January 30, 2025

Wakefield is Willing to Work For It

Riley Wakefield is a goals guy. And he’s marched right up the rodeo ranks with that “work for what you want, then get on to the next one” way of thinking. The pride of O’Neill, Nebraska is rolling into his third Cinch Timed Event Championship presented by Smarty Rodeo on par with his own bucket-list course for cowboying and living life. 

“I don’t rodeo just to rodeo,” he said. “I have a clear goal in mind every year. Setting goals and working toward them drives people in life. Without them, you have nothing to work for. That would drive me nuts. I rodeo for the love of the game, but at the same time I want something to work towards. I want to accomplish my goal, then make adjustments and set a bigger one. Purpose is good on the mind.”

Wakefield stair-stepped his way up to center stage at the Lazy E. 

In junior high, he rode bulls, tied goats, ribbon roped, breakaway roped and roped calves, with the goal of qualifying for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo. Check.

In high school, the goal was to make the National High School Finals Rodeo. He made it in the steer wrestling and all four years in the team roping—including twice heading for his big brother, Brady. Check.

“It was never guaranteed for us, because we were just out there doing our best,” said Riley; so sadly, Brady died at 20 in a road accident in the summer of 2015, but would surely be right there with Riley at the Timed Event if he was still with us here instead of riding shotgun from Heaven. “Dad (Jim) was a circuit bulldogger. What he did was get calves and steers, and find us horses we could get out there and make runs on. What Brady and I did was get out there in the cold and make a million runs. We outworked people, and learned by trial and error. That was our only play.

“The NFR (National Finals Rodeo) and Timed Event weren’t goals to us as kids. They were dreams. We knew we had a long way to go for reality to allow those dreams to become goals.”

After high school, Riley set his sights on making the College National Finals Rodeo in three events—which in his case were team roping, steer wrestling and tie-down roping—while rodeoing for Gillette College in Wyoming. Check. 

Wakefield started pro rodeoing as a high school senior, and made making the Badlands Circuit Finals in the team roping and tie-down a goal. He also wanted to qualify for the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo. Check. 

Riley set sail on the pro rodeo trail with heavy emphasis on the tie-down roping. His 5’ 11”, 170-pound, slight-built self brought the house down when Wakefield won the steer wrestling on the grass at the 2022 Pendleton Round-Up in Oregon. 

“Winning the bulldogging at Pendleton was pretty cool, but it was sure never a goal,” he smiled. “The steer wrestling was really never on my radar until I took two big team roping steers down to Taylor’s house (2020 Timed Event Champ Taylor Santos, who’s been sidelined for a year now for surgeries on both hips and a knee) in Stephenville (Texas). We never roped them, so Taylor finally asked if I was at least going to chute-dog them. Ote (Berry) came over and gave me a few pointers, and I got to where I could slide those big old steers out and tip ’em over. That’s when I added steer wrestling at the Badlands Circuit Finals to my list of goals. (Check.)

 “Then I set the goal of trying to make the NFR in the calf roping. It took a while, but I realized I probably took off to try that too early. I didn’t know it when I first took off, but I wasn’t ready. And I didn’t really have the horsepower. I was concentrating on the calf roping, but would enter the bulldogging at places like Pendleton and Ponoka (Alberta, Canada), and the team roping at rodeos like Lakeside (California) with Lane (Karney, who’s Taylor’s big brother and placed third and fourth at the Timed Event several times before turning his attention to family and business at home). Seemed like I kept doing better in those other events than the one I thought I was focusing on. Anyway, I had enough of that road, and I wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices it was going to take to try and make the NFR.”

Wakefield met a girl, world-famous Canadian cowboy Rocky Dallyn’s daughter, Jenna. 

“After I met Jenna, a lightbulb went off in my head,” said Riley, who rides a lot of outside horses when he’s not out there rodeoing. “I still wanted to do all three events and go to a few more rodeos. Why not go to Canada and enter three events? I entered the calf roping up in Canada in 2023, then decided, ‘Why fight my strengths? Why not enter all three events?’ The goal became making it in three events to the Canadian Finals, and winning the Canadian all-around title. I went after that in 2024. 

“I made the CFR in the calf roping last year, and got edged out for the all-around. So that goal is still on the table for 2025. I want to make the CFR in three events, and win the all-around up in Canada.”

Wakefield was thrilled to get his first Timed Event invite in 2023, and made an outstanding first impression by contending for the crown to the end. 

“I had a lot to prove at the Timed Event that first year, but felt pretty good about how it went,” he said. “I had always put the Timed Event on a pedestal. It’s my NFR. It’s what means the most to me. It’s very rare anymore to see anyone go up and down the road in three events. The Timed Event fits me. 

“I went into my second Timed Event last year with a lot of pressure to do as well as I did that first year, and let it get to me. I didn’t have the horsepower I needed, and it showed.”

Naturally, it’s now a goal to win this thing. And because he hasn’t yet checked this one off of his cowboy bucket list, he’s made adjustments to up his odds. Jake Smith, who’s coming off of his first NFR in the heading, will handle Wakefield’s heading and heeling helper chores. Riley will make a late-game decision on who’ll haze and what he’ll ride in the bulldogging. He plans to ride Danielle Wray’s head horse, Peanut; the heel horse he’s ridden since eighth grade, William; a calf horse he calls Ultimate, that he got up in Canada from Clay Elliott; and his steer horse, Mississippi, who the Wakefields bought from Todd Eberle after Riley rode him at last year’s Timed Event. 

“I feel better about my horsepower this year,” he said. “I came in on some greener horses last year. I took a gamble, and it didn’t work out in my favor. The horses I’m riding this year are all solid campaigners. 

“When people ask what it would mean to win the Timed Event, my answer is, ‘Everything.’ It sounds cliché, but that’s exactly what it would mean. My dad took Brady and I to watch the Timed Event when we were pretty little. Timed Event tapes are all Brady and I watched growing up. Back then, winning the Timed Event was a dream, not a goal. That it’s become a goal to win it now means the world to me. Because when it’s all said and done, I just want to be remembered as a good all-around cowboy.”