LAS VEGAS \u2013 Four-time PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Champion Zeke Thurston is right at home at the Thomas & Mack Center once again.<\/p>\n
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The Big Valley, Alberta, saddle bronc rider captured his second straight gold buckle a year ago and now has won two of the first three go-round buckles at the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge.<\/p>\n
Thurston\u2019s latest triumph came in Round 3 with an 88-point ride on Powder River Rodeo\u2019s Miss Valley Saturday night in front of 17,019 spectators.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s super. She\u2019s been the ringleader of the Powder River Rodeo horses for about a decade<\/p>\n
now,\u201d Thurston said. \u201cJust an outstanding horse. I\u2019ve only been on her twice, but I\u2019ve been excited to have her both times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just taking it one horse at a time, one jump at a time. I just have to keep doing my job and<\/p>\n
knocking them down. We\u2019re having a lot of fun right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thurston climbed aboard Frontier Rodeo\u2019s Frontier Rodeo Coffee Yellowstone for an 86.5-point ride to take the Round 1 win on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
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The $33,687 payday in Round 3 pushed Thurston\u2019s 2024 NFR earnings to $94,490. That total allowed him to jump up from sixth in the PRCA | RAM World Standings when he arrived in Vegas to second with $305,875. He trails regular-season leader Damian Brennan by just $1,276.<\/p>\n
Thurston, who won gold buckles in 2016, 2018 and 2022 and 2023, has his eyes on world title No. 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in all of them (positions on the leaderboard). The job is still the same regardless<\/p>\n
of where you are at,\u201d said Thurston, 30. \u201cBeing at the top adds a little bit of pressure, something I relish in. But I wouldn\u2019t be going about it any different if I was in any different position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAS VEGAS – Four-time PRCA Saddle Bronc Riding World Champion Zeke Thurston is right at home at the Thomas & Mack Center once again. The Big Valley, Alberta, saddle bronc rider captured his second straight gold buckle a year ago and now has won two of the first three go-round buckles at the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge. Thurston’s latest triumph came in Round 3 with an 88-point ride on Powder River Rodeo’s Miss Valley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,2044,98],"tags":[2545,2544,2543,2540,2542,2027],"class_list":["post-7186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events-magazine","category-magazine","category-western-events-magazine","tag-frontier-rodeo-coffee-yellowstone","tag-powder-river-rodeo-horses","tag-powder-river-rodeos-miss-valley","tag-prca-ram-world-standings","tag-saddle-bronc-riding-world-champion-zeke-thurston-i","tag-zeke-thurston"],"yoast_head":"\n