Bareback Riding – Garrett Shadbolt

As champ, he won the three-piece buckle Phillipsburg is known for. “It’s a pretty buckle. I’d never seen a three-piece before. I gave it to my wife and she likes it a lot. It looks nice on her belt.”
Shadbolt is a fifth generation rancher on the operation in the Nebraska Sandhills. A Doane College (Crete, Neb.) graduate with a chemistry degree, he wrestled collegiately before embarking on a pro rodeo career. He’s qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo twice (2021-2022) and the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo four times.
He loves getting on Beutler horses. “Bennie has the stock (in Phillipsburg) and I’ve been on tons of his horses. I’ve been getting on Bennie’s horses since I started. He’s got a lot of tough horses, and I’ve never shied away from that. I think that’s part of being a bareback rider. It’s not all hoppers and sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and get it done.”
He also loves coming to Philipsburg. “It’s a good time. They have a really good party there, and the locals show up. It’s a dusty outdoor rodeo, and that’s my style of rodeo. The people there are my kind of people. Country people.
“It’s a cool rodeo, and it’s a Bennie Beutler rodeo. So you can expect to get on a bucker when you go there.”
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: “Midday,” he laughs. “I’m not a huge morning person, but I don’t want to admit it.”
• Coffee or tea: “Iced tea, but I drink a lot of coffee, too.”  
• Winter or summer: Summer. “But as I’m getting older, I’m starting to appreciate winter more. I handle the cold a little better than I used to.”
• Family: Wife Katie, son George and daughter Mave.

Steer Wrestling – Cade Goodman

When the dust settled, Cade Goodman turfed a steer in 3.6 seconds, the fastest time of the entire Phillipsburg rodeo, to win the ’22 title.
The Waelder, Texas man, who grew up in Nacogdoches, Texas, knew he drew a good steer. “The guy who had him before me didn’t make that great of a run, and I wasn’t too sure about him. But I looked him up and found out the steer was a great steer. I tried to make the best run I could and ended up making a dang good run, and it paid off.”
He was aboard a fourteen-year-old bay gelding named Boone, who he trained. Boone was used as a haze horse throughout Cade’s college years, then switched over to the bulldogging. Cade graduated from Texas A&M in 2018 with a degree in agricultural economics.
Last year, Goodman rodeoed fulltime while working part-time. He did well, winning almost $30,000 in the Texas Circuit and more at rodeos outside the circuit, including Phillipsburg. He won the 2022 Texas Circuit steer wrestling title and will compete at the 2023 NFR Open (formerly known as the National Circuit Finals Rodeo.)
The 27-year-old was pleasantly surprised when he received his buckle in the mail. “It’s really a cool, cool little buckle,” he said. “I didn’t even know you could get trophy three-piece buckles. It’s definitely one of the coolest buckles I’ve gotten. It really stands out.” He’s saving it for special occasions. “The first time I put on a suit and a tie, it’ll be the first thing I put on a belt.”
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: “Definitely evening. It’s nice to come home and do my own thing and relax a little bit.”
• Coffee or tea: Coffee. “I’ve got to have a cup every morning. I’ve never been much on coffee but I’ve gotten to a point where I get me a cup every morning.”
• First buckle he won: “Probably my first buckle was at when I was four or five years old, when my parents led me on a lead line.”
• Family: Parents Johnnie and Laura Goodman.

Team Roping – Bubba Buckaloo and Joseph Harrison

Bubba Buckaloo was the header for the duo that won the team roping at the 2022 Phillipsburg Rodeo.
The Kingston, Okla. cowboy threw a “hail Mary,” he said, for a red steer that went right. “The barrier was really long, I threw my rope, it worked, and we went 4.1” seconds,” he said.
He was aboard a nine-year-old palomino gelding named Poncho, who he’s owned for a year. The horse is “just really fast and does everything really fast,” Bubba said. “He’s a super good horse.”
Bubba had never won any money in Phillipsburg till last year, and now it’s on his list of favorite rodeos. “When you do good somewhere, you want to go back there.”
He gave the three-piece buckle to his dad, who wears it. “He loves that little buckle,” he said. “He’s got a big ol’ belly so the buckle fits him good.”
Bubba competed at the 2018 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: Morning. “I’m a pretty good morning person. Not like 5:30 in the morning, but I’m usually pretty chipper and in a good mood at about 7:30 or 8 am.”  
• Coffee or tea: Sweet tea.
• Winter or summer: “I don’t like winter or summer. I’m a springtime guy.”
• First buckle he won: A sheep riding buckle, won at age four in Tishomingo, Okla
• Family: Wife Josie.

