{"id":25428,"date":"2021-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-saddle-bronc-rider-barnes-earns-third-trip-to-cnfr\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:43:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:43:38","slug":"tarleton-saddle-bronc-rider-barnes-earns-third-trip-to-cnfr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-saddle-bronc-rider-barnes-earns-third-trip-to-cnfr\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Saddle Bronc Rider Barnes Earns Third Trip to CNFR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barnes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barnes<\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

Friday, June 11, 2021<\/p>\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 It was\u00a0the college rodeo season\u2019s final stop, and Jake Barnes was on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

The Tarleton State University saddle bronc rider needed a stellar outing at the hometown Tarleton Stampede to qualify for his third appearance at the College National Finals Rodeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of out of it,\u201d said the senior agriculture development major. \u201cThe horse wasn\u2019t the best, and the long round didn\u2019t go well. I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d even make the short round.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not only did he squeeze into the finals with a 64 score, he earned an 80 in the short go, good enough for a third-place finish in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southwest Region and a third trip to the CNFR next week in Casper.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lucked out and got a great horse,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anything to lose so I just let it all hang out. I felt like since it was my senior year, I dang sure wanted to qualify one last time and win a championship for Tarleton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake learned his craft from a well-known professional bronc rider, Derek Clark. A 16-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and a family friend, Clark guided Jake\u2019s early attempts in the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole family is involved in rodeo and roping,\u201d Jake said. \u201cHe was one of their neighbors. He helped me, and he got me started in saddle broncs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake was a state champion saddle bronc rider at Springdale (Ark.) High School and signed to ride for Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College. After one season he decided college was not for him.<\/p>\n

He hired on for ranch work and rodeoed before Tarleton rodeo coach Mark Eakins called.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was already living in Stephenville, because it\u2019s a good place to rodeo out of. Mark called and talked me into going back to college. I\u2019ve been here three years now, and I\u2019m graduating in August. It\u2019s been awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake has honed his skills at Tarleton, crediting his coaches and teammates for the improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI owe a lot to Mark, to (former Tarleton saddle bronc rider) Isaac Diaz, all the guys around Tarleton,\u201d he said. \u201cI ride a lot differently than when I arrived. They\u2019ve done a lot for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake is an energetic multi-tasker. He enrolled in summer classes to wind up his degree while competing at the collegiate and professional levels of rodeo. Plus he\u2019s an equine dentist. He has plans for another career, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure I want to keep rodeoing, but as soon as I graduate from Tarleton, I want to go to the fire academy. I want to be a firefighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s nursing an injury sustained a month ago at a pro outing. After easing onto practice horses at Tarleton, he signed up to ride at the Llano Open last week, and he won.<\/p>\n

Healthy now, he looks forward to wearing the purple vest one more time and drawing on his experience at the CNFR.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what to expect and how things run up there,\u201d he said as a three-time qualifier. \u201cYou\u2019re prepared for the pressure. That helps, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us going \u2014 (bull rider) Cullen (Telfer) and (steer wrestler) Walt (Arnold) \u2014 we all rodeo a lot, at big rodeos, so we know how to compete under that pressure. We have to try not to think about it much and just go win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the college rodeo season’s final stop, and Jake Barnes was on the outside looking in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Tarleton State University saddle bronc rider needed a stellar outing at the hometown Tarleton Stampede to qualify for his third appearance at the College National Finals Rodeo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-100-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Campus & Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on June 11, 2021","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 11, 2021 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025 4:43 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Man wearing a cowboy hat outdoors.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53801,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25428\/revisions\/53801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}