By Ruth Nicolaus
Nebraska cowboy Garrett Shadbolt has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA world championship event, to be held in Las Vegas Dec. 5-14.
For the Merriman man, it is his third time to make the Wrangler NFR; he is ranked thirteenth in the world standings, with $137,095 in regular season earnings.
Two of the highlights of this season include winning the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver for the second consecutive year and finishing second at Rodeo Houston.
Last year, a broken leg kept him from the Wrangler NFR; prior to that, he qualified for the Finals in 2021-2022.
Shadbolt, a fifth-generation rancher on the family ranch south of Merriman, grew up ranching, riding, and wrestling, competing in high school wrestling and attending Doane University in Crete on academic and wrestling scholarships. He graduated from Doane in 2019 with a chemistry degree.
This year, he traveled with fellow bareback rider Bradlee Miller, who also qualified for the Wrangler NFR. Traveling with Miller, who is seven years his junior (Shadbolt is 28 years old), reinvigorated Shadbolt when he wasn’t anxious to leave home.
“He’s a younger guy, and it’s good for me to go with somebody who is younger who wants to rodeo hard. It helps a guy keep his motivation to go to the next one.”
Shadbolt competed at about 80 pro rodeos this year, often with his family in tow.
Wife Katie, son George, age four, and daughters Mavis and Lindi, ages three and one, respectively, came along.
“We took the pickup and camper, and went to a lot of national parks this year,” he said. “We went into Canada and the Northwest (U.S.) and saw some pretty amazing country. It was a lot of fun.”
Traveling with three kids under the age of four isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s worth it, he said.
“It’s absolute chaos but the alternative is to never see them, so they came along. But they’re young and they’re flexible, and I think they’ve learned a lot of resiliency. They sure have done a lot more than other kids their ages.”
Being the only Nebraskan to qualify for the Wrangler NFR this year makes it more special, he said. “Honestly, I think I get a lot of fan power because of that. I am representing the state, and I take that pretty seriously. I get a lot of support from Nebraska and it’s pretty special to me.”
Shadbolt is preparing by lifting weights with the Gordon-Rushville High School wrestling team. He is an assistant coach and does the workouts with the student athletes. “I wrestled in college, so I have a decent wealth of experience to help the kids,” he said.
While he’s on the rodeo road, his parents, Quentin and Angela, and sister and her husband, Jordan and Collin Sanders, take care of the ranch work. “Taking my family with me (on the road) had me away from the ranch even more,” he said. “We don’t travel very fast with all the kids, and we spent more time out on the road.”
But his family is his biggest support. “It’s cool to be able to say I’m still part of a ranch operation.”
The Wrangler NFR runs Dec. 5-14 and will be aired nightly at 7:45 pm CST on The Cowboy Channel and RFD-TV. World champions are crowned in each event after the final performance on Dec. 14.