Joseph Harrison was on the heel end of the team that won the 2022 Phillipsburg Rodeo.
The Marietta, Okla. man teamed up with Bubba Buckaloo to turn in a time of 4.1 seconds to win the buckle and $3,407.
It was on a red steer that he remembered, six months later. The steer “wanted to go right,” he said, “and I remember telling Buck (Buckaloo), I’ll try to hold him if I can, but there was no holding him. Buck did a great job of hanging onto that dude.”
It was money they needed to win. “Honestly, we needed it,” he said. “We hadn’t been making good runs that week, and that was the first one we blasted.”
The duo has roped together, on and off, since he was 15 and Bubba was 14. “We won the Velma (Okla.) picnic,” Joseph said. “It’s not a big rodeo by a lot of people’s standards, but it’s a pretty big rodeo for our part of the world, especially when we were kids. It would draw a lot of teams and some pretty good guys, even.” They were the youngest team to ever win it.
Joseph has competed at Phillipsburg numerous times and remembers winning third a few years ago. He loves the rodeo.
“Phillipsburg has always been one of my favorite circuit rodeos. It draws all the good teams and it’s a good place to make a good run.”
He has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals six times.
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: Morning.
• Coffee or tea: Tea. “Man, I love sweet tea.”
• Winter or summer: Summer, “for sure. I’m not a huge fan of ice.”
• First buckle he won: At a 4-H timed event horse show at age thirteen. “I had a little Appaloosa horse we called Cody. I ran the barrels, poles, breakaway, and team roping, and the buckle they gave me had a barrel racer on it. I wore it for a long time, just to be funny. It was definitely a conversation piece.”
• Family: Wife Jodi.

Saddle Bronc Riding - Ryder Wright

Ryder Wright won the saddle bronc riding at the 2022 Kansas Biggest Rodeo.
He scored 89 points on the Beutler and Son horse Fight Night to win the buckle and a check for $3,006.
The 24-year-old cowboy won his first world title gold buckle at age 19, in 2017, and his second one three years later. He’s a seven-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier.
Ryder is part of the Wright “dynasty” of saddle bronc riders. His dad, Cody, is a two-time world champion (2008, 2010). His uncles have both won titles (Jesse Wright, 2012 and Spencer Wright, 2014), and his brothers Stetson and Statler are also bronc riders.  

Tie-Down Roping - Shad Mayfield

The 2020 world champion tie-down roper Shad Mayfield is also the 2022 Phillipsburg champion.
Mayfield had a time of 7.9 seconds to win the rodeo and pocket $3,768.
He had a game plan as he backed into the box. “I told myself I needed to be a little off the barrier, just because these calves are so good,” he said. “I ran my calf a little farther than everybody else, but I knew as long as I could finish strong on the ground, I’d come up with a good time.”
He rode his fourteen-year-old red roan, Rampage, who was ready to go in Phillipsburg. “He was a little fresh,” Mayfield said. “I sent him home for some time off for the summer. He’s been turned out on vacation, but he’s got a lot more runs to go.” Rampage was his mount for the 2020-2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeos.
Mayfield is a four-time Wrangler National Finals qualifier and is the 2022 reserve world champion.

Barrel Racing – Suzanne Brooks

The 2022 Phillipsburg barrel racing champ is an Aussie cowgirl riding a Canadian horse on U.S. soil.
Suzannne Brooks won the barrel racing with a time of 16.92 seconds.
It was the week of the Phillipsburg rodeo that Suzanne’s mare, Famous Home Girl, “Kate,” hit her peak. She not only won Phillipsburg, but also won Winfield, Kan., and placed second in Abilene, Kan. The eight-year-old mare was bred in Canada; last year was her first full year of rodeoing.
Brooks, the 1998 Australian National Rodeo Finals average champion, came to the States six years ago to advance her rodeo career. Rodeoing in the U.S. has had its challenges. “It’s been a learning curve, getting the right horses, the right team of people to support you, figuring out how to enter, and what rodeos your horse likes.”
Suzanne’s horse, Kate, is bred to run but is very arrogant, she said. “We do things the way she wants to do them, when she wants to do them. We live in Kate’s world, and I’m totally happy to live in Kate’s world,” she laughed.
She was complimentary of the arena conditions. “Your ground at Phillipsburg is amazing. You guys do such an outstanding job with the ground.
“I think Phillipsburg is the most exciting win I’ve ever had in my entire life. To make a sub-17 second run on a standard pattern is every barrel racer’s dream, and to do that in Phillipsburg against all the other super tough competitors that were there. I won’t forget that win in a hurry.”
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: Night owl.
• Coffee or tea: Hot tea. “It’s an Australian thing, I think.”
• Favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. “It means something. It makes me thankful for my friends and everything I have. It’s not so commercialized. And we don’t have Thanksgiving in Australia.”

Bull Riding – Canyon Bass

It was a good ride, Canyon said. The bull “came out there, went both ways and was really blowing up the whole time. He was a really flashy bull. I did my best to stay on top and make the ride look good.”
Last year was a good year for the nineteen-year-old man; he finished the year as the number one cowboy in the PRCA permit bull riding standings and won the Permit Finals in Waco, Texas.
A 2022 high school graduate, Canyon won the National Junior High Finals Rodeo as an eighth grader, then qualified for the National High School Finals twice.
A broken femur during a bull riding in December has got him off to a slow start for the 2023 year. But by March, he was back to competition.
He loved coming to Phillipsburg. “I really like the arena set-up, honestly, with the stands all looped around. It was cool. It felt like you were almost in a bowl. The crowd really echoed.”
Fun Facts:
• Morning person or night owl: Evening, for sure.
• Coffee or tea: Sweet tea, for sure. 
• Winter or summer: Summer.
• First buckle he won: The steer riding at a youth rodeo in Wimberley, Texas, when he was 11 years old