ProRodeo Sports News - October 2, 2020

Making it Count

BY MATT NABER T exas tie-down roper Westyn Hughes wasn’t about to let an in New Jersey, not exactly a hot spot for rodeo. “You definitely get some weird looks with a piggin’ string around your chest and hat on in the Philadelphia airport,” said Hughes, 23. “I knew I wasn’t making money, but this season was an investment on making it to the Finals. I’d fly to the Northeast for an extra $600. It was a lot of work for not a lot of money, but it paid off and I’m dang-sure glad I did it.” Hughes won money in New Jersey twice this season for a $949 boost in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings. In December, he’ll make his debut at the Wrangler NFR. Hughes is the perfect example of ProRodeo cowboys who did what they could to get to as many rodeos as possible in hopes of reaching the Finals. COVID-19 roadblocks meant taking detours through new places. Rookie bull rider Ky Hamilton made it to his first NFR qualification by entering more rodeos than the other bull riders within the Top 15, and his perseverance paid off – he’s No. 2 in the world standings and leads the PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings. “If you’re not entered, then you’re unemployed and, shoot, I haven’t got anything else to do so I might as well be rodeoing,” Hamilton laughed. Although the Australian cowboy didn’t get to compete everywhere he’d hoped to this season, Hamilton doesn’t feel shortchanged by the hands of fate on having the full ProRodeo experience his rookie year. “I’m very grateful for the amount of events I was able to do,” said Hamilton, 20. “I love riding bulls, and when you can make a living at it, I don’t see why you wouldn’t go to as many as you can.” The 2020 season had about half as many opportunities as normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it didn’t take as much money to qualify for the NFR this year as it has in the past. “We all sat out for a month or two during the coronavirus and had the same opportunities, so it was who wanted to go the most and who could stay on the most,” Hamilton said. MAPPING IT OUT Hamilton didn’t go home for about four or five weeks in the middle of the summer run. “I was gone nearly every day,” Hamilton said. “I just planned it out as best I could to get to them all. It was kind of hectic, but not as hectic as a regular year.” Saddle bronc rider Jacobs Crawley will be making his 10th consecutive appearance at the Wrangler NFR and had a completely different experience. “Without a doubt I went to fewer rodeos this year,” Crawley said, estimating he rode about half as many broncs as he would during a normal season. But Crawley’s approach worked because he got to so many more rodeos compared to his competitors. He’ll enter the Wrangler NFR among the top 10. “Some rodeos you’d enter and they’d cancel, so how I went about it was if there was a rodeo we’d enter and maybe it would happen and maybe it NFR qualifiers seize every opportunity to compete opportunity to qualify for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo slip through his grasp. So on multiple occasions Hughes boarded airplanes to compete

wouldn’t,” said Crawley, 32. “It was far less traveling than any other year. I was home a lot more often. Usually guys are on the road for the whole month of July, but I was home almost every week except the Fourth of July.” Crawley went to a few new rodeos and some he hadn’t competed at in recent years such as Pretty Prairie, Kan., Peterson, Iowa, and Gunnison, Colo. “It’s more hectic on a regular year,” Crawley said. “Usually schedules are tough when you go up north, but when you eliminate the Northwest and Canada run, the drives weren’t like it could have been. Our longest drive was nine hours, which is unheard of for us.” Hughes got a taste for the Northeast during the 2019 season when he competed in Gerry, N.Y. “There’s really good cattle, some really good ropers and nice horses,” Hughes said. “In rodeo, it’s cool to travel, and if it’s somewhere I haven’t been to and a rodeo is there I’ll try to make it make sense to get myself there because I love traveling. I look at it like a big vacation.” The craziest sequence of rodeos this season for Hughes was when he went to Dodge City, Kan., a couple of rodeos in Colorado, then flew to New Jersey and back to Colorado. Fortunately, Hughes’ girlfriend (Conner Mordahl) lives near Denver International Airport. “She’s a big part of what helped me this season,” Hughes said. While traveling a lot is normal for Hughes, competing at so many one- header rodeos was a change. “The competitors showed up with the same intensity at rodeos that paid $1,200 as they would for $12,000,” Hughes said. “The money dropped, but the try, willingness and work ethic didn’t.”

Photo courtesy Westyn Hughes Tie-down roper Westyn Hughes, center, commemorated his trip to compete in New Jersey earlier this season with Justin Smith, left, and Preston Pederson.

ProRodeo Sports News 10/2/2020

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