St. Paul gold!

ST PAUL – It wasn’t just Mother Nature that brought the heat to the St. Paul Rodeo; the cowboys and cowgirls did, as well.

After six performances in five days, nearly $500,000 in prize money was awarded to the winners in each of the eight events.

In the steer wrestling, an Oregon man came out on top.

Dalton Massey, Hermiston, was 3.5 seconds in the first round and 3.6 seconds in the second to be 7.1 seconds on two head.

“I just drew good,” he said. “My first steer, he was a little slower, and dang sure stopped. I was lucky to hang on to him, slow down and make a good run.”

He made both his runs in slack, the extra competition that doesn’t fit into the evening performances, and wished he could have scheduled for the evening show.

“I’d really have loved to compete in the performance. The performances here are just electric. They’re awesome. I love this rodeo.”

Massey, who is the number one man in the PRCA world standings, was riding a horse owned by fellow steer wrestler Tanner Milan. DS Famous Bar, “Eddie,” a big bay gelding who won the 2023 PRCA Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year, is “just a phenomenal horse,” Massey said. “You back him into the box, and he stands so solid and scores so good. He gives you the perfect go and runs extremely hard. You just can’t beat him. I’ve been so lucky to ride him. He’s turned my career around ever since I threw a leg over him last year” at Rodeo Houston.

Massey qualified for the 2023 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the ten days of rodeo that determine pro rodeo’s world champions.

Breakaway

The first ever St. Paul Rodeo breakaway title went to Aspen Miller.

The Santa Fe, Texas cowgirl had a time of 2.2 seconds to win the event, which was added to the rodeo this year.

She was aboard an eight-year-old brown gelding named Jigsaw, owned by her and her dad, Craig Miller.

“He’s really stepped it up for me,” she said. “He’s working well. He has good timing, he scores great, he runs hard, and he reads calves. He stops hard and does all the things right.”

A student at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, she competes collegiately. She hasn’t won a lot of money, but she’s been “clipping along. St. Paul was a great place to get a check and a win.”

Miller will gauge her rodeo progress as the season continues, and if she’s not doing as well as she’d like, she’ll go home.

“I’ve won a good bit over the Fourth (of July). I’ll rodeo through Cheyenne (Wyo.). If it’s not going good after Cheyenne, I’ll cut my losses and head home. But if I keep my momentum going, I’ll keep going and stay out on the road.”

She is honored to be the first ever St. Paul breakaway champion. “It’s an incredible honor, for how electric the rodeo is, how fun it is out there. To win the first one is truly an honor.”

First timer

A first timer made his trip to the St. Paul Rodeo worth it.

Kase Hitt, Ardmore, Okla., tied for the bull riding win with TJ Gray. Both men scored 85.5 points; Hitt aboard the Four Star Rodeo bull Diamond Dust and Gray on the Macza Pro Rodeo bull Big River.

Hitt had a strategy for the ride: “I just knew if I kept my hand shut (around the bull rope), and kept going after him, it was going to work out.”

The nineteen-year-old cowboy, in his first year of traveling hard on the rodeo road, is learning lots of rodeo lessons.

He’s won some money, “but it’s tough. It’s been OK, but it’s really tough on a guy. You can’t do enough training to really understand how hard it is on your body to go up and down the road like everybody does. You’re running on three hours of sleep, with no breaks, and it’ll definitely turn on your body, and you’ll figure out how cowboy you are.”

Coming to St. Paul for the first time was special for the young bull rider.

“Driving in here, it was like a daydream,” he said. “I’ve seen (the rodeo) on TV, and to get to come out here is a huge blessing, and to get to win it.”

Co-champion TJ Gray is leading the Resistol Rookie Race in the bull riding.

It takes a special horse to compete at St. Paul, and Oklahoma cowgirl Emily Miller Beisel has that equine.

She won the barrel racing with a time of 17.20 seconds, seventeenth-hundreds of a second faster than the number two cowgirl, Jordon Briggs.

Beisel was aboard a horse owned by 4M Equine Ranch in Decatur, Texas.

Teasin Dat Guy, “Chewy,” is an eight-year-old palomino mare that loves to rodeo, she said.

4M Equine Ranch’s trainer focuses their horses on slot and incentive races, but Chewy prefers rodeo.

