O'Connell, Wright repeat as CFD champs
Aug. 1—CHEYENNE — Brady Portenier was looking at the Cheyenne Frontier Days belt buckles Saturday at the Old West Museum in Frontier Park.
"I've been here for five or six years and never had the privilege to go in there," Portenier said. "So, I went and took a tour and got to see where my name should go."
Now, that's where his name will go.
Portenier rode Stace Smith Pro Rodeo's Let's Gamble for a 92.5 during Sunday's finals of the 126th anniversary of the "Daddy of 'em All". It was the top ride of the day and tied the top score of all rides from the week.
It never seemed like the Caldwell, Idaho, cowboy was sitting properly on the bull. Regardless, he made it work.
"A good bull's gonna have a lot of kick; that's bull riding," Portenier said. "I matched him move for move. I don't think I had a good solid seat on him anytime in that ride, but I just kept humpin' and pumpin'."
Portenier watched Garrett Smith and Josh Frost score 90s before his ride. He knew the competition he was up against, and wasn't shocked by what the judges were awarding.
"Any of the guys that can show up in this arena on this day can go 90. To see two of my buddies do it beforehand, it didn't surprise me one bit, those guys are bull riding son-of-a-guns," he said. "And I just felt lucky to stack on a couple more points."
Trey Kimzey was the final ride of the day and had two re-rides in an effort to top Portenier's score. Portenier didn't deny he was getting a little anxious.
"(Kimzey's) liable to ride any of them anytime and be a 95," Portenier said. "Glad it's over, and here we are."
Bareback
Tim O'Connell was already one of, if not the top, bareback bronc riders in the world. On Sunday, O'Connell established himself among elite CFD company.
O'Connell scored an 88.5 on Sankey Pro Rodeo's Sozo to claim his second consecutive Frontier Days title and third title overall. The three championships match Jim Shoulders, Joe Alexander and Will Lowe. Lowe scored an 85 to tie for seventh Sunday.
O'Connell, who hails from Zwingle, Iowa, had a quick dismount following his ride and gave a "safe signal," which he said was intended for his wife watching on TV to let her know he was OK after he hit the ground.
"I usually like to get off on pickup men, but I knew in this gunslinger format that I had to go, I had to be direct and I had to showcase my talents," said O'Connell, whose first CFD win came in 2017. "I knew she was going to give me an opportunity right there in front of those bucking chutes, and I was letting it all hang out. ... It's a good thing the whistle's not 8.1 (seconds)."
O'Connell matched up with Sozo during last year's quarterfinal round at Frontier Park. There was a noticeable difference in her size and her demeanor from last year, he said.
"Last year, I kinda had to sneak out on her. She was a little sour being in there, just like females get sometimes. The more she gets bucked, the more she doesn't want to be in the box, and she'll kinda not give you a good shot and you have to take her a little funky," he said. "(Sunday) she stayed so good ... that's everything you want in a bucking horse.
"There's a lot of cowboys that have made a lot of money on that great animal."
O'Connell added to his $2 million mark and sits at No. 3 in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's world standings. He's nothing less than grateful to be living out his dream, he said.
"To be a $2 million cowboy, that's not a thing that a lot of people get to do in their life," he said. "A lot of people dream of this life, and they don't get to live it. I got to dream it, and I am living it, and I'm loving every minute of it, so to be able to provide a life for my family living the American dream is amazing."
Saddle bronc
Stetson Wright had been riding with an injured left wrist since 2019.
On June 29 in Greeley, Colorado, he aggravated it more and finally had to have surgery the following day. He took just 10 days off, came back, and was bucked off the next seven broncs, he said. Pretty unusual for the PRCA world all-around leader.
It didn't take long for him to get back to winning rodeos, though. Wearing No. 8 as a back number and strutting out of Chute 8 on Sankey Pro Rodeo's Pendleton Roundup's Marquee, Wright scored an 88 to claim back-to-back CFD crowns.
"Everything's going pretty dang good. I feel like I'm back to my old self," said Wright, who was also the all-around CFD champ in 2021. "Everything that's good takes time. Once I stayed on one horse, I completely forgot that I fell off any. ... It only takes one ride to get in a slump, and only takes one to get you out."
Wright was stuck in the chute for a while before his ride. He said his right leg was caught between the horse and the chute, and he didn't want to "give the nod" at just any moment when he knew he had a bronc he could win on.
"She's kind of hard to get out on, she likes to lean. But I knew how strong she was, so I made sure I got a good mark out on her and that set up the whole ride, and I felt like I was in timing with her because of it, and that's just a spectacular horse," he said. "I was pretty dang lucky to have her."
The Milford, Utah, product rode Pendleton Roundup's Marquee two years ago in Idaho, where he scored an 89.5.
"It was a dogfight then, just like it was (Sunday)," he said. "I knew I could win, but I knew she could buck me off."
Wright is the No. 3-ranked saddle bronc rider and the No. 1 bull rider in the PRCA standings. He has north of $290,000 in winnings on the season. Winning rodeos is — literally — an everyday occurrence. But competing for another CFD buckle had him a little more nervous than usual.
"I was actually more nervous today than I've been in a long time getting on that horse," he said. "You know what's at stake, and you just want to win this rodeo so bad."
Steer wrestling
Justin Shaffer broke the barrier during Championship Sunday last year at Frontier Park Arena.
On Sunday, he found the fine line between being aggressive and cautious.
The Hallsville, Texas, bulldogger clocked in at 5.4 seconds, tying with Trell Etbauer for the top time and a share of the CFD championship.
"That was a really aggressive start after Trell set the pace," Shaffer said. "You're never trying to win second, so I pushed it again, and it worked out in my favor."
Etbauer was the second run of the day, while Shaffer was the final run. During Shaffer's semifinal round, he was the first one out and rolled out of Chute 9 with a more conservative approach. That thought of being all-out conservative left his mind not long after Etbauer's run.
"I decided halfway through (the round) to throw that thought away and max the barrier out and make the best out of it," he said. "No safetying up there."
Shaffer had been a hazer in the past on the steer he drew. He said that opportunity can give a cowboy an advantage when they get the chance to be on the opposite side.
"You get to see it firsthand — front row seat, really," he said. "You get to see any tricks it might have or any head things it might have going on. It makes it more like a practice run in a sense of you get to see that steer go a couple times."
Like Shaffer, Etbauer's start was key in his 5.4-second run.
"The main thing was my start," the Goodwell, Oklahoma, cowboy said. "That steer was good on the ground, ran a little bit more, and I knew in order for me to have a chance to win, I'd need to catch him quicker than anybody else, and so I tried to max the start out."
Once he was clear on the barrier, he knew that the steer was going to give him a chance to compete for what he was there to accomplish.
"On the ground, I knew I could kind of really put quite a bit on that steer, and he would take it," said Etbauer, who won the CFD all-around title in 2014. "And just, luckily, everything worked out."
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmunoz307.
