Rodeo cowboy life demands skills on, off horseback

“This is pay-to-play,” Kole Ashbacher said Saturday. “We’ve got to make every dollar count.”

On Saturday, Ashbacher’s gamble paid off.

The saddle bronc rider booked a nearly $700 round-trip flight from his home in Alberta, Canada, just to tango with Shamrock for eight seconds on Saturday, knowing that success in the arena could lead to big bucks and an encore performance in the short-go of the La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Tucson Rodeo on Sunday.

Ashbacher scored an 81.5 to tie with Tanner Butner for the day’s best mark, putting them in 6th place heading into finals.

That was enough to make it all worth it — the pain, the travel, the headaches. And for Ashbacher, there are a few headaches. Some caused by the horses, some by his travel partners. Ashbacher majored in accounting at the University of Lethbridge in Lethridge, Alberta, and his math skills – and his patience — have been put to the test by his bronco-riding buddies.

“I spend a lot of hours in a week looking at schedules and which rodeos we want to go to and which we want to drive to,” he said. “What gives us the most opportunity? There’s a whole lot more to rodeoing than just showing up at the rodeo.”

For Ashbacher, it wasn’t so much of a gamble as a calculated risk. Emphasis on the calculated.

Imagine an NFL player having to book his own flight for a random game in Pocatello, Idaho, on a Thursday afternoon. Imagine a baseball superstar having to balance a check swing and a checkbook. Imagine an NBA icon having to remember if he’s paid an entry fee to play against the Denver Nuggets.

For all the glitz and glamour and beauty and bravado that go into at most — and if they’re lucky — eight seconds on an animal, rodeo athletes put in untold hours. Practice time, booking time, travel time.

Roughly a month ahead of a big rodeo like Tucson’s, contestants will get their day of performance, which can play a major factor in their decision to head south. Just a few days before, they’ll usually learn of their animal partner.

Draw the first performance of the Tucson Rodeo, and it’ll be another eight days before the short-go and the chance at both the short round prize money and at the aggregate prize money, which is even better.

That means a final performance draw is like winning a small lottery. The chance at back-to-back paychecks, and even back-to-back-to-back with the aggregate jackpot, is the best deal in rodeo.

It’s enough to make a cowboy save up his money, strength and energy for one strategic shot at glory, like Shawn Bennett did on Saturday.

The Oklahoman bull rider — who also spent more than a decade of his life in Casa Grande — decided to put all of his focus into the Tucson Rodeo this week, forgoing other earning chances across the southwest and the country. While other cowboys were busy in San Antonio and Florida and everywhere in between, Bennett flew to Tucson a day early in anticipation of his date with Rocky Mountain’s Wild Card in the final performance.

“I knew I had a good bull and if I trusted my ability, I’d do well,” he said. “I got on a bunch of practice bulls this week to get ready. I knew that bull was good enough to get me to the short round.”

Ashbacher also said his knowledge of Shamrock is what led him to Tucson in the first place, but it was the advanced studying he did on the horse that led him to a paycheck. Ashbacher spoke with a few buddies who’d tangled with Shamrock and he also was able to find video footage that revealed some things about the animal, mainly where the horse holds its head and how much rein to give it.

“I knew this one bucked really hard and wasn’t the easiest horse, but it gave me a chance to make it to the short round,” he said.

And that’s all that matters: A shot at Sunday’s short-go.