The palomino “loves the crowd,” Beisel said. “I promise you, when I walk up to the arena with her, and she sees all the people, she thinks they all came for her.”

The barrel racing setup in St. Paul is unique and can be difficult for horses. The alley way is dark and narrow, and Beisel said there are no landmarks in the arena that a horse can use. “Horses like aids, like bucking chutes or fences that help slow them down” when they gauge it’s time to turn a barrel.

It takes a special horse, one willing to obey commands from its rider, Beisel said. “You have to have a horse that’s tuned in to what you’re asking them to do.” She’s competed in St. Paul three other years, but has never won. “I’ve had horses in the past that say, I know better than you and they’re set in their ways. Sometimes they’re a little too stubborn for a setup like this.”

The Oklahoma cowgirl loves competing in the Northwest.

“I prefer to go west to St. Paul and to the other rodeos,” she said, because of the added money and the consistency of good arena conditions. “You don’t have weather to deal with in Oregon.” Earlier this week it rained hard in Cody, Wyo., before she competed, making arena conditions difficult for horses, “and we didn’t stand a chance.”

She’s ranked third in the world standings, but she’s not counting her chickens before they hatch.

St. Paul “is a big win, for sure. It’s always good to be ranked high in July, but I’ve been in that situation before and have had a not-very-good back half of July, August and September, and that’s really important, too. I feel like almost half of our season earnings come from July to September.

“As much as you get excited about rankings, I try to pump the brakes a little bit and keep chipping away at them.”

Other 2024 St. Paul Rodeo champions include bareback rider Jacob Lees, Caldwell, Idaho (88 points) and saddle bronc rider Kade Bruno, Challis, Idaho (87 points).

In the timed events, the 2024 titles went to tie-down roper Quade Hiatt, Canyon, Texas (16.8 seconds on two head) and team ropers Lightning Aguilera, Athens, Texas and Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. (10.0 seconds on two head).

The 89th St. Paul Rodeo will take place July 1-5, 2025. For more information, visit www.StPaulRodeo.com .

Results from the St. Paul Rodeo, July 2-6, 2024

All-around champion: Haven Meged, Miles City, Mont. – tie-down roping and team roping

Bareback riding champion: Jacob Lees, Boyd, Texas

1. Jacob Lees, Boyd, Texas 88 points on Sankey Pro Rodeo & Phenom Genetics’ Mustard; 2. Sam Petersen, Helena, Mont. 86.5; 3. Dean Thompson, Altamont, Utah 86; 4. Tanner Aus, Granite Falls, Minn. 85; 5. (tie) Waylon Bourgeois, Church Point, La., Jacek Frost, Browns Valley, Calif. and Rocker Steiner, Weatherford, Texas 84.5 each; 8. (tie) Leighton Berry, Weatherford, Texas and Luke Thrash, Bastrop, La. 83 each.

Steer wrestling champion: Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore.

1st round

1.(tie) Shane Frey, Duncan, Okla. and Mike McGinn, Haines, Ore. 3.5 seconds each; 3. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 3.6; 4. (tie) Gavin Soileau, Bunkie, La. and Sterling Lambert, Fallon, Nev. 3.8 each; 6. (tie) Gage Hesse, Keenesburg, Colo. and Dirk Tavenner, Rigby, Idaho 4.0 each; 8. (tie) Trever Nelson, Kiowa, Okla., Winsten McGraw, Gill, Colo., Will Lummus, Byhalia, Miss., Riley Duvall, Checotah, Okla. and Logan Lemmel, Whitewood, S.D. 4.1 each.

2nd round

1. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 3.5 seconds; 2. Will Lummus, Byhalia, Miss. 3.6; 3. (tie) Stephen Mullins, Mendenhall, Miss., Talon Roseland, Marshalltown, Iowa, Tanner Brunner, Ramona, Kan., Gavin Soileau, Bunkie, La., and Eric Logan, Marsing, Idaho 3.9 each; 8. (tie) Walt Arnold, Coleman, Texas and Sterling Lambert, Fallon, Nev. 4.0 each.

