Pro Rodeo: Ferley looks back on championship year

By Michelle Muellenberg, Special to the Journal | Friday, December 29, 2006

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

For many cowboys, competing head to head at the largest rodeo in the world would bring with it some pressure.

Not for Chad Ferley.

Even in the eight rounds he went back and forth with Cody DeMoss, the regular season top-rated saddle bronc rider, at the National Finals Rodeo earlier this month, Ferley kept his cool.

"You are just trying to think about the things you are supposed to be doing on the horse. You think about your job, you can't worry about anything else," Ferley said in a phone interview from his family's ranch in Oelrichs. "I have to do it anyhow, there is no use sweating it."

For the 26-year-old, saddle bronc riding is a job, and one he is good at.

The top 15 money winners during the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association's regular season go to the NFR. Ferley came into the NFR competition in second place, just under DeMoss. He left, however, as the world champion saddle bronc rider.

And it wasn't an easy win.

"There are 10 rounds. For the first eight rounds it went back and forth," Ferley said of the competition. "The ninth round I finally clinched it."

In front of his family, fiancé and more than 18,000 others, Ferley claimed the highest honor in rodeo.

"It is the biggest rodeo there is so it's pretty awesome," Ferley modestly said of his win.

The journey to be the top saddle bronc rider is a long, hard road with weeks spent away from home and coping with tired, sore bodies. Cowboys spend nearly the entire year competing and preparing for the NFR.

"(The rodeo season) is pretty much all year round," he said. "It was over at the finals (Dec. 9) and then it starts up again in the beginning of January.

"We are probably gone over 200 days a year," Ferley said. "It can be hard at times. (But) if it's what you make your living at, you have to do it. You get worn out and sore and beat up sometimes. If you are not hurt too bad, you just keep going."

Along with the normal wear and tear on the body, cowboys also face injuries which sometimes keep them sidelined.

Ferley has broken his leg twice and wrist once. In one of his injuries, Ferley's horse ran him into the chute gate at the 2005 Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, forcing him to miss the first half of the season.

While the rodeo circuit is tough, a strong, family support system helps make it easier for Ferley.

"They take care of things at home for you so you can keep rodeoing," he said.

While Ferley's absence is hard on his fiancé, Jessie, he said she takes it pretty well.

"I try not to be gone more than two weeks at a time," he said.

Ferley started his involvement with rodeo at a young age, following in the footsteps of his father and siblings.

"I've done it since I was a little kid. My dad rodeoed when he was younger, so did my brothers and sister," Ferley said.

Ferley is the only one in his family who continued to rodeo, taking a hobby and making it into a career choice.

"Things were going pretty good and I was making a little money at it so I thought I would take it to another level," he said.

He joined the PRCA in 2001. This month was his first trip to the NFR.

Ferley said he chose to compete in saddle bronc riding simply because that is what he learned to do.

"It's a lot of fun," he said.

Saddle bronc riding is rodeo's classic event and evolved from the task of breaking and training horses to work the cattle ranches. The event requires precise timing, style and grace. Judges score on the horse's bucking action, the cowboy's control of the horse and the cowboy's spurring action.

Ferley is one in a long line of world champions hailing from South Dakota including Jeff Willert, the 2005 saddle bronc champion from Belvidere, Billy Etbauer, of Huron, and Marvin and Mark Garrett, of Belle Fourche.

Ferley credits "good horses and good athletes" for South Dakota's knack for producing world champion cowboys.

In his free time, what little there is, Ferley spends time on the road watching movies or golfing. When back in Oelrichs, Ferley works on the ranch.

While he is enjoying his recent championship, Ferley's time off will not last for long.

On Jan. 12, 2007, in Odessa, Texas, Ferley will begin the task of defending his title.

"It all starts at zero so you never know what will happen," he said.