ProRodeo Sports News - June 28, 2019

Strong start has heeler aiming at first Wrangler NFR IN HIS WORDS TANNER BRADEN

T his season has been great. This is my first year to get into all the winter rodeos. We (Tierney and I) didn’t set down and have a goal to make the NFR. We were just trying to have a successful year and keep our money together, but we kept winning and had to keep going. Now, we’re at the point where there’s no turning back.

and hit one of the bigger rodeos of the year. My wife (Jade) took our oldest daughter (Lexi, 7) to Universal Studios. I kept the youngest one (Rian, who turns 4 in July) with me to check horses. We went to an Orlando basketball game. We saw alligators and crocodiles. Really, whatever the little ones wanted to do we did. We also have a boy on the way, Brenten

Tanner Braden is in an unfamiliar position. The 30-year-old team roping heeler is inside the Top 15 in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with about three months left in the regular season. Last year, Braden finished 29th in the world with $50,406. Before that, the Dewey, Okla., cowboy had never earned more than $4,000 in a season because of priorities as a stock contractor. But with last year’s success and a big haul of $18,068 at the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo, he and team roping header Paul David Tierney have earned $43,448 apiece to move inside the top 10 in the world with a great chance of making their first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

To be able to rope against all those guys you grew up watching and idolized is a great opportunity. I’m just trying to take it all in. (In 2018), we really started by going to the better winter rodeos that we could get into, because we didn’t get into the bigger rodeos. We kind of nickel-and- dimed them on the way. Our goal was to win the circuit and make it to (the RAMNCFR in) Florida. Then we looked and in our circuit we had $20,000 won. Then we had an opportunity to make Puyallup and entered a few bigger (ProRodeo Tour) rodeos and had success there. After that, we were kind of in the boat that we are now, we had a chance at the end of the season, so we had to put our name down everywhere to see what happened. The RAMNCFR was fun. My family got to go out there and have a little vacation. We placed in the second round and in the average and that allowed us a little profit. We didn’t even win it and won $19,000. That’s unbelievable. We got to spend time with family

Reid. He’s due in November.

The first couple years, and last year got in the way a little bit before the end of the season, I had a job where I was doing some stock contracting stuff. We didn’t get to enter how we wanted to. I had different priorities. Now, we’ve had a little bit of success, so our priorities changed as the year has gone on. My whole crew keeps up with it. My mommight check it every day. My whole family supports us all the way. They’re my biggest fans. I try not to look because the fact is it’s still a long season. Anything can happen. We could go win another $50,000 or $60,000, or – rodeo’s a humbling sport – we could go the rest of the year and not win a dollar. I try not to think about howmuch I need to win or what normally makes it. I’m trying to rope every steer and trying to win as much as they allowme to. At the end of the year if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. We’re trying to enter up and give ourselves a shot at the end.

ProRodeo Sports News 6/28/2019

ProRodeo.com

6