BY BRETT NIERENGARTEN
At age 22, bareback rider Jesse Pope is headed to his first Wrangler NFR.
Pope won $49,612 in 2020, which is more than any other year of his short career. He enters the NFR in 11th place in the world standings.
The Missouri cowboy surged into the National Finals thanks to some great riding in the last week of the season.
Pope won the ProRodeo Tour Finale on Sept. 26 thanks to a 90-point ride on Straight Moonshine. In four days at the Tour Finale in South Dakota, Pope placed in every round and won more than $7,200. All four of his rides were marked 84 or better.
Four days later at the inaugural Gold Buckle Knockout, Pope had rides of 87 and 90 points to win more than $1,000 in each rounds.
JESSE POPE - 90 POINTS IN PRORODEO TOUR FINALE FINAL ROUND
JESSE POPE - 88 POINTS TO WIN PRORODEO TOUR FINALE ROUND 2
Pope let the other bareback riders know he would be near the top of the world standings right away in 2020. On Jan. 11, he rode Weenie for 91.5 points to win the Cinch World’s Toughest Rodeo in Des Moines.
Then in Fort Worth, he had four straight rides of 83 or better including 86 and 86.5 in the last two rounds, both of which earned him a check.
In between those rodeos, he was 80 points or more on all four of his rides at the National Western.
Pope’s other money winning burst came from a string of four straight fourth places finishes in July. During that span, he won almost $3,000 in less than two weeks at rodeos Montana, Texas, Kansas and Utah. Every ride in that stretch was at least 81.5 points and two were marked 87.
JESSE POPE RIDES LIL RED HAWK FOR 87 POINTS AT THE UTE STAMPEDE
Pope went 57-for-58 in 2020, up from 53-for-58 a year ago. The young cowboy did not just improve his number of qualified rides, he also was getting more out of each horse. In 2019, Pope had 10 rides of 85 points or better and zero 90-point rides. In 2020, he notched three 90-point rides and 25 rides total of 85 or more.
