingham, a three-time NFR qualifier. “I think that’s one thing that helps him do so good and keeps him going down the road. He doesn’t talk about a whole lot of things outside of rodeo.” Frost said that mentality led him all over the country last season, he traveled to two countries and 25 different states during that stretch. He said it took planning months in advance for everything to come together. “I would like to think I’m a really intricate planner,” Frost said. “I plan super ahead of time with flights and everything that goes along with travel. At the end of the day bull riding is still a job and so if you’re not making do then why are you doing it. “It takes a lot of planning early to make it work, if you wait until the day before a lot of times it’s just not possible to get there. So, I think that planning was huge for me especially last season.”

Photo courtesy Josh Frost

Josh and his wife Erika Frost hit the road during the 2021 ProRodeo season.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/4/2022

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