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How does someone from Alabama become a cowboy? You don’t have a horse. You don’t have a ranch. You’ve hardly ever even been to a rodeo. Blade Elliott knows. It takes a lot of heart. Listen how Blade describes how he went from having very few resources to becoming one of the top PRS bareback riders. How he overcame the loss of his best friend and how he once rode one of the toughest broncs around when his friends thought it wasn’t possible.

It isn’t often that an ancient Greek philosopher can have a modern-day Saddle Bronc rider as a student, but that’s what can be said about Tyrell Smith, a 2-time PRS World Finals qualifier and a 2012 NFR qualifier and round winner.

In Pro Rough Stock half of your score comes from the animal you ride. The animal you ride is determined by random draw. In the PRS extra effort is made to ensure that every rider can draw an animal on which they can win. But not animals are equal. So in this Rough Stock University edition of MOTR, Kelly Timberman gives us strategies for avoiding the bad draw blues.

Ryan Rodewald may be the only saddle bronc rider who is also a commercial jet captain. Certainly he’s the only Pro Rough Stock event champion to carry both titles. In this episode we learn how Ryan got into saddle bronc riding and then made his way into the wild blue yonder as a commercial airline captain.

Growing up in a saddle bronc riding family has it’s advantages. But now Cole Elshere is taking on a new challenge. Learning to ride like legendary bronc rider Casey Tibbs for an upcoming documentary. It’s not as easy as it might sound.

In today’s MOTR Rough Stock University session Kelly Timberman outlines how the upcoming PRS World Finals will work. There are some new things in store for the riders and fans at Rough Stock Bowl III.

There are a lot of things about Isaac Diaz that are not typical for a saddle bronc rider. For one thing, he grew up in Florida, not exactly a state known for rodeo. As he was learning the craft his mentor, Uncle Fletch, told him he wasn’t a “natural at the sport.” Isaac simply took that to mean he’d have to try a bit harder to get good at it, something he had the passion to do. Today, he’s a multi-time winner in the PRS, a 4-time WNFR qualifier and he’s about to compete in his first Rough Stock Bowl, the 2014 PRS World Finals.

Today’s Rough Stock University question comes from Kevin Sorenson, a listener in Colorado who asks: When does the clock actually begin on an :08-second ride?

Saddle Bronc Rider Curtis Garton brings a distinctive New Zealand flair to the PRS. From his accent, to his incredible attitude he’s had his best year ever in 2014. Curtis takes us on a journey from his Kiwi roots to his PRS success. And along the way, we ride a real bronc, an “air” bronc and even a horse that he could only dream about.

Bareback rider Brian Bain is at the top of his game. But getting there took a lot of perseverance and re-inventing the man he saw everyday in the mirror. Which, as it turns out, came naturally to this Rube Goldberg of the rodeo world.

Is it possible that horses and bulls are “right handed” or “left handed?” In this episode of Rough Stock University we learn why some animals are best when coming out of the chutes on the right side, and some on the left side.

What’s it like to be one second away from your dream? Today we have as our feature guest bareback rider Cimmaron Gerke of Colorado. He knows what’s it like to push through the pain and come ever so close to winning it all. He also knows what’s it like to get back on, keep going and pursuing your dreams.

We’ve come to the end of 2014. In this episode we relive excerpts from some of our favorite podcast moments of the past few months. We’ve picked out top five, hope you enjoy!

Whenever he steps into the arena at a Pro Rough Stock event JJ Harrison brings a distinctive style of performance with him. In fact, he says, it is not really a performance at all. JJ brings a unique blend of playful wit and physical comedy that disarms the audience and gives them confidence to laugh and smile while enjoying a style of humor that is family friendly. It’s a way of charming an arena that has lifted him to the elite level of western sports entertainers.

In this Roughstock University a very observant fan noticed something that rough stock riders do, particularly, bareback riders. Why do they need all that athletic tape? Find out what purpose it serves and why it would be impossible to ride without it.

The Sutton family loves basketball. But their passion is raising high-powered bucking horses. Who will be the next superstar to come from their program? To that end, they are doing their best to move the industry forward.

Now in it’s second year of existence RFD-TV’s The American has succeeded in changing the landscape of professional rodeo sports. The event is the richest single day rodeo in history. In 2015, more than $2 million could be awarded on the first Sunday afternoon in March at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. But did you know that anyone can enter? The $1 million bonus is available to anyone who feels they can rope or ride good enough to beat the best.

In part two of our interview with Cord McCoy he tells us the story about how he and his brother Jet came to be a part of CBS-TV’s “The Amazing Race.”

Judging is one of the most important parts of the sport of rough stock. You have to have qualified judges who know how to view and evaluate every ride fairly. In this Rough Stock University session, Kelly Timberman tells us how judges become a judge. And he helps us see the ride through the eyes of a judge, to know what he’s looking for as he records his score. Finally we’ll learn how Pro Rough Stock took inspiration from the Olympics to modernize and update what had been an antiquated rough stock scoring system.

In his travels around the world with CBS-TV’s The Amazing Race, Cord McCoy has literally seen it all. But as a rough stock rider he has an amazing story to tell of one day when things went weirdly wrong at a rodeo. In this episode we learn how it all started for Cord, growing up with 4 highly competitive brothers in southeast Oklahoma, to seeing the bright lights of the PBR World Finals.