After surgery cut RC Landingham’s season short in 2023, he came back in 2024 to earn his fifth trip to the National Finals Rodeo.
While surgery impacted his riding style, it is Landingham’s family at home that has him looking at the rodeo road from a different perspective.
“At this age, there’s a lot more things that factor into the rodeo career. There’s been a lot of things that have changed and it’s all been for the good,” Landingham said.
The perspective that came with those changes made Landingham’s succeess at the Red Bluff Roundup, when he drew what he calls the greatest horse there has ever been, more impactful than it might have been in past years.
“To get on Virgil in any arena is spectacular. I’ve drawn around him my whole career, I’ve never got the chance to get on him. He’s been right next to me I don’t know how many times and to finally get to draw him in that arena was pretty unreal. And then to go out and have success and set the arena record just topped it all off. That was probably the highlight in the states and then to go up north to go Calgary and get the win there on the same horse, it’s unreal,” he said.
Spectacular is a fitting word for Landingham’s season as a whole thanks to two trips on Virgil, a new baby girl at home and No. 5 in the World. As these are just a few of his accomplishments, Landingham looks towards the NFR and says this is probably the most mellow he has been.
Another contributing factor to Landingham’s current mindset is that his success allowed him to avoid the bubble.
“Most years I’ve been on the bubble fighting and thank God I’m not this year. It’s been a heck of a show to watch with all these guys on the bubble in the bareback riding but I’m just going to do the things that keep me mentally confident and I’ll have all my family out there. It should be a good ten days in Vegas,” he said.
