It’s halftime in the rodeo industry. Even though we’ve only been to about a third of the 70 rodeos we can count toward the world standings this year, the winter and spring rodeos are in the books. As things heat up, there are frustrations every professional roper goes through. It’s all a puzzle that we’re trying to orchestrate, and there are more pieces to put together than most people realize. After the Fourth of July, you pretty much have the Finals made and can coast on in if you’ve had a good winter and spring. By the time you read this, the top half of the guys in the standings probably have that done. From year to year, the money it takes to make the Finals cut changes. But the benchmark for qualifying is usually between $40,000-50,000. Then there are the mid-range guys who are generally around $20,000 at this point. Everybody below that is scrambling. Their hopes are still alive, but it’s crunch time now. The Fourth, Salinas (Calif.) and Cheyenne (Wyo.) will factor in heavily as to whether or not they continue to go. So at this stage of the game in every season, everybody’s evaluating and analyzing.
