Leon Fountain Doubles his Pleasure at Calgary Stampede
By: Dianne Finstad
It was déjà vu for saddle bronc rider Leon Fountain at the Calgary Stampede. For the second straight day he made an 86.5-point ride, and for the second straight day, he took the victory lap as the winner of the round.
On Saturday he recorded his ride on Calgary Stampede’s Flying Carma. Friday his winning ride for an identical 86.5 points was on Calgary Stampede’s Business Girl.
Saturday’s pen of broncs featured some up-and-coming stars for the Calgary Stampede’s bucking horse program. That makes it a little harder for the cowboys since no one knew what to expect.
“None of the bronc riders did,” said Fountain, a New Mexico cowboy. “But the pick-up man, Tyler Kraft, he’s around them all the time and he’s seen the first trips on them. They write down the rein, and you go talk to those guys and they’re pretty close.”
The intel on Fountain’s draw, Flying Carma?
“He said it was really good,” grinned the 27-year-old. “That made me think, well, I better try hard!”
Turns out the Calgary Stampede ranch manager knows his stuff.
Fountain spurred his way to another first-place check in Pool A, pushing his Stampede earnings to $14,000.
“It’s fun. It’s a mystery. It was nice today because everybody had the same thing, they were all the young horses, so everyone had the same shot,” Fountain said.
Fountain is on a hot streak. He built some momentum and confidence, with one of the best Cowboy Christmas runs he’s had in his eight-year pro career, winning St. Paul (Ore.) and placing in Greeley, Colo., Ponoka, Alberta, and Cody, Wyo., to collect more than $10,000.
“It’s awesome. I hope it keeps up. I’m not really used to it, but I like it,” he said.
Fountain is hoping to make his first NFR and is encouraged to see his riding hit a new plateau.
“It was going well this winter and then I got banged up, and it slowed me down a little bit. But I’ve come back, and I do feel like I’m riding better than I ever have. I’m drawing pretty good right now, too,” Fountain said. “I’ve been doing it for a little while now. I work at it every day. I work on muscle memory. I run it through my head all day. I have a thousand rides running through my head while I’m driving, and at the rodeo I go and try to do it.”
But that library in his mind didn’t include a mystery horse like the one he had Saturday.
“I didn’t have a picture of what he was going to do, but I just knew I needed to get a good spur out and get ahead of him right away and just handle my rein and be aggressive,” Fountain said.
In other events Saturday, barrel racer Lisa Lockhart also made it two days in a row with win, this time with a 17.50-second time. Tie-down roping top honors were shared by Riley Pruitt and Caleb Smidt, both with 7.3-second runs, for $6250 each.
Bareback riding went to Cole Reiner with 89-point ride on Big Stone Rodeo Co.’s Rum Flavored. Bull rider Daylon Swearingen was victorious with an 87.50-point trip on Calgary Stampede’s Armed and Dangerous, while Stockton Graves was the fast steer wrestler with a 4.1-second run.
Pool A wraps up Sunday afternoon.
Courtesy of PRCA