Eight months of battling bulls from Vancouver Island to Manitoba can wear you down.
But Cochrane’s Beau Brooks is ready to ride at the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) Nov. 5-9 at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum.
“I’m feeling really good. Healthy,” says Brooks, who finished 11th in Canadian Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA) standings. Top 12 qualify for the season-ending CFR. “Riding good. It’s looking really good.”
Brooks had a productive, if not uneven 2014 CPRA season. His 11th-place finish was enough to get him to the Edmonton show, but not in the third- or fourth-place slot like in seasons past.
“It’s been kind of hit and miss with the pay,” he recalls. “I only ended up 11th in the standings. I was riding the good ones at the little rodeos and if I stayed on at the big rodeos, I was on kind of a weaker bull. Riding-wise, I probably rode more rank bulls than I ever have before. It just kind of averaged out. It was kind of an average year.”
Still, he’s buoyed by the CFR stock list.
“The list of bulls we get to pick from is really cool,” he observes. “A lot of the bulls actually, I’ve been on quite a few of them and rode quite a few of them. So I was really excited to see the list for this year.”
In his sixth pro season and attending his fourth CFR, the 24-year-old Cochrane bull rider, who’s taking his young family to the show, Brooks isn’t quite as apprehensive going in this year.
“Going in 11th, I’m not really feeling the pressure as much,” Brooks says. “In previous years I’ve been going in there third and fourth in the standings and whatnot. I was kind of feeling the pressure because I had a definite shot at winning the finals in the year end.
“This year I go in and just try and ride every bull I get on.”
Beau Brooks, 24
Bull Rider, 6th CPRA season
Career CFR appearance: 4th
2014 CPRA Standing: 11th ($19,129.95 from 39 appearances)
2014 CPRA wins: 1 (82.5 at Hand Hills on Slow Lane)
2014 High Score: 86.5 (2nd place) at Airdrie on Grey Water