Average on two head

1. Dalton Massey, Hermiston, Ore. 7.1 seconds on 2 head; 2. (tie) Will Lummus, Byhalia, Miss. and Gavin Soileau, Bunkie, La. 7.7 each; 4. Sterling Lambert, Fallon, Nev. 7.8; 5. Mike McGinn, Haines, Ore. 7.9; 6. Tyler Pearson, Atoka, Okla. 8.6; 7. (tie) Darcy Kersh, Charters Towers, Australia and Nick Guy, Sparta, Wis. 8.7 each.

Bull riding co-champions: Kase Hitt, Ardmore, Okla. and TJ Gray, Dairy, Ore.

1. (tie) Kase Hitt, Ardmore, Okla. 85.5 points on Four Star Rodeo’s Diamond Dust and TJ Gray, Dairy, Ore. 85.5 points on Macza Rodeo’s Big River; 3. (tie) Chase Dougherty, Decatur, Texas and Taylor Toves, Stephenville, Texas 84.5 each; 5. (tie) Caleb McCaslin, Jones, Okla. and Jace Trosclair, 81; 7. (tie) Hawk Whitt, Thermopolis, Wyo. and Levi Gray, Dairy, Ore. 80 each.

Tie-down roping champion: Quade Hiatt, Canyon, Texas

1st round

1. Quade Hiatt, Canyon, Texas 8.0 seconds; 2. (tie) Haven Meged, Miles City, Mont. and Michael Otero, Collinsville, Texas 8.3 each; 4. (tie) Quint Bell, Paradise Valley, Nev. and Ty Harris, San Angelo, Texas 8.6; 6. Marty Yates, Stephenville, Texas 8.8; 7. Chisum Allen, Menard, Texas 8.9; 8. Connor Atkinson, Needville, Texas 9.2.

2nd round

1. Beau Cooper, Stettler, Alb. 7.4 seconds; 2. John Douch, Itasca, Texas 7.5; 3. Brushton Minton, Witter Springs, Calif. 7.6; 4. Chance Oftedahl, Pemberton, Minn. 7.8; 5. (tie) Dylan Hancock, San Angelo, Texas and Luke Potter, Maple City, Kan. 8.1 each; 7. Bo Pickett, Caldwell, Idaho 8.2; 8. Nick Achille, Alvin, Texas 8.3.

Average on two head

1. Quade Hiatt, Canyon, Texas 16.8 seconds on 2; 2. Ty Harris, San Angelo, Texas 17.3; 3. John Douch, Itasca, Texas 17.6; 4. Nathan Clawson, Tumwater, Wash. 17.9; 5. Connor Atkinson, Needville, Texas 18.5; 6. Shane Hanchey, Sulphur, La. 18.7; 7. Brad Goodrich, Stanfield, Ore. 18.9; 8.Michael Otero, Collinsville, Texas 19.1.

Breakaway roping champion: Aspen Miller, Santa Fe, Texas

1. Aspen Miller, Santa Fe, Texas 2.2 seconds; 2. Josie Conner, Iowa, La 2.4; 3. (tie) Martha Angelone, Stephenville, Texas and Jill Tanner, Stephenville, Texas 2.6 each;

5. (tie) Lari Dee Guy, Abilene, Texas and Hope Thompson, Abilene, Texas 2.8 each; 7. (tie) Shaya Biever, Claresholm, Alb., Jackie Crawford, Stephenville, Texas and Annie Minor, Ellensburg, Wash. 2.9 each; 10. (tie) Cheyanne McCartney, Kingston, Okla., Macy Young, Wittmann, Ariz., Sarah Angelone, Lipan, Texas, Tacy Webb, Midway, Texas and Beau Peterson, Council Grove, Kan. 3.0 each; 15. (tie) Kayde Jo Akins, Goldendale, Wash., Zoei Bedke, Oakley, Idaho, Shelby Boisjoli-Meged, Miles City, Mont., and Timber Allenbrand, Paola, Kan. 3.1 each.

