Published 8:15 am Monday, September 20, 2021
PENDLETON, Ore. — There’s one thing you’ll find out about Stetson Wright if you spend more than 10 minutes with him — he does not brag. He lets his riding do the talking for him.
The 22-year-old cowboy from Milford, Utah, who comes from a family steeped in rodeo history, won the saddle bronc and bull riding titles on Saturday, Sept. 18, for his first Pendleton Round-Up titles.
With those titles at the 111th Round-Up, came the coveted all-around title — an honor won a record seven times by Trevor Brazile.
Wright respects Brazile, who’s won 26 world titles, but said he is nothing like the legendary cowboy.
“I’d like to think of myself as being the next Stetson Wright,” he said. “I am totally different than they are, I go about things differently, and I am in totally different events.”
Wright, who won the world all-around titles in 2019 and 2020, and the bull riding title in 2020, broke Brazile’s record for all-around money earned heading into the NFR. To date, Wright has earned $308,906.
Brazile held the record of $218,852 in the regular season in 2015.
Wright’s $22,476 all-around money at Pendleton also broke Trevor Brazile’s 2012 record of $20,205.
Wright is the first cowboy to win three Pendleton titles in one year since Lewis Feild won the bareback, saddle bronc and all-round in 1989 — well before Wright was born.
He’s also the first all-round winner since Lewis Field in 1990 to earn all of his all-round money in the rough stock events, and the first bull rider since Kenny Stanton (bulls, bareback) in 1970.
Wright already has punched his ticket to the National Finals Rodeo in December in both of his events.
Wright has won the all-around title at 24 rodeos this season, including the Caldwell Night Rodeo, the Washington State Fair Pro Rodeo in Puyallup, St. Paul and now Pendleton. He’s also won 10 bull riding and five saddle bronc titles.
He couldn’t tell you half of what he’s won, nor does he care to.
“My goal is to stay on every bull and every horse,” he said. “I never think about the all-around.”
Wright started his week in Pendleton with two days at the Xtreme Bulls Tour Final, at which he finished second.
“It was good fun,” he said. “I got on good stuff and got to hang around there for a couple of days.”
The Pendleton Round-Up featured the best of the best Wednesday through Saturday. There were no easy days.
“The broncs and the bulls are harder to do because they are so stacked right now,” Wright said. “I like them both equally the same. There’s nothing more rewarding than making a good ride on something no one else has. If I do well, the all-round comes with it.”
In the midst of the competition, Wright finds himself up against some of the most elite saddle bronc riders in the PRCA — his brothers and uncles.
His older brothers Rusty and Ryder competed at Pendleton, as did his uncles Jesse and Spencer. Ryder led the saddle bronc world standings until Stetson won the title Saturday. Rusty finished third, while Ryder did not make two qualifying rides.
In the bulls, he was one of just two men to ride two bulls.
No matter what event he’s in, his brothers have his back. They help him get ready in the chute, and their voices are the only ones he hears during his 8-second rides.
It’s their support, and the healthy competition they have with one another that make the Wrights so dominant.
“The big thing is traveling with winners,” Stetson said. “I’m always in a truck no matter where I go, with Rusty, Ryder, Jesse, Spencer and Ky Hamilton. I don’t get in a truck with losers.”
The Wright boys got their start at home, learning from their dad, Cody, who won the Pendleton saddle bronc title in 2010.
“We want to match our dad,” Stetson Wright said. “If we are doing good, it’s because he has something to do with it. If you are coming out of a slump, he has something to do with it. He is the backbone of our bronc riding careers.”
Cody Wright, who hasn’t competed in a couple years, typically watches his boys and brothers compete on the Cowboy Channel. He also coordinates their schedules.
“We don’t talk bronc riding too much at home,” Wright said. “He’s always proud and he’s good about telling us. There will never be another like him.”
Unlike most guys who have punched their ticket to the NFR and are headed home until December, the Wright boys competed at Marysville, California, on Sunday. They will go home for a couple of days, then head back out to hit as many rodeos as they can by Sept. 30.
“None of us have to go anywhere,” Wright said. “We want to go.”
That’s how champions are made.
