Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo Is A Bucking Success

Photos and article by Tony Mangia

In its 93rd year of hosting rodeo competitions and its first year as a ProRodeo Tour event, the Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo drew some of the sport's biggest names and paid out a total purse of over $178,000 during a four-day event at the magnificent Mosaic Arena.

Billed as the “Grandaddy of ‘Em All,” Arcadia is already a popular stop on the rodeo tour, but this year’s PRCA roundup included Tuf Cooper and Clayton Bigelow, both of whom have Gold Buckles, as well as Wyatt Casper, who was last year's Reserve World Champion. 

Mixed in among all of the big names who came to southwest Florida were a lot of up-and-coming steer wrestlers, tie-down ropers and team ropers who found themselves at or near the top of leaderboards that were filled with Wrangler NFR qualifiers. 

This year’s winners were:

Bareback riding—Clayton Bigelow on Frontier Rodeo’s Ace of Spades

SaddleBronc Riding—(tie) Wyatt Casper on Frontier’s Miss Ellie and Cody DeMoss on Frontier Rodeo’s High Roller

Bull Riding—Clayton Sellars on Championship Pro Rodeo’s Excessive Force

Team Roping—(Tie) Cody Snow/Wesley Thorp and Jake Orman/Brye Crates

Tie-down Roping—Tuf Case Cooper

Barrel Racing—Kelly Bruner

Steer wrestling—(Tie) Talon Roseland and Tory Johnson