 November, 2018 -
When you talk to Clay Elliot, whether it’s about a go-round win, a Canadian championship or just about any other topic, it’s not long until the Nanton, Alberta bronc rider has steered the conversation toward his favourite topic—bucking horses.
So maybe it was fitting that the talented twenty-four year-old had three horses to talk about after claiming his second Canadian championship in three years.
“The first horse I had drawn for the final round was a horse called Black Hills of C5 Rodeo, a really good horse and I was excited to have him.” Elliott recalled, “But in the loading-up chute something must have happened and he didn’t like it. He jumped and turned around.”
The judges erred on the side of caution and took the big black gelding out of the draw, giving Elliott a re-ride horse. “I wasn’t sure if Black Hills had broken my saddle or not but it was okay for my re-ride on a Ward Macza horse called Banshee, another really good horse.”
But that wasn’t to be either. The horse got up against the fence and flattened out and the judges awarded Elliott another re-ride. “My get-off from Banshee wasn’t the most graceful,”Elliott chuckled, “but at least I didn’t get hurt. But it was a busy six or seven minutes, that’s for sure.”
 Third time lucky for the 2016 Canadian titleist. This time around it was a rematch with C5’s High Valley. “He bucked me off at Ponoka this year,” the second generation talent admitted, “But I had him again at Edmonton (K-Days Rodeo) and I won it on him so I knew I had a chance to win the round here as well.”
As it turned out, Elliott finished second in the final go round—he was 86.25 points for the ride, a point and a half behind 2016 World Champion Zeke Thurston, who had been chasing his travelling partner all week. The second place cheque coupled with another second place payoff in the aggregate gave Elliott his second title in three years, this one by a margin of $9200 over Thurston with the Champion winning over $40,000 in the Enmax Centrium to top $82,000 for the season.
For Elliott, it was also cool that he was the first guy to win the Canadian Saddle Bronc Riding buckle in the CFR’s new home in Red Deer. “Yeah, that’s really exciting. The atmosphere and the production here is really great for the spectators.” Elliott remarked, “I think everybody’s really happy with it in this first year. But for me as a bronc rider, I get on about 120 head of bucking horses every year—the venues may change but I just try to do my job as a buckin’ horse rider no matter where I am.”
The winning run in Red Deer began with an opening go-round win and Elliott followed that up with two third place finishes and a fourth leading up to Sunday’s finale. The solid performance has the tall southern Albertan excited about his chances at the upcoming Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, his third consecutive appearance at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas.
“This was a really good motivator and confidence-builder heading into Vegas,” Elliott nodded. “I’m in as good a shape as I can be and before the Finals I’m going to go down and train with (former WNFR bareback rider) Kelly Wardell. He’s a personal trainer and I’ve got a lot of respect for that guy—he knows what it takes to win.”
The two–time Canadian champion will spend some time around the rodeo team Wardell coaches in Twin Falls, Idaho. You’ll recognize Clay Elliott. He’ll be the guy talking about bucking horses.
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