Jarrett wins Prairie Circuit Finals roping

DUNCAN -  Things had to go Ryan Jarrett’s way if he was to win another Prairie Circuit tie-down roping championship. They did.

Jarrett placed in Friday’s second round and won the third to claim the aggregate title during his three days of competition at the Chisholm Trail Ram Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo, earning $6,267 along the way. That pushed his season earnings in the Oklahoma-Kansas-Nebraska region to $22,698, and he won the year-end championship by just $119 over Cash Fuesz of Eureka, Kansas.

“I hope I’m comfortable here,” Jarrett said of the Stephens County Arena, just 10 miles or so from his home near Comanche. “I think I’ve been to the circuit finals 11 or 12 times since they’ve been here in Duncan. I like getting at the barrier, where some people are a little hesitant and think they’ve got a spot in the average.

“In my mind, I just want to go rope this one.”

He closed out his weekend with a 7.4-second run to take the round title and the lion’s share of the cash in the final go-round. That also helped him win the aggregate title by two seconds over Austin Lawrence of Sperry, Oklahoma. With his solid work so close to home, the 40-year-old qualified for the national circuit finals, which is now called the NFR Open and takes place next July at Colorado Springs.

“That’s perfect,” said Jarrett, a 14-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and the 2005 all-around world champion. “I was hoping something like this would work out. I really didn’t think I could catch Cash. It just worked out in my favor that he didn’t get along very well.”

Fuesz didn’t place in any of the three nights, which enabled Jarrett to slide into the top spot. By finishing as the runner-up for the year-end title, Fuesz will join Jarrett in Colorado next summer.

“That was a nice 5-year-old that I rode all three rounds here,” Jarrett said of Crackerjack. “He’s just something I’ve been fiddling with. The horse is just a winner. I’ve rode some special horses, but he’s a winner. I’ve won several dollars on him this year, and he took to it.”

The days of all-night drives and rodeoing hard to battle for world championships have changed to traveling with his cowgirl wife, Shy-Anne, and their daughter, Jurnee. He finished the 2024 campaign 46th in the world standings, but that’s OK by him.

“We’ve just been easing around rodeoing, enjoying it,” he said. “We never drove all night, so that was a plus. It’s pretty nice when you can do that.”

It’s also pretty nice to win the circuit title just a few miles from home.