FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo has always been on Steven Dent's rodeo bucket list.

With one more horse to ride in preliminary competition, the bareback rider is looking good for a trip back here on Feb. 4. He competed in the first and second round on Sunday, scoring 80.5 at the matinee performance and 87 in the evening. He now has 160.5 points on two rides and needs an 83.5-point ride to move to the top of the overall leaderboard.

I've gotten on two good horses here and am looking forward to getting on another one tomorrow," Dent said. "You can find positive and negative in every horse you get on. I'm looking at the positive and going to make the most of every opportunity.

Dent has made the trip to compete at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo seven times, the most recent in 2014. He was tired of getting beat up riding bareback horses and spent more time competing in his second event, saddle bronc riding. Last year, he didn't compete at Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned rodeos, and this year he has come back with a new attitude.

Bareback riding is something you really need to be craving, or you're going to be mediocre," he said. "I don't like being mediocre and that's exactly where I was. It's a lot of work out of the arena to be physically ready to ride in the bareback riding. I'm putting in the work and feel like a rookie again.

Mediocre wasn't in his vocabulary on Sunday. His 87-point ride on Pickett Pro Rodeo's Freckled Frog is leading the second round. He will ride his third horse in Fort Worth at the Monday matinee performance and is already planning his trip back here next Saturday to compete in the finals. The 12 contestants in each event with the highest total scores and fastest times will qualify for Saturday night's championship finals.

Reigning world champion saddle bronc rider Zeke Thurston, from Big Valley, Alberta, also made a move towards a Fort Worth title on Sunday. Thurston rode Pickett Pro Rodeo's Momentum Shifter for 84 points. That is tied with the 2015 world champion Jacobs Crawley from Boerne, Texas, for third place in the first round. Saddle bronc riders each ride twice before the finals. Thurston will ride his second horse on Monday afternoon.

The 121st Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo continues on Monday with two rodeo performances at 2 and 7:30 PM.

-Information for Susan Kanode

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