Eight-time world champion Stetson Wright entered last year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo with a six-figure lead in the all-around world standings but set his sights on capturing a triple crown.
Wright burst onto the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeo scene in 2019 becoming the first rookie to win an all-around world championship.
Since then, he’s won five straight all-around titles (2019-23), two bull-riding championships (2020, 2022) and a saddle bronc title (2021).
From Beaver, Utah, the 24-year-old cowboy’s run of dominance garnered him the nickname “Superman.”
But in the second round of last year’s Finals, Wright bowed out of the competition with a hamstring injury. Three days later, he underwent surgery, and for the last six months, he’s been rehabbing to get back in rodeo shape.
“I got the nickname Superman, and everybody knows that you’re not invincible. But after five years of running away with everything, I’m not going to lie, I started to believe I might have a little bit of Superman in me,” Wright said.
“That was a tough pill to swallow. I’m just like everybody else, and I can get hurt.”
After his surgery, doctors ordered Wright to stay in bed for six weeks before moving him to crutches for 12 weeks.
Then he started to rehab and train to begin gearing up for his return to rodeo.
“Now I’m at the point of breaking scar tissue, getting my full range of motion back and getting back in the saddle,” Wright said. “I’ve been on a bull and a horse. Everything is looking up at this point, and we’re set to return soon.
“On paper, everything is looking good, and hopefully, well not hopefully, we will be back in Las Vegas next December.”
Wright said missing his shot at a triple-crown stung but that there was too much to be grateful for to dwell on disappointment.
“Yeah, I had my days where I was like, ‘Why would this happen to me?’,” he recalled. “But it was all pretty short-lived. As soon as I went into surgery and came out, all I could think about was a triple crown in 2024.”
Until this past season, Wright remained relatively healthy in his rodeo career.
His run of success and perceived invincibility translated into confidence in the arena but let him down this past December.
“It’s good to have the mindset that you can’t because it does make you pretty tough to beat when you have the upper hand,” he said. “That was a tough pill to swallow when I realized that the triple crown wasn’t in the cards that year. I just watched everything slip away round by round after that.”
Between bull riding and saddle bronc riding, Wright got used to hopping on multiple stock per day, but the hamstring injury hampered him in Las Vegas.
“You guys have seen it, I can get on four, five or six in a day and be fine,” Wright said. “When I got off that bull I was fatigued. I had lost all of my rodeo muscles.”
The months of sitting around and rehab are now in Wright’s rear-view mirror. He said as of right now he’s eyeing July to climb back on at PRCA rodeos.
“There are many things you can change, but the great part of life is that you never know what tomorrow brings,” Wright said. “I’m just having fun, and we’re about back to me being able to do what I love, and I’m pretty excited about it.”
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