Kendra Santos: We haven’t seen you out on the rodeo trail as much the last few years. What have you been up to?
Logan Olson: I sold my good horse and did some other things from 2009 to 2012. I circuit rodeoed with Matt Kasner in the Badlands Circuit in 2012 to season the brown stud I’m riding right now. (Prowler’s 12, and is out of Mel Potter’s Lone Drifter and an own daughter of Ona High.) Now he’s the best horse I’ve ever owned. Matt and I were having a decent year last year, then right before the BFI the first of June I was at home practicing and I snapped my thumb off. I got it caught in the dally, and it snapped the bone smooth in two. I had to get it pinned, to let the bone grow back together. I started back at Caldwell (Idaho) with Travis Woodard two days after I got my pins taken out. I went a couple weeks with Travis, and won $12,000 to $13,000 doing good at places like Caldwell, Gooding (Idaho) and Ellensburg (Wash.). We had a good run, which got me into the top 30 to get into the winter rodeos this year.
KS: You filled in for Erich Rogers at Logandale (Nev.), Red Bluff and Clovis (Calif.) this spring and headed for Cory Petska while Erich recovered from knee surgery. Tell me about getting that call from Cory.
LO: I hadn’t planned on going to California. I didn’t even have a partner. When Erich got hurt, he told me Cory was going to need someone for a few of the spring rodeos. The books for Logandale opened the next day.
KS: What was your plan for 2014 before Erich got hurt?
LO: I didn’t even have one. I was probably going to go to some circuit rodeos in Texas with somebody.
KS: Erich was due back in time for Guymon (Okla.) last month. What’s your plan for the rest of this year?
LO: That’s a great question. Right now I don’t have a clue. If I have the right partner I’ll go back out again. If not, I’ll go home, circuit rodeo and finish a couple head horses.
KS: Tell me about that 2008 day when you won the “Daddy of ’em All” in Cheyenne with Broc Cresta.
LO: That was the most memorable win I’ve ever had, especially now under the circumstances (Broc died at Cheyenne in 2012). That was by far my biggest win. We went into Cheyenne needing to win a lot, and we won the first round, placed in the second round, won the short round and won the average. We won close to $17,000 right there at that rodeo. We had a dream Cheyenne. To have that kind of rodeo with Broc—and at that rodeo—it’s nice to have that memory.
KS:What’s going on in your life outside the arena?
LO: When I’m at home I’m riding young horses, shoeing and roping. I also have a truck that hauls frac sand. I was in North Dakota with it for two years, and it’s in Northeast Colorado right now.
KS: What’s your mission in life right now?
LO: My goal is to make the Finals again in the next year or two. I’m also content staying at home. I have a little girl now, and she’s a firecracker. Sloan’s 4, she starts kindergarten in the fall and we’re tight. She’s darn sure got me wrapped around her little finger.
