Spring’s Ric
From the new leaves of trees budding as spring begins to the
populaon parading in Kelly reen to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day,
green canvases the naon when Spring rolls around each year. This
is true in the rodeo world too, only they see green in a dierent
form – in gures of high payouts. Spring holds some of the highest
paying rodeos of the season giving contestants a chance to get
a promising head start in the World Standings and a nice push
towards making a run at being a World Champion at the Naonal
Finals Rodeo in December.
The American
With over a two-million-dollar payout, Arlington, Texas holds true to
the Texan mantra of “everything is bigger in Texas.” The American is
called the World’s Richest One-Day Rodeo for a reason and winning is
almost a surere way to secure a spot at the Naonal Finals Rodeo.
The American illustrates the classic Top Dog vs. Underdog compeon
where the top PRCA cowboys aend to compete by invitaon and the
others have to ght their way to compete by going through a series of
ualifying events in order to ght for a spot to bale the “top dogs”
of rodeo. Below are the contestants that struck gold at The Richest
Weekend in Western Sports.
Professional Bareback Rider Orin Larsen (see exclusive interview on
page 22) broke an arena record on Picke Pro Rodeo’s Top Notch
performing a 91-point ride in the shootout round. Aer undergoing
knee surgery in November, Larsen has been advancing in his recovery
as well as progressing in the World Standings and the 50,000-dollar
payout towards his earnings at The American gave him a generous boost.
High school scholar Madison Outhier broke ground in Breakaway
Roping in the event’s debut at The American. In about the same
amount of me it took to open this magazine, Madison had already
72 Rodeo LIFE