Smith Overcomes Top Field To Secure Dixie Title
Courtesy fo the PRCA
Dustin Smith’s original plan to stay close to home in Rome, Ga., this year and work in construction for his dad’s Garner Brothers Company may have to be revised now that he’s building a bigger career in rodeo.
Smith, 23, rode 2011 PRCA Bareback Riding Horse of the Year Full Baggage for 87 points to win the Feb. 9-15 Dixie National Rodeo over a field that included 11 qualifiers from last year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
It is the biggest win of his four-year ProRodeo career, surpassing his second-place tie in this same rodeo a year ago, and gave him a huge jolt of confidence entering his first appearance in the $1.2 million San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo on Feb. 19 (where he qualified for the semifinals by earning checks in two rounds).
“I don’t know what it is about Jackson that I have done so well there,” Smith said. “I’ve gone there every year since I bought my permit in 2008 and I always try to get on the Saturday night schedule. The last couple of years I’ve drawn well and I’ve had good results.”
Smith had mixed feelings when he learned he’d drawn Full Baggage of the Frontier Rodeo string. They were matched two years ago at Arcadia, Fla., and while Smith completed the ride, it wasn’t smooth and he only scored 74 points.
He remembered Full Baggage as “a kinda big, scary looking horse,” and he certainly knew how much the horse had improved since their last encounter.
“My approach was the same as last time,” Smith said. “I was still nervous. When the announcer’s talking about this being the Horse of the Year, you know you’re in for a tough time, but you also know you’ve got a real shot at putting up a big score. “I’m glad the buzzer went off when it did because I wasn’t on him for a whole lot after that before I hit the dirt in a face plant.”
Smith, who was third in the PRCA bareback riding rookie standings in 2009, had his best season a year ago when he
WWW.COWBOYSPORTSNEWS.COM Cowboy Sports News Page 79 - March 2012 finished 42nd in the world with
earnings of $18,265. The problem was that most of that earning came during the winter months. He hit the road hard for two months in the summer without much of a return. That got him thinking that he might limit his competition mostly to rodeos in the Southeastern Circuit and see if he could repeat the circuit year-end title he won in 2009. “But if I can follow Jackson with some checks in San Antonio, that could change things
pretty fast,” Smith said. “We’ll just have to see what happens.” Other champions at the Mississippi Coliseum were steer wrestlers Matthew Mousseau and Bray Armes (8.9 seconds on two head), team ropers Derrick Miller and Mark Luttrell (11.2 seconds on two head), saddle bronc rider Tyrel Larsen (87 points) and tie- down roper Fred Whitfield (17.0 seconds on two head), bull riders Cody Samora and Cody Rostockyj (86 points each) and barrel racer Robyn Herring (14.99 seconds). • Reigning World Champion Bull Rider Shane Proctor, out for two months after breaking his left (free) arm in the 10th
round of the Wrangler
National Finals Rodeo, returned to competition over the Feb. 16- 19 weekend, “knocking off some of the rust” with three appearances in PRCA events in Florida. He debuted with a 74- point ride on Feb. 17 at the Brighton Field Days Festival & Rodeo in Okeechobee that brought him an eighth-place check, was bucked off at the Silver Spurs Rodeo in Kissimmee on Feb. 18, and then earned $2,679 for a fourth-place tie in the long round and a fifth-place tie in the average (82 on one head) at the Seminole Classic Xtreme Bulls event in Okeechobee.
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