Twin brothers Travis and Tyler Whitlow walked away from the Wilderness Circuit Finals Rodeo in Heber City, Utah, with $5,597 for their average title and two go-round checks.
The 35-year-old San Tan Valley, Arizona, natives’ 6.7-second run in the first round was out of the money but kept them in the average heading into the weekend.
“That steer was pretty low-headed in the run-through,” Travis said of their first steer. “I was a little bit late and just went in there and caught him.”
“We just wanted to get that steer caught,” Tyler added. “Travis ran in there, handled him really good, and I was able to heel him pretty fast.”
In the second round, their 5.8-second run earned them a third-place check for $622.
“I got a lot better start on that one,” Travis said of Round 2. “I just stayed semi-aggressive, and we made a lot better run on that one than we did on the first one, for sure. It was smooth.”
Heading into the third round, only a few teams had two down clean, making knocking down a third steer crucial. The brothers answered the call, adding another $1,244 to their pockets in Round 3 with a 7.4-second run.
“He spun him really fast,” Tyler said of his brother. “If I would have heeled him fast, we could have been a lot faster, but there were only three clean times in the average, and I knew if I caught him clean, we were going to get money. I was just going to be happy with what we won, but we ended up doing better than that.”
They clinched the average title thanks to the help of their horsepower.
On the head side, Chicks Come Running, “Coop,” is the 9-year-old running-bred gelding Travis has had for three years.
“He’s just really easy, nothing special, but he scores really good and never gets in your way,” Travis said. “He was a reject barrel horse; I sent him to Tanner Baldwin for two months and then just finished him myself and started hauling him last winter to the jackpots. I started rodeoing on him last summer.”
Tyler was heeling on another 9-year-old, Bet On Gilligan, “Badger,” who he’s had for about three years.
“I’ve been riding him at the rodeos off and on for the last two years,” he said. “He’s been a great horse for me. I won the #15.5 add-on in Vegas on him two years ago.”
Although the brothers grew up in Arizona, where Travis still lives full time, Tyler moved to Idaho about 10 years ago but still spends winters in the desert. With how easy it is to hit their rodeo count in the summer in the Wilderness Circuit, the decision to designate there was an easy one.
“We go to a bunch of rodeos up there because of where he lives,” Travis said. “I think we went to 50 or 60 rodeos last summer, and they were all within four hours of his house—both amateur and pro.”
