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.

A Drumheller Dragon has been selected to play in the World Junior A Challenge in Cornwall this month.
The World Junior A Challenge opened on Sunday, December 11. Dragons Ty Daneault has been selected to the West Team and saw action in the opener against the United States.
Canada West’s 22-player roster was selected by head coach Justin Falk (Snowflake, Man./Winkler, MJHL) and director of operations Rob Sklaruk (Canora, Sask./Spruce Grove, AJHL).
Daneault is having a stellar season in his second year with the Dragons. He is leading the Dragons in scoring with 21 goals. He also has 15 assists for 36 points in 29 games.
Prior to the tournament the Canada West Squad also took on Latvia.
According to a press release, of the 14 gold medal games at the World Junior A Challenge, 11 have featured at least one Canadian team. Canada East will look to earn its first gold medal, having won silver six times (2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2019) and bronze once (2008), while Canada West has won gold five times (2006, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2017), silver three times (2008, 2009, 2012) and bronze twice (2013, 2018).
TSN is the official broadcast partner of Hockey Canada and will broadcast the bronze and gold medal games on Sunday, December 18. All other games will be streamed live at ww.HockeyCanada.ca