Hawkeye State Cowboys Making Noise In Vegas

Cash Blanchard is proving to be a quick learner.

One year after getting on a bronc for the first time the 14-year-old from Fort Madison, Iowa, is leading the senior bareback riding at the YETI Junior National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Blanchard and fellow Iowa cowboy Blaine Cornelison tied for the first-round win Thursday with 75.0-point rides. Saturday, Blanchard got the second-round win all to himself, scoring 79.0 points to take the lead in the average with 154.0 points on two head.

“Three days ago I couldn’t picture myself winning this … winning anything, really,” Blanchard admitted. “I thought I was going to come here and get my butt beat. I guess I just cleared my mind up and got on.”

It’s an approach that obviously has worked for Blanchard, who is still, after all, a bronc-riding newcomer.

“This is his first year riding broncs, but he catches on so quick,” Cornelison said. “He listens to everybody that tries to give him advice and he’s just fun to watch. He’s still learning.”

Blanchard isn’t a roughstock rookie, though. In fact, he and Cornelison first met when they competed against each other as bull riders in junior high school in 2022. The following year the two were in a battle for a top five spot at the finals of the International Miniature Rodeo Association. Cornelison covered his final bull, giving him just enough points to edge Blanchard and punch his ticket to the YETI Junior NFR. He also competed in bareback that year in Vegas.

Not long after that, Blanchard decided to try his hand at bareback.

“I used to have long hair, like Rocker Steiner,,” Blanchard said, referring to the PRCA bareback rider who is currently leading the world standings. “Everybody was calling me Rocker Steiner, so I thought I might as well get on a horse and try it. And then I guess it just stuck.”

Kind of like Blanchard has been sticking on broncs at the YETI Junior NFR.

Thursday, he had a front-row seat for Cornelison’s ride.

“I was the first senior out,” Cornelison said. “It was a horse I had at a Vegas qualifier in Nebraska and I came out really bad on him there… he kind of set me up and on the fifth jump he blew me up.

“That was going through my head Thursday, so I had to just stick to my fundamentals and keep straight. On the second jump I felt him, so I just started throwing the spurs and tracking him … it was fun.”

What was Blanchard thinking as he watched his buddy’s ride?

“I was like, ‘There goes all my money,’” he said. “I guess I just better do what I can.”

Blanchard was asked what he remembered about the ride.

“Not much,” he admitted. “I nodded, I tried to spur a little and then he just went up straight back and I didn’t really know what to do. So I sat back, straightened up and got just enough points.”

Blanchard and Cornelison are the latest in a growing group of roughstock competitors from the Hawkeye State. Among others, Zane Magner and Wade Manger both won world titles at the YETI Junior NFR, and Westin Clemens is a multi-year competitor in Vegas.

“Iowa bronc riding is awesome; we’re all just one big family,” Cornelison said. “We rodeo for Midwest Mini Buckers and If it wasn’t for stock contractors like them there is no way we would be where we are today.

“We want to make a name for ourselves. Last year our Iowa boys did pretty good and the announcer said, ‘These Iowa boys are catching up to Texas.’ My goal this year is to take over Texas.”