Bringing the Rodeo Heat
With the 2026 CPRA rodeo season rounding the final turn and heading for home, several Rodeo Canada veterans brought their A-Game to the weekend’s quartets of rodeos/special events.
Riley Wakefield, the 30 year-old, three event hand from O’Neill, Nebraska turned in a flawless 8.5 second run to take top honours in the tie down roping at the Medicine Hat Stampede. The win was worth $3713, then Wakefield and team roping partner Jon Peterson added a second place run at Medicine Hat, and capped off the weekend by finishing third at the Rockyford Rodeo. The triple successes resulted in a $7703 injection for the Wakefield bank account, consolidating his standings in both the team roping (top 10) and tie-down roping (top 12) standings and moving him into second place in the All-Around race, just a rock throw behind three-time All-Around champion, Logan Spady.
Wakefield has had to overcome a couple of handicaps in getting to where he is at this point in the season. Surgery to repair an injured ankle in March meant a late start (Wainwright) for him in tie-down roping and has kept him out of his third event–the steer wrestling.
Both of his efforts at Medicine Hat came with some drama. In the tie down roping he elected to use one wrap and a hooey rather than the traditional two wraps, a decision that likely made the difference as he edged second place finisher, Austin Hines, by just one-tenth of a second.
“You can kind of feel things,” Wakefield explained. “When you’re gathering those legs, if they’re straining a little bit, you go ahead and put two wraps on them, but I’d seen a video of that calf from Regina and I knew he was good and then I could feel as I was gathering his legs that a wrap and a hooey would work.”
And the team roping required some on-the-fly adjustment as well. “It was interesting. That steer actually stopped the first time they ran him as soon as the head rope hit him. So Jon and I had a game plan that I would jump in behind the steer, like a calf roper, until the head rope was on him then I had to widen again to throw my heel rope. So it felt funny but it worked out.”
Wakefield has been roping alongside Peterson all season. “Jon and I both competed in the Badlands Circuit some years ago and became really good friends. I approached him this off-season and asked if he’d like to change things up and come up to Canada. He was interested in doing that but he has a lot of cattle at his place in Belle Fourche, SD so for the first dozen rodeos or so he’d fly up here, I’d pick him up at the airport in Calgary and then drop him off again after the weekend. But he’s been up here now for the last couple of months so it’s working well.”
As for the All-Around race, the two-time CFR qualifier is very aware that missing part of the season in the roping and the entire season in steer wrestling has created added challenges. “I don’t know if this is the year to win that All-Around, but to even be in that conversation with everything that’s gone on is pretty exciting.”
His own performance wasn’t the only excitement for the likable Nebraskan. While he was faring well on the north side of the 49th parallel, fiancé Jenna Dallyn (Nanton, AB) was in the breakaway roping final at Cheyenne, the Daddy of ‘em all.
‘I was pulling into Bruce and there is (almost) no service in Bruce, Alberta. But I’m on the Cowboy Channel and I get just enough of a connection to get to the end, and just when she’s getting ready to run it cuts out again and when we get it back it shows she’s leading with one girl to go. I was whooping and hollering—I figured there was no way that last girl would win it and I turn it back on again and Jenna finished second. But it was pretty darn exciting.”
The pair will tie the knot next May. “Yeah, we got engaged while I was on crutches. I figured I better do something constructive,” Wakefield chuckled.
Turns out Riley Wakefield has overcome some difficult challenges to be pretty darn constructive both in and out of the rodeo arena.
New week, different story. Five-time Canadian champion steer wrestler Scott Guenthner collected a pair of wins and a second, a three for three bounce back weekend after an uncharacteristically frustrating east run that saw him blanked in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Guenthner, the # 1 man in the bulldogging standings with a lead of almost $30,000, padded that lead still further with a 3.8 second winning run at Medicine Hat for $3219, a 3.7 second effort, good for $2032 at the Bruce Stampede and finally a 4.0, $1776 second place finish at Rockyford.
In a season that he has acknowledged will be his last, Guenthner is hoping to go out on top with a sixth Canadian title and a final foray to the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas for a 7th NFR qualification. The biggest challenge for Guenthner was just getting to the three rodeos in time to compete. “It was really hectic, actually, with the 1:30 start time in Medicine Hat and slack starting at 5:30 in Bruce. Probably went quite a bit over the speed limit. Ty (Livingstone) and Owen (Schauer) left in two different trucks and I was behind them with the horses. I told them, 'you guys need the rodeo more than I do and I don’t think the horses should be going as fast as you need to go'. They got there with time to get ready and I arrived with about seven guys to go before me. I got the bridle on Rattle (he was already saddled) and was able to win it so it worked out amazing.”
There is no doubt that the 2023 Cowboy of the Year will go out on top as he winds down what is a Hall of Fame career.
As for the decision to retire from the sport that has been such an integral part of his like, there is no hesitation. “I’m fully fine with it,” he acknowledged. “I still enjoy it, especially the crew of guys, but I don’t need all those miles anymore. And I never wanted to be that guy who keeps going until he’s either too injured to compete or can’t really throw a steer anymore. There’s more to life than rodeo with family and the ranch and this is just the right time. I want to be with my wife and kids and do my part on the ranch so I’m not sad that rodeo is ending.”
In the meantime there’s some work to do before Scott Guenthner goes to chasing kids and cows on a full-time basis. There’s the possibility of a sixth steer wrestling title to match the record of Bud Butterfield and Cody Cassidy and perhaps one more NFR stop.
“Yeah, I plan to go to everything in the northwest from now to the end of the season to try for that last hurrah at the NFR. So we’ll see what happens.”
Whatever happens will be an exclamation point on a career that has been both memorable and a whole lot of fun for anyone who loves this sport to watch.
Staying with the talented veteran theme, Big Valley, Alberta's Zeke Thurston was up to his old tricks. Between semi-final and finals rides at Cheyenne, the four-time World Champion bronc rider dropped into a familiar locale—Pollockvile, Alberta for the Hardgrass Bronc Match. When the dust settled and the smoke cleared (and there was smoke) the six-time Canadian Champion (and now four-time Hardgrass Champion) was the 2026 Hardgrass Bronc Match victor, courtesy of an 89.5 point masterpiece on Calgary Stampede’s C-75 Cracking The Till for $7630 in the long go, a second 89.5 pointer in the short go for a 179 aggregate win and a total haul of $17,885. The stellar performance has Thurston making a big move in the world standings and also nipping at the heels of Canadian season leader to date–Q Taylor.
This week will see CPRA rodeo athletes busy criss-crossing Alberta for a number of events:
- High Prairie Elks Pro Rodeo July 28-29
- Zeke Thurston Invitational Xtreme Broncs event in Stettler July 29
- Strathmore Stampede (Massey Ferguson Pro Tour stop) July 31-Aug 3
- Coronation Pro Rodeo Aug 1-2
- North Peace Stampede (Grimshaw) Aug 1-2
For event details and complete unofficial results go to rodeocanada.com
