Wyatt Casper Fractures Ankle After Clean Sweep at Zeke Thurston Invitational

The Zeke Thurston Invitational Xtreme Broncs was held in Stettler, Alberta, Canada, July 30. With only 30 bronc riders invited and $20,000 added, this was a great hit for bronc riders to add to their earnings.

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Casper was a force to be reckoned with as he topped the leaderboard in both rounds with a score of 90 points in round one on Big Stone Rodeo’s Gone Fishing and 93.5 points in the finale on C5 Rodeo’s Virgil.

Virgil is the infamous 17-year-old gray bronc owned by C5 Rodeo. Although he is a two-time PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year, saddle bronc riders look forward to seeing his name in their draw, too.

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Ranch manager Tyson Cardinal told Rodeo on SI back in January,

“He’s never really had a bad trip; you can always be 90 plus on him if you ride him right. He does whatever he wants to do, and he never lets us down.”

Casper’s total of 183.5 points on two helped him secure the average win, locking in a payday of over $7,000.

Unfortunately, after his ride in the finals, he took a wrong step off his horse, leaving him with a fractured ankle.

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He took to Instagram stating, “Bad news, friends and supporters... I fractured my ankle getting off Virgil on Wednesday and will be taking some time off to heal. I’ll be home, resting up and spending time with my family. Thanks for all the support! I’ll be back soon.”

The 5-time NFR qualifier is sitting No. 12 in the world standings and has had some big paydays over the past month.

Casper won Mandan, North Dakota, finished second at Spanish Fork Fiesta Days, third at Utah Days of ‘47 Rodeo, and placed in multiple rounds at the Calgary Stampede—just to name a few. His earnings in the month of July alone stood over $46,000 while his season earnings come in around $119,671.

He finished third in the world after last year’s NFR, along with winning the average title after placing in seven out of ten rounds.

The 2025 season ends on September 30, leaving it a close call for Casper to see if he will be able to make this year’s NFR.

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