Big Valley Cowboy Zeke Thurston has won his third National Finals Rodeo (NFR) World Championship and did it riding consistently.
Thurston has been having a great season in Saddle Bronc. He won the Canadian National finals and then competed through all 10 rounds in Las Vegas last week to win the NFR championship.
“That was an unreal week. I drew some outstanding horses. My goal coming in here was…“I came off of a big win at the Canadian Finals, my goal was to make the best possible ride on every horse that I had, it didn’t matter what kind of a horse it was. I feel like I did that and this was the end result,” said Thurston.
One ride that stood out was in the fourth round where Thurston drew Championship Pro Rodeo’s Heaven On Earth. This was the first and only qualified ride on this horse in the 2022 season.
“I just figured I would get a good spur out and try to get ahead of him right there. I watched a bunch of videos of him annihilating everybody, so I thought, might as well just roll the dice and get it on,” he said.
He scored an 88.5 ride on Heaven On Earth. He rode All or Nothin in the final round and earned an 89.5.
Thurston finished the season with his career-best earnings of $399,916. While he won the world title by more than $58,000 over his closest competitor, it was a close week with four all having a shot at winning the gold buckle.
