Cooper Cooke Rides Hot Streak Up the Bareback World Standings

The four-time NFR qualifier has used a dominant June run to vault himself into the top 5 of the PRCA leaderboard.

Cooper Cooke has won more than $38,000 during the first few weeks of June, lifting him into the top 5 of the Bareback World Standings. | Fernando Sam-Sin/@fsamsin

Cooper Cooke was looking for an out. Instead, he got a fatherly lesson. 

When he texted his dad, Casey, during the June 20-21 weekend, Cooke was hoping the message would put things in his perspective. After some solid competition through mid-May, the Victor, Idaho, native had taken time off to spend with his girlfriend in Hawaii, celebrating her recent graduation from college. Once that vacation was over, he went right back to bareback riding, rolling through early June at a torrid pace. 

Cooke knew very little about the horse he had drawn at the Silver State Stampede in Elko, Nev. What he did know was that the event had already seen numerous scores in the high 80s, meaning it would take a big ride to earn a check. He wanted his father to say it was OK to turn out and come home for a quick break. 

“I was looking for any reason I could not go. I wanted to go home and see my family. My dad was like, ‘I don’t think this is something you should stop right now. You need to go until it breaks or something,’” Cooke said. “I wasn’t so sure about my horse. I nodded my head and it took one or two jumps and I was like, ‘Yep, here we go again.’”

Cooke’s matchup with Frontier Rodeo’s Lonesome Medicin yielded an 89-point result, enough to win the rodeo and take home a $5,675 payday. It's part of a string of outcomes that has vaulted the four-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier up the PRCA Bareback World Standings. 

Since returning from that tropical getaway, Cooke won five of the six events that have been completed. That includes victories at the Snake River Stampede in Nampa, Idaho, and the Silver State Stampede. In total, June has already added $38,581 to Cooke’s ledger, moving him inside the top 5 of the World Standings last week after being outside the top 10 when the month started. 

Following limited competition this past week, Cooke slipped to No. 7 in the standings as of Monday, but 85.75-point ride against Cervi Brothers bucking horse Nobody's Baby at the Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede on Friday was sitting second overall, assuring him a spot in the short round on July 1.

It’s a whirlwind stretch the up-and-coming cowboy views as a balancing act. 

“My mentality this year has changed quite a bit. I feel like I’ve found that happy medium of having fun and not really caring, but on the other side, caring and wanting to do good. I think I’m just right in between both of those,” Cooke said with a laugh. “It’s just kind of a numb feeling. I’m just out here having fun and it’s going the way I’ve always wanted to go and it’s pretty cool.”

More importantly, it’s giving him a wealth of confidence going into the heart of the summer run, a period that hasn’t always been easy to navigate.

Last year, June only yielded $7,400 for Cooke, most of it coming in the last weekend of the month. He then had to rebound with some big showings over the Fourth of July schedule to regain momentum. This time around, that doesn’t appear to be the case – and for that he is grateful. 

“I’m pretty excited about it. Every year of my career, this point in the rodeo season doesn’t particularly go good for me,” Cooke said. “These 2-3 months are usually kind of tough on me. I end up having to catch up a little bit at the end of the year and it works out, but it’s pretty relieving that it’s going really good right now. I just hope the summer is going to go even better.”