Wyatt Casper enters the finals of RFD-TV’s The American in the midst of what has been by far the best professional season of his career.
Since turning pro in 2015, the 23-year-old has never finished better than 20th in the world standings or earned more than $53,000 (both those marks came in 2018) in a year but in 2020, he has already accumulated more than $66,000. Casper’s money total is more than $20,000 clear of No. 2 Brody Cress.
Casper is 33-for-33 this season and 32 of those rides have been better than 80 points.
“I haven’t been getting too nervous lately, but I have been getting a little bit more nervous being that I want to win, but I’m going to try and not let my nerves get over me.”
Capser says he likes to stay relaxed on days of competition and doesn’t arrive too early to avoid getting worked up.
Casper was the top saddle bronc rider in the semi-finals of RFD-TV’s The American with two qualifying rides of 82.25 and 82.75 respectively, the 82.75 was the best overall score in Go 2.
“Anytime you can come out of somewhere No. 1 it’s all confidence boosters,” he said. “It’s been a remarkable year and I just wanna keep my head down and keep riding the roller coaster.......It’s life-changing opportunity this weekend and I’m gonna go at it like I do every horse.”
In addition to his success at The American in 2020, the Texas cowboy won the Rapid City Xtreme Broncs event with a 90.5 ride on Sankey Pro Rodeo’s Black Tie in early February.
“The season has been unbelievable for me so far since I haven’t ever done this good before. But I’ve been getting on some good horses and been blessed. And to win here with a lot of good bronc riders here is a pretty good feeling,” he told the Rapid City Journal
After his triumph in South Dakota, Casper finished fourth in San Antonio about two weeks later, collecting almost $15,000 along the way. He was also a finalist at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in January.
Like every cowboy, Capser has his sights set on the National Finals in December, where he wants to come in in the Top 5. However, he does not like to get too far ahead of myself.
“It’s such a long year, we got 65, 70 more rodeos to go to this year,” he said. “I want to put a goal down to use every horse to the best of my ability and keep chopping wood.”
Away from competition, Casper enjoys working on trucks, golfing and coyote hunting. He also spends plenty of time with his son, a toddler named Cooper.
