Clint Laye

Clint Laye – Cadogan, Alberta ($107,954)
2-time WNFR qualifier

Clint Laye is returning to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo after a three-year absence. The Canadian bareback rider qualified for his first trip to the Thomas & Mack Center in 2015, finished 10th in the world standings and placed in four of the 10 rounds.

Injuries kept him out of action for most of 2016, he finished in the Top 50 in 2017 and just missed returning to the WNFR last year when he finished 17th. He starts this year’s competition in eighth place with $107,954 in regular season earnings.

He started 2019 with a bang, winning the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver in January. Other big wins included the California Rodeo in Salinas; Union, Oregon; Jerome, Idaho; Moses Lake, Washington; and Mona, Utah, the last weekend of the regular rodeo season.

Clint, who spends much of his time in Pocatello, Idaho, also qualified for his fifth Canadian Finals Rodeo in bareback riding.

Rodeo is a big part of the Laye family history. Clint’s grandfather Albert was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2008. Clint’s dad competed in steer wrestling and his mom ran barrels. Several cousins have made their mark in steer wrestling.

In fact, his cousin Scott Guenther will join Clint at the 2019 WNFR. He is ranked third in the steer wrestling and is competing in his third consecutive finals.

When Clint chose bareback riding, he followed in the footsteps of his uncle Billy who won the Canadian bareback riding championship in 1991 and qualified for three National Finals Rodeos. “He taught me how to ride,” Clint said. “He’s my mentor.”

Clint got on his first bareback horse at age 15, but his athletic career started much earlier when he began playing hockey at age five. Fellow Canadian Orin Larsen will also be competing in the bareback riding. If either of them moves to the top of the world standings after 10 nights in Vegas, they will be the first Canadian to win a gold buckle in their event since the NFR started in 1959.

While this won’t be his first trip to Las Vegas, this year will be a little different. Clint and his wife Cassidy are parents to a three-year-old son, Cohen, who was born in August of 2016, less than a year after Clint’s first WNFR.