Saddle bronc riding champion: Kade Bruno, Challis, Idaho

1. Kade Bruno, Challis, Idaho 87 points on Big Bend Rodeo’s Broken Camp; 2. Chase Brooks, Deer Lodge, Mont. 86.5; 3. Zachary Dallas, Las Cruces, N.M. 85; 4. (tie) Damian Brennan, Injune, Australia and Dary Radel, Injune, Australia 84.5 each;

6. (tie) Houston Brown, Miles City, Mont. and Wyatt Casper, Miami, Texas 84 each; 8. (tie) Weston Patterson, Waverly, Kan.; Tyrel Roberts, Charlie Lake, B.C., Brody Wells, Powell, Wyo., and Tegan Smith, Winterset, Iowa 83 each.

Team roping Champions: Lightning Aguilera, Athens, Texas/Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn.

1st round

1. Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prudente, Brazil 4.8 seconds; 2. Lightning Aguilera, Athens, Texas/Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. 5.0; 3. Cyle Denison, Iowa, La./Tanner Braden, Dewey, Okla. 5.1; 4. Erich Rogers, Round Rock, Ariz./Paul Eaves, Lonedell, Mo. 5.2; 5. (tie) Nelson Wyatt, Clanton, Ala./Jonathan Torres, Ocala, La. and Riley Minor, Ellensburg, Wash./Brady Minor, Ellensburg, Wash. 5.3 each; 7. (tie) Marcus Theriot, Lumberton, Miss./Cole Curry, Liberty, Miss.; Jack Graham, Lakeview, Ore./Jason Duby, Klamath Falls, Ore. and JC Yeahquo, Mandaree, N.D./Buddy Hawkins II, Stephenville, Texas 5.4 each.

2nd round

1. Jr Dees, Aurora, S.D./JC Flake, Milsap, Texas 4.4 seconds; 2. Jake Smith, Broken Bow, Okla./Douglas Rich, Weatherford, Texas 4.6; 3, Clint Summers, Lake City, Fla./Jake Long, Coffeyville, Kan. 4.7; 4. (tie) JC Yeahquo, Crescent, Okla./Buddy Hawkins II, Stephenville, Texas and Lightning Aguilera, Athens, Texas/Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. 5.0 each; 6. Chase Helton, Merced, Calif./Spencer Mitchell, Orange Cove, Calif. 5.1; 7. Steven Duby, Pasco, Ore./Taylor Duby, Homedale, Idaho 5.3; 8. (tie) Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prudente, Brazil and Devon McDaniel, Caldwell, Idaho/Walt Woodard, Stephenville, Texas 5.4 each.

Average on two head

1. Lightning Aguilera, Athens, Texas/Lane Mitchell, Bolivar, Tenn. 10.0 on 2 head; 2. Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prudente, Brazil 10.2; 3. JC Yeahquo, Mandaree, N.D./Buddy Hawkins II, Stephenville, Texas 10.4; 4. Jack Graham, Lakeview, Ore./Jason Duby, Klamath Falls, Ore. 10.9; 5. Nelson Wyatt, Clanton, Ala./Jonathan Torres, Ocala, Fla. 11.0; 6. Steven Duby, Hereford, Ore./Taylor Duby, Nampa, Idaho 11.4; 7. Yogi Davis, White City, Ore./Casey Ladner, Klamath Falls, Ore. 13.3; 8. Shay Carroll, Stephenville, Texas/Jace Helton, Tolar, Texas 16.0.

Barrel racing champion: Emily Beisel, Weatherford, Okla.

1. Emily Beisel, Weatherford, Okla. 17.20 seconds; 2. Jordon Briggs, Tolar, Texas 17.37; 3. Shelley Morgan, Eustace, Texas 17.51;4. Gretchen Miller, Bend, Ore. 17.52; 5. Jennifer Barrett, Buhl, Idaho 17.56; 6. Jodee Miller, Bellville, Texas 17.57; 7. Miley Bravos, Red Bluff, Calif. 17.58; 8. Lindsay Ham, Cheney, Wash. 17.60; 9. LaTricia Duke, Zephyr, Texas 17.62; 10. Cambria Estep, Parma, Idaho 17.63; 11. Jordan Driver, Garden City, Texas 17.64; 12. Molly Otto, Grand Forks, N.D. 17.66; 13. Megan McLeod-Sprague, Marsing, Idaho 17.67; 14. Julia Johnson, Tenino, Wash. 17.70; 15. Jessica McMahon, Powell Butte, Ore. 17.71.

** All results are unofficial. For more information, visit www.StPaulRodeo.com .