by Dianne Finstad
Canadian bull riding champion Scott Schiffner knew this year’s Canadian Finals Rodeo couldn’t top last year’s event, when he won both the buckle and the Cowboy of the Year award. But Thursday night he made a good start on making it a close second, when he won the second go-round with an 85.25 point ride.
It came on the Big Stone bull named Kish This.
“It’s the second time I’ve been on that bull,” said the Stettler-raised cowboy, who now lives in Strathmore. “I was the first guy to get on that bull when Bruce Sunstrum brought him up from California to here. He bucked me off right at the whistle about three years ago. I kind of underestimated him because he’s just a tiny, little bull and you don’t think he should be much. I wasn’t going to underestimate him tonight, and it worked out well.”
That’s ‘well’ to the tune of $11,467, which moved Schiffner up to the leading spot in Canada for the bull riding. But that doesn’t matter much to him at this stage.
“I’m not even going to look at it. I didn’t last year, because I fell off my first two bulls. You know, it’s tight for everybody in there. I’ll just keep drawing, hopefully, the right ones, and staying on.”
Perhaps the real motivation for Schiffner this week is a new lady in his life he wants to impress.
“We got our third daughter here, so that’s pretty exciting. We’ve got a baby girl who’s not quite three weeks old. Oakland’s her name, and she has impeccable timing, and so far, she’s been pretty good luck,” he grinned.
It was a much different night overall in Edmonton in the bull riding, with all but three of the riders making the whistle, and more than 80 points. That compared to just three qualified rides in the opening round.
Team ropers Kolton Schmidt of Barrhead and Lacombe’s Tyrel Flewelling took over top spot in their event’s standings, by winning the second straight night, adding another $5660 to their bank accounts. This time they shaved another few tenths off their time, wrapping up their job in 4.4 seconds.
“That steer, we knew he was sharp. But that’s just our style. The sharper the better for us. We’re not very good on the slow ones,” said Flewelling.
“We’re here to win money,” added his header, Schmidt. “We can’t be safe. We’ve got to try and shoot for first every night.”
Fast is great, but caught is better, and while this duo loves speed, the two also understand the importance of being effective, and posting clean runs in a place where the average can make all the difference.
“That’s our game plan. We’ve just got to stop the time, six times in a row and see what happens at the end. We can’t get ahead of ourselves or behind ourselves. We’re just going to keep going,” said Schmidt, who’s only 19, and is missing college classes to compete in Edmonton.
Back to back victories seemed to also be a theme in the novice events, where Big Valley’s Zeke Thurston, another college cowboy, took the bronc riding with a big 80 score.
“I like it here,” grinned Thurston.
“You just have to come, and stick to the basics, just lift, spur and let it all hang out. You can’t do much after that.”
“I knew that horse pretty good. I’d seen him before. He’s all you can ask for, a good hopper. He just takes a lot of rein, and goes straight down the pen, and lets you show off your stuff.”
Thurston is also having success on the college rodeo scene, currently the number one bronc rider in the U.S. college standings right now. He’s already put $2400 towards his college fund from Edmonton, and leads the Canadian race, as does Kody Lamb of Sherwood Park who has a matching record in the novice bareback riding. Kagen Schmidt of Barrhead took the steer riding Thursday night with a 78.5, but is still second behind overall leader Dawson Hay.
Tara Muldoon of Hinton won the barrel racing on her young horse Revy, with a time of 14.710. It’s the horse’s first season of rodeo, and Muldoon was thrilled to capture the go-round buckle and the $11,467 cheque.
The overall leader remains Lisa Lockhart, although she didn’t place in the money Thursday.
New Mexico’s Taos Muncy got the big dollars in the saddle bronc riding for an 83.75 point ride on Calgary Stampede’s Roll Over. Nebraska’s Cort Scheer finished second for the night, and he’s still in front in the title race.
The tie-down roping honors went Texas way, with Timber Moore sticking a 7.7 second run on his calf, for the $11,467 payoff, increasing his lead overall for the event. The lead in the bareback riding changed hands again, when Matt Lait of Cayley made an impressive 87 point ride on Kesler’s Western Star, to take first on the night and for Canada, pushing his CFR earnings to $14,114. Lait sits at $37,277, while Ponoka’s Jake Vold is less than a thousand dollars behind him, in second spot.
Cochrane’s Straws Milan was beaming in the steer wrestling, even though the steer stuck a horn in his shirt and tore off a button or two. That all happened in just 3.3 seconds, and no one else could match that speed.
“It’s the third time I’ve come here (to Edmonton), and the first time I’ve won a go-round,” declared Milan. “So it’s pretty big for me!”
“I liked the steer. I had him earlier this year at Sundre and it didn’t go as good. He actually stomped my hand, and I thought I broke it. So it was a little bit of payback tonight.”
Milan, who will be the only Canadian to compete at the NFR in Las Vegas next month, moves up in the tight Canadian race. But his Cochrane neighbor, Harley Cole, finished second on the night with a 3.8 and his $8527 payday was enough to shuffle the leaderboard in his favor, for the time being.
Ontario’s Morgan Grant helped his quest for the High Point award by finishing second in the tie-down roping, while Bowden’s Ky Marshall leads the All-Around race. There’s more Canadian Finals Rodeo Action tonight at 7:00 pm at Rexall Place.