With more than a month left in the 2021 Pro Rodeo regular season, Tyler Wade and Trey Yates made a bold move in the standings, adding $14,240 to each of their earnings from the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo and the Gooding (Idaho) Pro Rodeo, putting Wade in the No. 5 spot in the heading world standings with $78,533.21 and Yates at sixth in the heeling with $73,676.17 in total season earnings, unofficially.
Wade and Yates had 7.1 seconds to work with in the final round at the Aug. 17–21 Caldwell Night Rodeo, and stopped the clock in 6.6 seconds to place sixth in the round, worth $205 a man. They also won the average with a time of 15.5 seconds on three head, worth $4,673 a man.
“T-Wade was going to stay off the barrier and turn him,” Yates said. “The last thing I wanted to do was run him to the left because that left wall can come pretty fast. I scored a little too good and [the steer] dang sure went to the right. T-Wade set him up for me. I was a little behind, but I tried to take another swing over his back and get him caught.”
They started their weekend placing second in the first round with a 4.7-second run, worth $2,709 a man. Then came back on their second steer to be 4.2 seconds to split the round win with Tate Kirchenschlager and Cole Davison, worth $2,912 a man.
“T-Wade got really good starts and roped really aggressive,” Yates said. “The first one he roped around the neck, but hit him on the end of it real nice. The second one, the steer was straight, maybe a half a step to the right. He reached and stuck it on him. I tried to focus on having power on my rope and try and get in position.”
They added $3,741 to their earnings after tying Rhen Richard and Jeremy Buhler for second at the Gooding Pro Rodeo with a 4.2-second run, which ran Aug. 19–21.
“T-Wade hit the barrier pretty good,” Yates said. “When he roped the steer, he maybe checked up and I got a touch tight. He had the steer moving really good for me when I heeled him, and we had a really good finish. It shut it down fast.”
Wade continues to find success heading on the Yates’s gelding, Buckskin YY.
“I think T-Wade would vouch for it,” Yates said. “He has a really good horse now. It’s been a blessing for my Dad to let us have that horse while his was down. I think that that horse reads a cow really well. He knows how to move his feet to where, when it goes on the horns or on the head, he has an act to put them in tow really fast. T-Wade’s bay horse is a lot of the same way.”
Yates tapped his quick-footed, 13-year-old bay gelding, Dude.
“I try to ride him as much as possible because I love him, and I feel like, at the rodeos, we are a pretty good team,” Yates said. “He reads cattle really well. For me, it seems like he’s a once-in-a-lifetime [horse.]”
As they finish out the season in the Northwest, Wade and Yates are eyeing the little yellow indoor at the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas, come December 2021, which would make for Wade’s fourth and Yates’ second NFR trip.
“There is still a lot of money on the table to win, and I don’t consider us done,” Yates said. “I want to keep winning. It’ been a great year. I’ve been blessed. I thank my dad and my grandpa, my whole family. And Reese (Hennessy, who is one of Yates’s best friends that helps him down the road); he’s been a huge help for the team.”
