Steer wrestler, Bret Marshall, put together the fastest run of his two-year pro rodeo career, a 3.6 second gem at the 61st annual Manitoba Stampede this past weekend. The effort earned the central Alberta cowboy his biggest pro win, a champion’s buckle and a tidy $2,931 payday. Cou pled with his 2-4 split at Moose Mountain Pro Rodeo at Kennedy, Saskatchewan, the 26 year-old second year pro collected just over $4,400, more than enough to eliminate the $600 deficit that had him outside of a top twelve position in the Canadian standings going into another critical CPRA weekend.
An Olds College grad, Marshall didn’t exactly follow the traditional path to a professional rodeo career. “I went to college but I didn’t rodeo there,” he explained. In fact, Marshall went to exactly three amateur rodeos prior to launching his pro rodeo career. “My cousin is Ky Marshall (former bareback rider) and I always enjoyed rodeo but not as a competitor. I played lots of sports growing up but my first rodeo was the Dog Pound Rodeo two years ago.”
He credits longtime friend Quentin Branden with really getting him into the sport. “We were working together at the Innisfail Auction Market and he said to me you should come to a practice. I kind of blew him off for a while, but he kept on me and I finally went to a practice and that was it. I never stopped. If it wasn’t for QB, I wouldn’t be here doing this. We traveled together some and I learned so much from him.”
Less than two years after his inauspicious start, the likable central Alberta hand is knocking on the door of a CFR appearance in an event that is ultra-competitive. As one steer wrestler put it. “Twelve guys go the CFR but, in the bulldogging, the next twelve all could go.”
The run that won the 61st edition of the Massey Ferguson Pro Tour stop at the Manitoba Stampede was a highlight reel moment on a day that saw several outstanding bulldogging runs. Just seconds before Marshall’s winning effort, hometown hero Joe King had thrilled the Morris faith ful with a 4.1 second run that looked like it would take home top honours until Marshall’s blistering 3.6.
“I had the steer that Evan Spady was 5.7 on the day before," said Marshall. "The steers were leaving pretty good and I caught him quick and the little red horse got me in a great place to get it done.” The ‘little red horse' is Tanner and Chelsea Milan’s horse, Red, another outstanding four-legged athlete from the Milan program that brought us much decorated Eddie and hazing horses Stump and Tie.
The standings that will appear later this week will likely have Bret Marshall in the top twelve, maybe the top ten, as the battle for coveted CFR berths heats up. And one cowboy is hoping that the journey from Dog Pound, Alberta to Morris, Manitoba is the path that will get him to Edmonton’s Rogers Place October 7-10 for his first CFR appearance.
A couple of bareback riders, one from each side of the 49th parallel made some serious noise during the east swing. Jacob Lees, the number two ranked bareback rider in the world made his first trip to Morris a memorable one as the Caldwell, Idaho sensation put up an 86-point ride on Prairie Rodeo’s H53 City Creek to split the win with Dantan Bertsch as each man pocketed $2,588.
“That was a really nice horse and it’s great to get a win in front of a big crowd my first time in Morris,” said the 30 year-old as he enjoys the best season of his career and keeps World season leader Bradlee Miller firmly in his sights.
Two time Canadian Champion, Clint Laye also had a productive swing through Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The 32 year-old ten-time CFR qualifier spurred his way to an 85.5 score on C5 Rodeo’s -991 No Ragrets to top the field at the Pile O’ Bones Rodeo in Regina (another Massey Ferguson Pro Tour stop) and take home $2,763. Laye then added a third place 84.5 at Morris for another $1,827, thus closing ground on Canadian season leader Orin Larsen who was sidelined to rest a body that has taken a pounding in recent weeks.
Another Canadian rodeo star who has his sights clearly set on a CFR berth is bronc rider, Daw son Hay. The Wildwood, Alberta native had a very productive weekend winning Pile O Bones event with 84.5 points on C5 Rodeo’s 184 High Valley for $3,079. Then he added a 3-4 split at Morris with Ben Anderson (84.5, $1,649 each). The twin successes will pull Hay closer to the all important top twelve in the standings and just as importantly edge him closer to the all-important fifteen rodeo count that is a requirement for a CFR qualification and that has kept Hay out of the Canadian year-end classic for the past three seasons.
Early in the 2026 season Montana competitors JC Crowley (tie-down roper) and his barrel racing wife Heather decided their goal for the year was to get Heather to her first CFR. This weekend she took another big step toward punching that CFR ticket. Coming into the three rodeo ‘east run’; she was solidly in third place in the standings; but a win at the Manitoba Stampede (15.77 seconds, $2,989) and a third at Regina (13.64, $2,236) and suddenly not only is she almost certainly clinching that CFR spot, but she is now knocking on the season leader door as well.
This week will see CPRA rodeo athletes busy once again with the Medicine Hat Stampede July 23-25, Rockyford Rodeo July 24-25, Hardgrass Bronc Match July 25 and Bruce Stampede July 26.
For event details and complete unofficial results go to rodeocanada.com
About CPRA
The Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) with headquarters in Airdrie, Alta. is the official sanctioning body for Professional Rodeo in Canada. The CPRA approves 60+ events annually with a total payout just shy of $8 million. The organization oversees the Massey Ferguson Pro Tour Finale September 2-5 in Armstrong, BC, holds their premiere event–the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB October 7 10 and sanctions the Maple Leaf Circuit Finals November 25-28 as part of Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, SK. For details, please see RodeoCanada.com
For more information:
Barb Poulsen
CPRA Communications and Media
Phone: 403 625-9225
Email: media@rodeocanada.com