{"id":25439,"date":"2021-06-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-steer-wrestler-qualifies-for-second-cnfr-appearance\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:43:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:43:54","slug":"tarleton-steer-wrestler-qualifies-for-second-cnfr-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-steer-wrestler-qualifies-for-second-cnfr-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Steer Wrestler Qualifies for Second CNFR Appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Arnold<\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

Wednesday, June 9, 2021<\/p>\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014\u00a0Walt Arnold has a plan.<\/p>\n

The senior criminal justice major at Tarleton State University figures to finish his bachelor\u2019s degree, then pick a law school.<\/p>\n

First, however, there\u2019s some rodeoing to do.<\/p>\n

Walt, the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southwest Region reserve champion bulldogger for the 2020-21 season, has qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo next week in Casper, Wyo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original plan was to go to school, get a criminal justice degree and go to law school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t sound like a bad plan, but it\u2019s kind of hard to juggle the time it takes to rodeo and be completely committed to law school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m only going to have this opportunity once, so I might as well rodeo while I can. I can always go back and work on a law degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

A relative latecomer to rodeo, Walt was an all-state football player at Coleman High School, even generating interest in a few college programs. He just wasn\u2019t interested in continuing football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tired. It was hard, all the workouts in the morning and late in the afternoon. I enjoyed playing with my buddies, but we weren\u2019t going to be together anymore. It just wasn\u2019t worth it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As his football interest waned, his rodeo star was beginning to shine.<\/p>\n

His dad had qualified for the CNFR in college as a steer wrestler. He and his mom were instrumental in getting Walt to trying the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a way to stay competitive after high school sports,\u201d Walt said, \u201cto have something to work at.\u00a0I really wasn\u2019t that into it until probably I was 16. By then most kids have chute-dogged through junior high and jumped steers before. I\u2019d been around it so much that it\u2019s not like it was a new concept to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As in football, he excelled as a steer wrestler, reaching the high school state and national finals as a junior and senior, as well as the Texas Circuit pro finals his senior year.<\/p>\n

He signed with Cisco Junior College out of high school and competed there for two seasons, earning a CNFR appearance before transferring to Tarleton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at a few other options. I wanted to stay in the Southwest Region, and Tarleton has everything I need to compete. It\u2019s centralized, so I can rodeo on the weekends. It was a lot more familiar to me, coming from a small school. The transition was a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2020-21 college rodeo season he captured four top 10 finishes, including seconds at Ranger and Clarendon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe college rodeo season is one of the toughest things to do,\u201d he said. \u201cYou only get 10 rodeos. In pro rodeo you can go to 80 a year, but in college you have to make all 10 count.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really need to be prepared, get out to a good start and make the first rodeos count so that pressure is not on you at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds like a good plan, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walt Arnold has a plan.<\/p>\n

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The senior criminal justice major at Tarleton State University figures to finish his bachelor’s degree, then pick a law school.<\/p>\n

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First, however, there’s some rodeoing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25442,"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-25439","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-105-300x200.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 9, 2021","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on June 9, 2021 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025 4:43 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Man in a cowboy hat smiling.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25439","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=25439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53804,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25439\/revisions\/53804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}