ProRodeo Sports News - July 12, 2019

Strong finish to Cowboy Christmas for Bray IN HIS WORDS PADEN BRAY

I t was a good Cowboy Christmas. Man, at first it was a little rough. We made good runs at the beginning of the week. We did well at Ponoka (Alberta, winning $5,428), then we were 4.9 (seconds) at Red Lodge (Mont.), 5.3 at Cody (Wyo.) and then 5-flat at Eugene (Ore.) and won $54 total. So, we were making good runs but not winning anything. Finally, we hit good at St.

to pick me up at school sometimes. It gives me confidence to rope with him because he does his job very well. It gives me confidence because I know where he’s going to be every time. The last three or four weeks we’ve caught I’d say 80-85% of my steers. It’s the same go every time. It’s fun to rope with a guy that consistent. We don’t talk a whole lot about rodeo.

Rookie team roping heeler Paden Bray, 20, is making the most of roping with a world champ. During Cowboy Christmas, Bray and 2017 PRCA Team Roping Header World Champion Erich Rogers each won $17,349, tying for seventh- highest earners. The cash pushed Bray to 24th in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $28,325 as of July 9, about $7,000 away from breaking into the Top 15 and qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in his first season. Bray, of Stephenville, Texas, is leading the PRCA | Resistol Rookie Standings for heelers.

Paul (Ore.) and wonWindow Rock (Ariz.) and placed at Prescott (Ariz.). It was a good finish to the week for us. That’s what’s nice about roping with Erich. Even when we’re not winning and we’re drawing good ones, it’s easy to catch them. We were in catch mode and everything was flowing pretty good. The win at St. Paul was pretty awesome. That’s a prestigious rodeo. That’s one that everyone talks about, and that was pretty much my first major ProRodeo buckle. I’ve got this amateur buckle and it’s going off as soon as I get this ProRodeo buckle. Erich and I started roping together about the middle of March. He asked me to rope with him. I’m tickled to death to be able to rope with someone like that. We’ve known each other much longer. He knew my mom and used to stay at my house. He always had a spot at my house (in Texas) during winter rodeos. He started coming over when I was in fourth or fifth grade. He used

We try to keep it light, have fun. Before a run we’ll talk, game plan, and for about 30 minutes after the rodeo we might talk about what we thought happened. Oh, yeah, I definitely notice the age difference. (Rogers is 32.) I’m a rookie and he’s a veteran. I call him Dad half the time. He doesn’t get a choice if he likes it or not. And I know I’m supposed to be all into country music, but that ’80s country gets old, I’m not going to lie. He listens to Prime Country and it puts me right to sleep. I never looked at the world standings because I hadn’t won enough. I would look to see where I was in the rookie standings. After Cowboy Christmas I was looking at the world standings in the 30s and 40s and couldn’t find my name. I had $28,000 won and I’m not in the standings? Then I looked up higher and I was 24th. The first time I broke into the Top 50, I was 24th! The game plan from the beginning was to make the Finals. We left home and our game plan was to be all in. We’ve got the same attitude.

ProRodeo Sports News 7/12/2019

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