While most eyes watched the Cinch Playoffs in Puyallup over the weekend, Tucker Braa loaded up from his home in Ellensburg, Washington to head east, bound for Spokane and Cashmere, a little town further North.
Hunter Herrin, Marcos Costa, Quade Hiatt and others might be fighting the NFR bubble, but circuit guys like Braa are chasing down their own rodeo goals as the 2024 ProRodeo regular season grinds to its September 30 finish.
“I drew good at Spokane and did what I was supposed to do,” Braa, 27, said. “Then I caught a little check at the rodeo in Cashmere, so that helped too.”
Braa is hoping to make his second trip to the Columbia River Circuit Finals Rodeo (CRCFR) this season, and the $1,282 he won for a third in Spokane and fourth in Cashmere bumped his year-end total to nearly $12,000.
Braa sits No. 11 in the circuit standings with just two rodeos left in the regular season—the world-famous Pendleton Round-Up and the Othello PRCA Rodeo, both the week of September 10. His lead over No. 12 Luke Potter is hovering at $300 with all-around cowboy Paden Bray another $2,000 behind him with plenty of money to be won this week.
Growing up on reined cow horses
Braa grew up immersed in horses, but not necessarily rodeo and roping. His father, Roger, trains reined cow horses at the family’s Silver Wings Ranch Performance Horses but didn’t rope as Braa was growing up.
“We grew up training reined cow horses and I start colts for a living,” Braa noted. “My dad didn’t rope, at least he hadn’t since before I came around, but other family members did. Dad had a kid that rode for him who roped. And Kass Kayser, who I still travel with some, was around so I got into it with those guys.”
Despite the atypical rodeo background, Braa competed through the junior rodeo ranks and qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo, eventually earning a spot on the Central Arizona College (CAC) Rodeo Team in Casa Grande.
Always busy training horses, Braa also does some day work on local ranches, work he says he loves and helps in the training process of his colts. Since college, roping hasn’t been a central part of his routine until recently.
Picking up the calf rope
“I didn’t really take it too seriously or think about rodeoing after school until 2020 when I got a really good horse, and then there was nothing to go to,” he joked.
Following the COVID-decimated 2020 season, Braa qualified for his first circuit finals in 2021 but saw disaster strike when he lost his good horse during Pendleton in 2022. He just missed the cut for the Circuit Finals that season.
“I had a green horse last year, so I just went to the smaller rodeos and got her seasoned,” Braa explained. “This year, she’s been really good.”
The Columbia River has its own share of tough ropers but also sees an influx of NFR level cowboys once their season gets busy in the late summer due to the number of big money rodeos from Hermiston to Braa’s hometown rodeo in Ellensburg, to Pendleton itself.
“Our circuit gets really tough in August with so many of those guys up here,” Braa noted. “But I drew some good calves at some of the bigger rodeos and used them, so that gave me a good chance.”
In fact, Braa No. 3 at Mollalla, OR, and took good money home from NFR Playoff Series rodeos in Moses Lake, WA, and Hermiston OR, as well. He also won the Cle Elum, WA, rodeo in July.
“It’s definitely been one of the better years for me,” Braa said, giving a lot of credit to Cricket, the 11-year old mare he’s been roping on the last couple of seasons.
“We actually raised her, and dad sold her when she was born,” Braa said.
The elder Braa showed the mare for her new owners for a couple of years, and then Braa’s sister, Tess, bought her back.
“She showed her until she was eight and then she was just sitting out there in the pasture,” Braa said. “So I told Tess, ‘I’m going to take her.’”
After a little wrangling, the siblings managed to work out a horse trade to put Cricket in Braa’s trailer.
“She’s super broke,” Braa said. “Luckily, she’s taken to it because making calf roping horses is tough. I’ve been blessed with how good minded she is, and I’ve worked to keep it that way, not running too many and knowing when to quit with her.”
Now, Cricket and Braa stand poised to make their first runs together in Redmond, Oregon when the CRCFR kicks off Oct. 17-19.
“There are a couple of guys who can still catch me [in the standings],” Braa said, the sounds of Pendleton slack filling the background. “But I feel pretty good. I figure I’ve got two more calves to run this year so we’ll see what we can get done.”
Eagle-eye view on circuit activity
The Badlands Circuit will wrap up their regular season on Sept. 11 with Bodie Mattson leading the way by just over $1,500 over five-time champion Trey Young. Mattson is the not only the reigning Badlands Circuit champion, he’s also the reigning National Champ after taking the victory at the NFR Open back in July.
Both the Prairie and Columbia River Circuits will end things following the Sept. 14-15 weekend, but things likely won’t change much atop the Prairie Circuit standings. Permit holder Cash Fuesz (pronounced “fees”) used a win at the Prairie Circuit Finals a year ago as a slingshot into the 2024 season. He leads the year end standings this time around, putting over $6,000 between himself and World Champion Ryan Jarrett and Paul David Tierney.
Meanwhile, Ty Harris has opened up a lead of nearly $6,000 in the Columbia River Circuit over his brother Joel, who is the reigning champion.
Much like the Columbia River Circuit, the Wilderness Circuit attracts a lot of non-residents to its ranks. In fact, the top seven in the current standings all live outside of Utah, Nevada and Southern Idaho. Reigning Texas Circuit champ Cole Clemons leads the way over reigning World Champion, and hauling partner, Riley Webb. Both have won more than $40,000 in the circuit alone.
Back in Texas, Sterling Smith is clinging to the circuit lead by just $1,400 over NFR-bound John Douch, who won the Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo a year ago. World standings leader Shad Mayfield is No. 3, lurking just $2,000 behind Smith with two weekends to go in the regular season in Texas.
Another dogfight is shaping up in the Southeastern Circuit which hasn’t seen a back-to-back year end winner in a decade. Ike Fontenot holds a slim lead over Andrew Burks, the 2020 circuit champion, with 2023 circuit finals winner Booker McCutcheon close as well.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Riley Pruitt in the Mountain States and Cody Huber in the Great Lakes are dominating their respective standings by about $16,000 and $13,000 as both seek to add to already impressive circuit finals championship totals.
Other circuit leaders include Colton Farquer (California), Cash Hooper (Turquoise), Trent Turner (First Frontier), Logan Bird (Maple Leaf), and Haven Meged (Montana).
Dechra proudly supports calf roping circuit coverage from coast to coast. Stay tuned for more Circuit Finals action as the 2024 season comes to a close.
