The Finning Canada Pro Tour is just over the halfway point and heading to Southern Alberta for the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede (MHES) this weekend. Medicine Hat, Alberta, is the only city that plays host to two Canadian Professional Rodeo Association approved events during the rodeo season, with the MHES adding enough money to be apart of Canada’s premier rodeo tour.

Watch the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede LIVE on FloRodeo July 26 to 28.

Summer in southern Alberta is heating up and so will the competition over the three days of rodeo performances in Medicine Hat. See some of the standouts on the draw:

Finning Pro Tour Stop: No. 6

Committee Purse: $56,000

Format: MHES is a straight one-head rodeo over three performances and a slack.

Bareback Riding: Champion Continues To Dominate While Marshall & Hardwick Quietly Pick Away

Seth Hardwick at 2017 CFR

Key Athletes: Richmond Champion, Ky Marshall, Seth Hardwick

Analysis: It’s hard to ignore bareback rider Richmond Champion this year as he continues to dominate on both sides of the border almost everywhere he goes. In Canada, Champion has been a force to be reckoned with on the Finning Pro Tour—winning the Ponoka Stampede and then splitting the win last weekend at K-Days with Shane O’Connell—and picking up that coveted $100,000 check at the Calgary Stampede in between. 

He’s No. 1 in Canada, No. 7 in the world, and Champion has a great draw at the Medicine Hat Stampede this weekend. He’ll compete during the Friday performance on Kesler Championship’s 568 Imperial Beach who should easily offer over 20 points (its PRCA stock stats put the horse at 21-22 points) is if the horse has its standard trip.

Two competitors that have been quietly keeping themselves within the top 10 in the Canadian Standings are Ky Marshall and Seth Hardwick. They’re the reigning Canadian all-around and bareback riding champions respectively; these two should never be ignored when they are on the draw.

Steer Wrestling: Guenthner And Culling Battling It Out In Standings

Key Athletes: Scott Guenthner and Stephen Culling 

Analysis: Scott Guenthner and Stephen Culling have been locked in a standings battle for the last few weekends. In the overall Canadian Standings (before the addition of K-Days and Morris), Guenthner leads the way with $28,910.83 and Culling in the No. 2 spot with $21,693.21.  

A scroll over to the Finning Pro Tour standings shows Culling in the lead with 390 tour points and Guenthner in that second place spot with 330. Those standings will determine who will qualify to compete in the finals on the last day of the IPE and Stampede in Armstrong, British Columbia. 

Neither competitor placed at K-Days in Edmonton, or in Morris for the Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition, but that’s slowly become an anomaly for these young steer wrestling talents. Guenthner, at 26 years old, and Culling, at 25, represent the next wave of top Canadian steer wrestlers that we could be seeing dominate for years to come. 

Saddle Bronc Riding: Thurston And Green With Good Draws For Medicine Hat

Key Athletes: Zeke Thurston, Layton Green, Clay Elliott

Analysis: There are always some horses that you just recognize their name when you spot it on the draw, whether they’ve been climbing the ranks, or have made that climb and been faithful draws for years. Two of those names that stand out on the Kesler/Kesler Championship stock lists are 351 Spanish Pair and 828 Nickles & Dimes. 

When those names are next two young phenoms Zeke Thurston and Layton Green, they seem to stand out even more. Thurston is up in the Friday performance on Spanish Pair (who averaged 21.5 points in 2017 according to the PRCA stock stats) and Green will ride Nickles & Dimes (who, according to the stock stats, helped Cody DeMoss to an 86-point ride at the Livingston Roundup earlier this year) during the final performance on Saturday.

Don’t forget about the other young talent on the draw at Medicine Hat. Clay Elliott is fresh off the win at K-Days in Edmonton and should be promptly shooting up near the top of the Canadian Standings once the $12,972.00 he earned there is added. 

Elliott rode C5 Rodeo’s 184 High Valley for 87 points and the win at the world’s richest one-header.

Tie-Down Roping: Solomon Continues Winning Ways On The Tour, Warren Moving Up The Ranks

Key Athletes: Cory Solomon, Rhen Richard, Riley Warren

Analysis: When we spoke to Solomon after his run at K-Days where he took a couple extra swings than we normally see from the cowboy known for his speed, he talked about it being a business decision because of the huge payout in Edmonton. It’s funny to say that a 7.6-second run is a “business decision,” but that goes the show the speed he has in his arsenal. 

