Corben Culley and Trent Vaught made quite the statement Feb. 7, winning the 2026 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo for $24,900 a man.
The Iowa and Arkansas cowboys clenched one of the most prestigious winter rodeos with a 5.4-second run in the clean slate finals, pocketing $20,000 apiece. The win puts Culley and Vaught in unfamiliar territory at No. 1 in the PRCA world standings with $30,661.72 and $35,065.72, respectively.
“It’s pretty cool this week,” Vaught, 31, said with a laugh. “I’ve got more money won this year. We just kinda got some lucky breaks. That’s the biggest rodeo I’ve ever won so that’s pretty cool.”
Neither Culley nor Vaught had ever gotten into the major Texas winter rodeos, where qualifications are based off standings, in seasons past. Their Fort Worth debut is the best start either has had to a season, though they both know the standings can change at any time. Instead of focusing on being No. 1, they’re taking the excitement and focusing on the momentum it can build for their year as a whole.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Culley, 25, said. “I mean, it feels good, but [the standings] obviously can change any point. But it was good. I’ve never been in that position, so things sure will help through the rest of the winter and the spring, and then give us a little money in our pockets to go, too.”
Fort Worth fight
Culley and Vaught’s route to the Fort Worth win was anything but conventional, marked by some missteps in their bracket and the semifinals.
“I got a crossfire on the first one, and I slipped a leg on the second one,” Vaught said. “But I was just happy to be there. We didn’t even make a good run in the Semifinals. We were 7.1 and won second. Our steer was supposed to step left, so I kind of scored with Corben a little bit, and then about the time I got to him, he headed him when he stepped and kind of followed him a little bit. I got out of whack and chased him all the way to the fence. I don’t think any of it was meant to be. It just happened to work out somehow.”
Regardless, they won second in Round 2 of their bracket for $1,900 apiece to advance to the semifinals where they won second for $3,000 a man. They drew up in the middle of the clean-slate finals, and Culley planned to keep doing what he was doing and adjust the game plan as needed based on the pace of the round.
“That steer was strong and stepping dead straight, maybe even a tick right,” Culley explained. “And it just kind of worked in our favor. I was a tick off the barrier, rode up there pretty close, turned him off and Trent heeled him on the second jump. We were 5.4, and I thought, ‘Well, we’ll win something, but probably not first.’ And then same type of deal–it just kind of kept falling our way. Really, we had to have a lot of good fortune on the situation.”
With four teams to follow in the finals, Culley and Vaught thought they surely would be bumped down. But as the round played out, they watched team after team fight errors.
“As they kept going, the whole time I’m thinking like, ‘Holy crap, we’re going to win something good,'” Culley said with a laugh. “And then the last team, he’s been a really good friend of mine and I’ve went and stayed at his house a bunch, Jake Clay. I was like, ‘Well, he’s going to go do a great job, run up there, stick, whatever.’ And he did, but I think Will roped a leg–I couldn’t hardly see that one. I’m pretty sure it was Tyler (Tryan) and Brady (Tryan) sitting there in front of me and they just turned around, and I could see everybody’s eyes on me. I was like, ‘Oh, I definitely did just win this. Holy crap.’ It was really cool.”
Culley and Vaught’s 5.4 held onto No. 1, giving them their first Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo titles, worth $20,000 apiece.
On the head side, Culley rode a 12-year-old gelding registered Show Me A Baron Red. Culley bought “Pistol” from his good friend J.W. Beck, who won the Great Lakes Circuit heeling on the horse multiple times. Culley had ridden him a few times and decided to bite the bullet this year and buy him.
“I really liked him, but I couldn’t really come up with the money for a while,” Culley admitted. “And finally this winter, I called him after Denver. I said, ‘Man, I need a horse. I got some colts, and the one good horse I had solid kind of got tight.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, I’ll still sell you Pistol or send him down.’ So, we made a deal and worked it out. Next thing you know, a week later, I’m at Fort Worth on him. That’s kind of the way it went. But he did a really good job with him. He trained him really good. I mean, he’s won heading and heeling at a lot of different places.”
Vaught heeled on a yellow gelding he calls Gunner, who just so happens to be his main mount.
“I like that he helps me win,” Vaught said. “He just helped me there. He makes it easy for me to catch.”
On the road
Culley and Vaught have been friends since they were kids, roping together here and there over the years. In 2025, they decided to rodeo together and now, in 2026, plan to hit the road even harder, a decision that came with careful consideration. After the Great Lakes Circuit Finals in November, Culley was unsure if he had the horsepower to rodeo full-time and wanted to do things right in the wintertime. They made a more strategic plan for the winter run, taking into into consideration how it would affect their summer plans, too.
“We’ve saved up, I think I’ve only been to four or so rodeos now, and we kind of had planned on actually going to the good stuff this year,” Culley said. “We entered through Jackson (Mississippi), Kissimmee (Florida) and Tucson (Arizona), and then probably have a little break, then Austin. Then on to California, hopefully. I’ve never been to California, so I’m hoping we get to try that on this year. So, we were kind of planning on it beforehand but definitely now; it’s probably the best opportunity I’ve had or the best situation I’ve been in. So as long as I can keep some horses and we keep catching, hopefully we’ll keep trying it.”
