Brye Crites and Ross Ashford have been steadily finding themselves getting paid at the ProRodeos this season, doing so enough to be sitting in Top 10 spots on both sides of the standings with $117,824 and $122,726 won, respectively.
The NFR qualifiers may not have had the one summer-defining win that demanded everybody’s attention, but while bigger individual rodeo wins have grabbed headlines throughout the summer, Crites and Ashford have kept doing the same thing: catching steers, getting checks with their names on them and staying in the NFR conversation.
As of Sept. 10, Crites sits No. 8 in the PRCA heading world standings with $117,824.75, while Ashford is No. 6 among heelers with $122,726.37.
Their latest addition came Labor Day week, when they pocketed $11,786 apiece to finish as the second-highest earning team of the week.
They won the Magic Valley Stampede in Filer, Idaho, in 4.3 seconds for $5,087 a man, then followed it with another win in Dillon, Montana, where their 4.5-second run paid $3,248 each. They finished the week at Ellensburg, placing fifth in both the finals and average for another $3,451 apiece.
For Welch, Okahoma’s Crites, the funny part was that an $11,000 week almost felt small compared to what they had been doing earlier in the summer.
“I told Ross, I said, ‘A month ago, if we won 11,000, they’d be laughing at us because we did so bad,’” 32-year-old Crites said. “And now we won $11,000 and we’re the second highest winners this week.”
That consistency is exactly what Ashford points to when he looks back at their summer. Crites has continued to turn steers and give Ashford chances, and when the opportunities have come, they’ve largely capitalized.
“He does a really good job,” the Lott, Texas man said. “He’s turned a lot of steers, and he handles the cattle good and he’s given me a lot of looks, so that’s been really nice.”
The horsepower underneath them has been just as consistent.
Ashford has ridden an 11-year-old roan he calls “Renegade”, registered as Drifting Dual Rey, that he bought from Chris Young at the end of 2025 nearly everywhere this season. He stopped in Arizona to try the horse on his way home after the Ariat World Series Finale, and what he hoped would be a fit quickly became his a-string pick.
“He’s been awesome,” the 27-year-old said. “He’s been a big deal for me. He’s got a really good feel and that horse has made it easy for me to catch a lot of steers.”
Crites’ horse situation took a less predictable route.
After his good horse was injured at the BFI, Crites was forced to lean on Whistles, a 7-year-old roan he raised himself. Whistles had only been to three rodeos when Crites loaded him in the trailer for the summer, and Crites admitted the horse had still been too green to handle much jackpot pressure during the winter.
But suddenly, there wasn’t much choice but for him to grow up fast.
When Crites’ wife recently asked whether he ever expected the summer to go this well on Whistles, his answer was simple.
“No,” Crites said. “I really hoped it would, but I did not think it would.”
Now the team that has quietly hung around the top of the standings all summer gets another major opportunity to add to its season.
Crites and Ashford are in Set 2 at the Cinch Playoffs in Puyallup on Saturday, Sept. 12, with the semifinals and finals set for Sunday, Sept. 13. They also entered Puyallup seventh in the Playoff Series standings on their respective ends with 887.5 points.
But even with Puyallup offering big money and a path into the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, Crites isn’t approaching it like one rodeo has to define their year.
“The first deal is just about progression,” Crites said. “Money doesn’t matter in that. And to me anyway, money doesn’t matter in that first set—you’ve got to just get out of it.”
The ultimate goal is to finish inside the top four and earn the trip to Sioux Falls.
“I would love to win it, but winning it is not the goal to me,” Crites said. “Winning top four is the goal to me and getting in Sioux Falls.”