Rhett Anderson and Jared Fillmore won their first Wilderness Circuit Finals Nov. 2, 2024, after roping three steers in 20.3 seconds.
Anderson, 34, and Fillmore, 24, pocketed $5,608 a man during their trip and punched their tickets to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs next July.
“It’s just such an opportunity to get to go to Colorado Springs,” Anderson, of Annabella, Utah, said. “I like those rodeos where there’s less guys but more money.”
Aside from the money and qualification, the win hits deeper for Fillmore. The Payson, Utah, kid didn’t come from a roping family but craved being around the sport. But at 13, Fillmore was in an auto-pedestrian accident. Fillmore was in a coma for weeks, suffered 37 broken bones and had two brain surgeries in order to recover. He proved doctors wrong when they told him he’d never walk again, nor ride a horse. This title, 10 years later, is still a miracle in his eyes.
“That’s a God thing, and I realized that God brought me through that,” Fillmore said. “I kind of always relate anything in my life by looking back on that. People are always like, ‘What do you think about before you make a run?’ And I’m like, well, I always think about my mom sleeping on a metal bench for two months while I was in the hospital. That’s what gets my blood pumping.”
How the Wilderness was won
Anderson and Fillmore—who kicked their partnership off at the BFI in March—got the ball rolling in Heber City with a 6.6 in Round 1.
“We didn’t really know what [the steers] were going to be, but he was a little bit stronger,” Fillmore explained. “Rhett did a good job; he got out of the barrier good and then we went and caught. With that steer, I think we were both pretty happy to just catch the first one clean because it didn’t seem like there were too many very aggressive runs in the first round.”
They won third in the second round with a 7.1 for $1,246 a man and locked in their spot at second call back for the third round. After watching the team before them miss Saturday night, they knew they could focus on catching and letting it play out.
With a 6.6-second run they not only picked up $623 apiece for fourth in the round, but they also locked in the Wilderness Circuit Finals aggregate win with a 20.3 on three head for $3,739 each.
On the head side, Anderson rode a mare he calls HB that he got from late NFR qualifier Quinn Kesler and his wife Jessie.
“That horse I rode, she actually just had two colts in the last two years and this was her first outing back,” Anderson, the 2014 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year, said. “So, I was honestly just trying to get a feel for that horse. She got better each time, and I’m pretty lucky to have her.”
Fillmore rode his old faithful—a gelding he calls Watson.
“He’s the most friendly, gentle giant in the world,” Fillmore said. “It’s kind of funny—when I first got him, I thought he may never make anything big time, but he was just a great horse to have around. Then he’s kind of stepped up and he’s not the most talented horse, but he never takes an extra step and he always is really solid.”
On to the next one
With trips booked for the NFR Open in July, Anderson, who welcomed his second son in January, may switch things up and enter outside the circuit more in 2025.
“Especially now that I’ve got this other horse and I’ll have two good horses, I feel like I’ll probably venture out more,” Anderson said.
For Fillmore, practice starts now.
“I think that it’s a pretty cool opportunity, and I feel excited for it,” Fillmore said. “It’s a ways away, but I’ll just keep working and I’m really excited for it. I feel like it’ll be a blessing to be there.”
