Submitted Photo Bridger Anderson wrestles with a bull during one of his rodeo events. The horns are shortened and flattened to pose less of a risk to the people who take part in the event.

Not everyone from a small town makes the claim to fame, but Bridger Anderson has been participating in national rodeo events for quite a while now.

Anderson is from Carrington, and he has been watching the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) since he was three years old. His plan back then was to be a paleontologist during the day and a steer wrestler at night. During the heat of the day, he wanted to dig through the earth and find fossils. During the late hours of the night, his dream was to wrestle and take down steers for sport.

When he was around five or six years old, both of his parents took part in rodeos, participating in team roping events. For readers who may not be familiar with rodeo, team roping is the act of two people riding horses, working together to rope the featured steer.

One of the fond memories Anderson shared was eating cheese puffs while his parents competed. His mother would go to Roughrider Rodeo Association sanctioned events.

As the years passed, he dropped being a paleontologist and decided to be in rodeos full time instead. He started by entering into youth rodeos, participating in roping and chute dogging events through junior high school.

Chute dogging is comparable to steer wrestling in that the men still wrestle a steer, but the steer is only between 400 to 500 pounds instead of a full grown steer.

Before moving completely into steer wrestling, Anderson played football at Carrington High School. He and his team made the playoffs and semi-final rounds, becoming the state champions his junior year. Two of the years he played football, he set new school records in football.

Currently, he is enrolled at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Okla., going for a degree in agriculture and a minor in business to fall back on, just in case he is ever in the position where he is no longer able to participate in steer wrestling.

Just like any sport, rodeo comes with risks. Despite the horns on the bulls being shaved down to the size of a dime and flat at the end, the person wrestling the steer could be punctured if they are hit with enough force. Steer wrestlers usually try to get close to the steer on horseback before they dismount and get in the dirt with the bull. The horse is less likely to be a target, but they are at risk nonetheless.

Anderson said he does not take the risk into account. “If you take it into account at all, that’s what raises the chances of getting hurt. Focus on doing your best and be fully committed to the job at hand.”

Another bead of wisdom he shared was basically Murphy’s law when it comes to thinking about things too much: “What can go wrong will go wrong.”

He also added, “It’s such a mental sport on top of everything. If you have any doubt that things won’t go perfect, they won’t. It’s important to keep a clear mind and stay focused.”

With all of the possible risks involved with wrestling a full grown steer to the ground, he continues to do it because “it’s not as dangerous as it’s made out to be.” One of the things that gives him an advantage in staying injury-free is being healthy and staying in shape. One has to have a good amount of strength to grab a bull by the horns and put it on it’s side.

So far, Anderson has had a healthy career without any major injuries. With this clean record, he is hoping to continue travelling all over the United States for a little under 20 years.

Currently, he is travelling with a group of three other guys who also steer wrestle, so they all pitch in for gas, food for themselves and food for the horses. They go across the country together in the same rig, and splitting everything four ways lowers the expenses for everyone.

During the events, they team up to help each other out, but they also compete against one another. They’re allowed to go to 85 rodeos per year and there are thousands of them to choose from.

They can pick and choose which ones they want to attend. That usually gives them the option to keep things centralized so they did not have to drive as far from one rodeo to the next.

This year, Anderson estimated that about two-thirds of them were canceled because of COVID-19. In light of the large amount of cancellations, they didn’t have as much liberty to choose where they wanted to go.

“It means driving more for less rodeos,” he said. “We’re driving twice as many miles for half the money in rewards. Hats off to committees that were able to put them on.”

Some of the rodeos that Anderson and his group went to, he said that it seemed like the novel coronavirus didn’t exist at all. No one that attended was wearing masks and the stands were packed with people.

At other rodeos, the competitors had to wear masks, but the large amount of spectators in the stands did not. In a third scenario, the competitors in the rodeos were wearing masks and there weren’t any fans in attendance at all. It really depended on the state they were in and the policies in place.

This month is when the NFR will take place in Arlington, Texas. It began yesterday and the last day is Dec. 12. Anderson is one of the youngest to ever compete in such a competition. His family will be there for the whole event.

“My family is awesome,” Anderson complimented. “They have nice jobs that will allow them to work from across the country. My parents and sisters make it when they can.”

His family went to Mandan and Montana for some of his rodeos, as well.

He said he is very thankful to have mentors that got him going in rodeo, including his parents and his college coach Luke Branquinho, who is a five-time world champion in rodeo.

His favorite part of rodeo is the family aspect of it.

“Everybody is always rooting for each other and there’s a lot of comraderie. You rely on a lot of people, and it takes a lot of people to rodeo professionally.”

He also likes the fact that it gives him an opportunity to see more of the country. With all of the driving he has to do to participate in so many events, he doesn’t get a lot of leisure time.

With the little amount of leisure time he does get, he said he and his crew usually spend it napping on the road, driving or practicing.

With all of the support he receives from his family, friends and coach, Anderson has the potential to make it in the rodeo world. As long as he does not get seriously injured, he hopes to be doing it for about another 20 years.