Solomon goes into the sixth stop on the Finning Pro Tour with a win at Wainwright, some money from the Ponoka Stampede, and a 3/4/5 split at K-Days. He will compete in the third performance on Saturday.

We haven’t seen as much of Roosevelt, Utah’s Rhen Richard as we usually do in Canada, but he’s making the most of it while he’s here. Richard split the win at K-Days with Trevor Brazile to earn nearly $9,566.85 and heads to Medicine Hat for the Saturday performance.

From holding his own at the Calgary Stampede, to picking up checks at both tour events last weekend, Riley Warren is quietly getting himself into a strong position in both the Canadian Standings and Finning Pro Tour standings at just over the half-way point in the tour. Warren is currently in the No. 12 spot in Canada and 25th in the tour, but earned $3,476.36 between Edmonton and Morris last weekend and should be moving up both lists.

Check the results to see if the name “Warren” appears by the end of the Medicine Hat weekend. 

Team Roping: McFadden And Wigemyr Coming Off Of Stellar Run

Key Athletes: Roland McFadden/Devin Wigemyr, Grady Quam/Tyrel Flewelling, Levi Simpson/Jeremy Buhler, and Brett McCarroll/Justin McCarroll.

Analysis: Roland McFadden and Devin Wigemyr stuck it on one last weekend to place second behind Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira at the K-Days Rodeo. Their 4.3-second run earned them $9,150.90 each to go with the few extra dollars they also picked up at the Manitoba Stampede in Morris before they head to Medicine Hat—all Finning Pro Tour events. 

McFadden is the 2015 Canadian Champion and—while Wigemyr has yet to earn a Canadian title of his own—the No. 9 heeler (one of only a handful of Canadian heelers with that high of a TRIAD classification number) shows talent that points to his own Canadian title being just a matter of time.

They rope in the third performance on Saturday.

Other top teams to look out for during Medicine Hat performances should be Grady Quam/Tyrel Flewelling, Levi Simpson/Jeremy Buhler, and Brett McCarroll/Justin McCarroll who are on the draw for Friday night and Steele Depaoli/Chase Simpson, Riley Roy/Brady Chappel, and Brady Tryan/Kasper Roy who compete Saturday.

Barrel Racing: Watch Out For Hansen, Pozzobon, & Weir

Key Athletes: Nikki Hansen, Carman Pozzobon, Shayna Weir

Analysis: Before last weekend, Nikki Hansen was on the outside looking in. Once the $10,951.00 she earned at the K-Days Rodeo is added to the CPRA Standings, she’ll be firmly inside that coveted top 12 in Canada. 

The North Dakota cowgirl will head to Medicine Hat for the first performance on Thursday and will most likely her running her stellar gelding “Sky” (Sky High Guy). 

The second performance will hold the Canadian powerhouse Carman Pozzobon. Pozzobon didn’t have the best of luck in Edmonton, but has already earned over $30,000 in the Canadian Standings and should not be counted out after one bad weekend. 

Shayna Weir has been having a career season in the CPRA and has shown she is fighting for her first CFR qualification. She barely missed the CFR last year, but has been placing left and right in the CPRA to ensure she will not be in the same position again. Weir is currently No. 3 in the Canadian Standings and No. 2 in the Finning Pro Tour standings before the K-Days/Morris weekend additions and will run in the slack at Medicine Hat. 

Bull Riding: Scott Schiffner’s Retirement Tour Continues, Parsonage Out With Broken Foot

Key Athletes: Scott Schiffner, Jared Parsonage

Analysis: Even if Scott Schiffner didn’t win a big check at K-Days, he was going to make sure he made it to the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede one more time before he retired. But what that $11,620.75 check he earned for splitting the win with Brock Radford means is we could be seeing a few more rides from the Canadian champion before he hangs up his bull rope. 

Catch Schiffner’s last ride at Medicine Hat aboard Kesler Championship’s 346 Times Up on Thursday night. 

Another bull rider we had on the list to talk about for Medicine Hat (and every rodeo he enters) was Jared Parsonage. The No. 1 bull rider in Canada was on the draw to compete on Saturday but unfortunately broke his foot during the Calgary Stampede and will have to sit the next few out.

Parsonage hopes to be back by the Strathmore Stampede at the earliest.