Cowboys Determined to Compete at ProRodeo Tour Events
The end of the ProRodeo regular season is nearly five months into the future, yet bull rider Laramie Mosley and rookie steer wrestler Marc Joiner have that in their sights.
They both know the ProRodeo Tour Finale in Salinas, Calif., Sept. 23-26 could be a make-or-break weekend in determining qualifiers for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
The Tour Finale will pay out more than $500,000 and will include the top 24 contestants in each event in the Tour Standings.
Both Mosley and Joiner are currently in the top 10 of their respective events in the PRCA | RAM World Standings and both are among the top 24 in the Tour Standings.
“It’d mean a lot (to make the Tour Finale),” said Mosley, 25. “There’s a bunch of big money added at the Tour Finale. I’ve never gotten to go, and I really want to.”
Mosley is coming off winning the Guymon (Okla.) Pioneer Days Rodeo over the weekend, where he earned $4,504 and 750 Tour points. That helped him climb to fifth in the world standings and third in the Tour.
Mosley is rolling with the season. He says he doesn’t search out the world standings, but that’s because he doesn’t need to.
“I’ve always been told not to (look), but I do,” he said. “I don’t let everybody know that I do, but I look at the standings. And people send it to me.”
Joiner is traveling with about as much experience as one truck can hold. When he climbs into the rig, he’s surrounded by three steer wrestlers who have a combined 15 NFR qualifications and three world titles. He’s traveling with Tyler Waguespack, Kyle Irwin and Tyler Pearson and gains knowledge on a daily basis.
“There’s so much – from taking care of horses to bulldogging to how to enter, just life,” he said. “It’s everything. They’re a great group of guys.”
That experience, plus riding Cheese, Waguespack’s horse, and Joiner’s talent are paying off. The 22-year-old is 23rd in the Tour – just inside the cutoff for the Tour Finale – with 774.66 points and is eighth in the world with $22,430.
Making sure Tour rodeos are on his schedule is among Joiner’s main goals. He earned more than $11,000 at the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo, picking up 525 Tour points there.
“They pay more, they add a lot of money,” he said about Tour rodeos. “It’s hard not to go to them. Everyone wants to make those finals at the end of the year, it can be a great deal for us.”
Mosley, like Joiner, isn’t planning on slowing down.
“I planned on going full time,” Mosley said. “I still plan on going as hard as I can and getting to everything I can. I’ve seen it too many times, guys think they have it made and back off and don’t make it. If I can keep entering, keep going and staying on, it’ll get me a gold buckle by the end of it.”
Courtesy of PRCA