Cowboy Christmas is rarely perfect, but Clint Summers and Jade Corkill came remarkably close in 2025.
Summers and Corkill had the best Cowboy Christmas of their careers, cashing in $29,897 a man and picking up checks at nine out of the 10 rodeos they entered. For reigning NFR average champ Summers, his 2021 Fourth run—which helped him qualify for his first NFR as a header—was successful, but not 100%.
“We won quite a bit, but nothing like this,” Summers admitted. “I mean, I’ve never been 100% over a Fourth of July. It’s a pretty cool feeling because we did draw some good ones, obviously, but we did draw some runners and stuff in there, too, and for it to still work out and our run to work, it is pretty neat to think about it now.”
Three-time World Champion Corkill was the 2019 Cowboy Christmas team roping top-money earner, but the 2025 title also marked a new high in his mental game.
“This was the first time nothing was stressful, really,” Corkill said. “Which of course we were catching, but it just felt like we drew a little bit of everything; we had some runners, we had some good ones, we had some medium ones. And it just felt like we made the best run we could on the steer we had and went on to the next one. There was no stress of trying to do more than we could do. For once I made it through the whole thing without trying to do too much.”
Mind over miles
Traveling thousands of miles in the span of a week and rodeoing every single day can be draining, which is why staying mentally tough may be the hardest part of Cowboy Christmas. But when the going gets good, Summers learned not to change a thing.
“Obviously, there’s going to be some hiccups along the way—it’s just part of it,” Summers said. “You’re human, so you’re going to mess up here and there. Ain’t nobody perfect. But I think when you get in a groove, you just stick with what you’ve been doing. And I think that if you do that, in the long run it should work more than it shouldn’t. It’s a lot easier doing that, I feel like, than if you get in a slump and try to get out of it. But I think the bad deal with the bad runs, you just have to forget about them, like I said, because I know it’s going to happen to everybody. There’s no way of getting around that.”
With 13 NFR trips to his name and over $2.5 million in PRCA earnings, Corkill had veteran power on his side this Fourth of July.
“Just kind of knowing it’s a marathon,” Corkill said. “Like when I was younger, you think of the Fourth as this big part of the season. Which it is, but it’s not the full season over the Fourth. And I feel like I used to give the Fourth too much credit. It’s just a good week, but you got to do good all the time. Now, it’s just kind of how it is. Like, every week’s important—every steer is important—so it’s just kind of a long string of steers that they all mean something, and so that makes it to where you don’t put so much hype on just the week of the Fourth.”
Checks and choices
Summers and Corkill got their Cowboy Christmas ball rolling early winning the Crooked River Roundup in Prineville, Oregon, for $5,058 a man. And while Prineville isn’t included in the Fourth run, it allowed for the momentum to build. Prineville was also a strategic move for Summers and Corkill in terms of geography and logistics.
“Since we were going to be that way, we went ahead and started at St. Paul (Rodeo in Oregon) on July 1,” Summers explained. “A lot of people went to St. Paul at the end, which it’s probably the best rodeo, but it’s a two-header and I just figured if we went and made our runs and they were smooth like they’re supposed to be, then we’d have a chance. We might not win it, but we’d have a chance for some money, then come back to the East for the one-headers.”
In the eyes of NFR switchender Summers, reruns at a one-head rodeo are crucial.
“The reachers and stuff, they’re going to reach and they’re going to do their deal,” Summers said. “I don’t really know how they think, honestly, but I know what works for me. And luckily, like I said, we had to do a little bit of trading—not much—but we got up and we got reruns at the one-headers. It’s a big deal to me. Anytime that I can see whatever the steer is, whether he hauls butt or he’s a loper, it does something to my confidence.”
The Fourth officially kicked off for Summers and Corkill July 1, in St. Paul where they won seventh in the average for $1,499 a man. From there they headed east to the Livingston Roundup Rodeo in Livingston, Montana, and pocketed $3,873 apiece for third with a 4.5. They picked up another $1,660 apiece out of North Dakota’s Mandan Rodeo Days, followed by $2,895 a man for third at the Home Of Champions Rodeo in Red Lodge, Montana.
Their biggest hit came next in Wyoming at the Cody Stampede on the Fourth of July. The last team to rope of the 2025 rodeo, they took home the $8,150-a-man win with a 3.8.
“It’s always been, I guess you could call it like a bucket list rodeo,” Summers said. “Everybody wants to win Cody, and I won second there before and I was like, man, I want to win that rodeo. And if you think when you get there, you kind of tell yourself that you’ll settle for fourth or fifth because it pays so good, but if it does work out to win it, it’s a pretty awesome feeling.”
They took home another first place at the Western Stampede in West Jordan, Utah, with a 3.9 for $2,601 a man. A 5.6-second run at the Oakley Independence Day Rodeo in Utah earned them $3,421 a man, and they rounded out their Fourth run July 6, in Prescott, Arizona, at the World’s Oldest Rodeo for $3,561 apiece between the first round and the aggregate.
For Summers and Corkill, chipping away and placing along was key, making their title as this year’s kings of Cowboy Christmas hard earned.
“I think we were talking about it the other day, it was like, 12 or 13 days in a row we were up somewhere every day, and most of it was all night driving,” Corkill explained. “But it was easy as it’s ever been to just stay in the moment. I felt like we stayed in the moment the whole time. Never went backwards, never looked too far ahead, just stayed right where we were at the time and just did it how it needed to be done.”
Planes, trains and automobiles might be the theme for most ProRodeo team ropers over Cowboy Christmas, but not for this team. Both Summers and Corkill only took their best horse with them over the Fourth, showing their versatility and grit.
For Summers, Mr Joes Shadow Bar was the horse for the job, every run. While having another horse in his trailer would be a blessing, finding another like “Joe”—the 2011 gelding that won Head Horse of the BFI and Nutrena PRCA/AQHA Head Horse of the Year in 2021—is challenging.
“Once you ride one like Joe, it’s hard to settle for another one because your expectations are so high,” Summers said. “And I have to tell myself all the time, ‘Hey, listen. Yeah, we want another Joe, but it’s going to be hard to find one. We just got to have one that’s pretty similar to help back him up a little bit.’ But I have to remind myself that and Joe, he is pretty special.”
Corkill’s Bodak Yellow also got every steer, a tactic that actually helped the 9-year-old gelding.
“Honestly, doing that to him is what keeps him going,” Corkill said. “He’s super tough, and he’s better when he is tired. When he’s getting hits, that’s when he feels like he’s at his best. And he couldn’t have worked better. Both our horses, Clint’s horse was awesome.”
Calm in the climb
The nearly $30,000 week pushed Summers and Corkill inside the Top 10 of the PRCA world standings with $67,233.64 and $67,558.86, respectively, warranting a sigh of relief for the two.
“When we left for the summer back at Woodward, we had a little bit of money won, I think I had $17,000 or something,” Summers said. “I don’t keep up with standings, I don’t keep up with money or nothing. But I think I was somewhere around there and I think Jade was close to me, so we knew we needed to win. For us to hit big, it definitely gives us a little boost and helps our confidence a little bit.”
Cowboy Christmas was also a success for a newer mindset Corkill was working on.
“I’m literally going to, for once in my life, do my job as good as I can—good or bad—and then onto the next steer,” Corkill said. “Not going to worry about what happened and just be excited to go to the next one. And I’ve really stuck with that and not got off it. I think it’s the best mindset to be in if you can stay in it. I know it’s hard; I mean, I’m sure I’ll get out of it here before too long. But I think if it’s like that, then you don’t get too high, don’t get too low. It never felt easier to do my job than it did this week for some reason. It was really calm the whole time.”
