The title of world champion is up for grabs at the National Rodeo Finals (NFR) in Las Vegas, Nevada and professional team roping rodeo competitor Kolton Schmidt, who is ranked fourth overall in the world, is poised to take it.
Schmidt, 22, from Barrhead, won the American Quarter Horse Association Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (AQHA PRCA) Horses-of-the-Year and successfully qualified for the first NFR of his career.
“I’ve been competing in rodeos in Canada, in a professional capacity, since I was 15,” Schmidt told the Barrhead Leader Nov. 21, adding he has been traveling across the United States in the same way since he was 19.
“I do it all over America, from Texas to Washington. It is a dream come true. It’s all I ever wanted to do and now I get to make a living doing what I love.”
Schmidt said his horse, Tuffys Badger Chex, aka “Badger”, which is owned by his father Ronald Schmidt, is who he was riding when he qualified for the Las Vegas event.
Schmidt and his partner, Shay Carroll, won the team-roping event at the rodeo in Wainwright to qualify.
Asked which of the events he has participated in this season stands out in his mind, Schmidt said the Ponoka Stampede.
“It was pretty cool,” he added.
He said being a professional rodeo competitor is hard work.
“I sure appreciate all of the support from my family and friends back home and I’m excited to see what Vegas has in store for me.”
Regardless of whether or not Schmidt wins the honour of being crowned world champion, he said he will never stop.
“I’m going to keep trying to make the national finals every year and I’ll always be working towards trying to become a world champion some day.”
