Author: Siri Stevens

“I changed the expectations for the quality and professionalism of the position of rodeo clown or entertainer, as the times changed. All while staying true to the history and integrity of the sport. And that through it all, I hope I treated everyone with kindness and respect.”

Flint Rasmussen was the start of a new era in his job as a rodeo clown. He was the end of the era and an era during which nobody touched him. Now, at 55, he will step out of the dirt and onto the stage or the mic or whatever comes next. The Choteau, Montana, native has spent the past 50 years entertaining audiences. The youngest of four, his mom, Tootie, wasn’t surprised when her son hit the stage. “I always say, he learned how to entertain himself because he was a latch key kid,” she said. “After he went to school, he’d have to come home and be alone.” She and Flint’s dad, Stan, were both working. “He used his imagination to entertain himself.” Stan worked as a rodeo announcer and was the past president for the Northern Rodeo Association (NRA) and Tootie served as a timer. Their four children, Will, Pete, Linda, and Flint were raised on the announcers stand. “My claim to fame is I have four talented kids,” said Tootie. “I remember when Flint was really little, like three or four, and he would do imitations and pretend he was playing football in the middle of the floor in slow motion.”
He got his first taste of clowning when he was a teenager. Lloyd Ketchum asked him to help him with a skit. “Loyd helped me put my make-up on,” Flint said. “It was a two-man act. We blew up an outhouse. It was awesome.” While in college, he became the voice of the Bulldogs, announcing basketball and football. After he completed college, Flint returned to the town where he was born, Havre, and taught math and history at Havre High School. He also coached football and track, continuing his announcing on the side. “I didn’t have any aspirations to do this (rodeo clown) for a living. It was my summer job. I did it for six years for the NRA, perfecting my craft and developing a character. When I jumped in and went to Red Lodge for the first pro rodeo (1994), I was pretty good – I’d been doing this awhile.”
He started down the road, quickly racking up the accolades. He earned the title of PRCA Clown of the Year for eight consecutive years and won the Coors Man in the Can honor seven times. Flint met ex-wife, Katie Grasky, who was a barrel racer, while he was touring. He was working at both PRCA and PBR events when Randy Bernard, CEO of PBR called, offering him an exclusive deal. Flint turned it down because of all the work he had lined up. By the end of that year (2006), he made the decision to go full-time with PBR. With the PBR, he could fly on the weekends, and be home during the week. “We used to load up the motor home with a three-horse trailer behind it. We’d travel from June to September. We went together. When the girls started school, and their activities were on the weekends, it broke the connection we had – I was gone every weekend.”
Paige, his youngest daughter, remembers growing up on the road with her dad. “I remember life in the motorhome,” said 21-year-old Paige. “It was how we lived. It wasn’t this crazy thing to me that my dad was a clown, we had a kiddy pool and other kids our age would come and play. It was normal for us to live on the road.” When the girls started school, he flew out on the weekends and then he would be home. “I remember going to rodeos with my dad and my mom around home.” Along with rodeo, she did track. “My dad was my track coach in high school – he was great. He was a great athlete himself – I did all the same events he did in high school, 100 hurdles, relay, triple jump and long jump.”
Paige is a senior at Montana State University, where her sister, Shelby, graduated and is an assistant coach. Two years ago, as a sophomore, Paige was the 2021 College National All Around Champion. At the Finals in goat tying Paige was leading by a long way. In the short round she was confident she had it with 6.3 seconds. “It was a done deal – at the last second the goat got up,” she said. “I was heartbroken; my goals were relying on winning the goat tying.” Although she was teary-eyed, she went to the awards to support her team and sister, Shelby. Their team had won the National Women’s Title. “But then they announced that I won the All Around. It was surreal.” Paige did split the All Around title with her good friend that did win the Goat Tying.
Paige has her own coaching business, traveling to produce clinics. That, along with rodeo will take a pause as she pursues medical school. “I want to be a psychiatrist in the Air Force and work with veterans with PTSD.” She loves learning about the brain and she has family roots in the military. “It would be great to work with populations that serve our country so I can serve them back. Before applying to med school, Paige is taking a year off to intern at MIT, in Boston, Mass., and prepare for med school. “I’ll be working in the brain institute at MIT – studying MRIs of teenagers and kids and looking for abnormalities.” When she’s done with her internship, Paige will study and prepare her applications for med school.
She has maintained a 3.9 grade point average as well as competing on the rodeo team. It’s taken lots of early morning and late nights and weekends practicing and studying. “All my close friends on the rodeo team are good at time management; every free minute we get stuff done.” The team is under the athletic department, so they have their own strength training coach, twice a week at 6:30 am. The team does condition training the other day, and Paige works out on her own the fifth day of the week.
Shelby has been coaching Paige forever, so having her as the coach for the team was an easy transition. “We get along well – she’s my role model, so now she just tells me what I need to hear when I need to hear it.” They also live together at the family home in Bozeman, Mont. “My mom lives in Arizona in the winter so we stay here.” In the summer, they all split up and rodeo. They also share a love of music and dance – something that runs in the family and was encouraged growing up. Both sisters went to a one-room school, where the teacher emphasized music. “I write songs, and play six different instruments, including drums. I also did musical theater in high school.”
Shelby remembers that tiny county school. “I played trumpet, violin, and piano. We learned all about drums, and ballroom dancing. My dad’s whole family is very musical.” Her earliest memories of her dad revolved around rodeo and the motorhome. “We’d be gone for months at a time going to rodeos.” Even after school started, she remembers going during the summer until she was in second or third grade. “My mom trained barrel horses even on the road with my dad.” Her love was rodeo and competing was not thwarted by the weather of Montana. “It adds a whole level of difficulty – we had an indoor barn in Choteau and that helped – we just got two feet of snow here last week.”
Shelby graduated from Montana State with a degree in marketing and is enjoying her first year as the assistant coach. “I’m using what I learned in marketing to find what styles work best for the students and communicating that.” The 24-year-old wants to be a role model for her team as well as anyone else she meets along the way. “My parents are both role models.” She is looking forward to her dad retiring from the arena. “All we’ve ever known is dad in the arena, so we don’t know. He will still be traveling, but maybe have some time to get to our stuff – he just went to his first rodeo banquet this year. It will be nice to have our dad back.” Both daughters are dedicated to preserving the Western lifestyle that they grew up in.
“People don’t realize how close we are to losing it,” Flint said about the Western lifestyle. Flint travels to large cities like Madison Square Garden in New York City. “The farther we get away from it, the unhealthier our country is.” Flint set out to help bridge that gap and entertain people. He never dreamed of what would happen to his life once he made that decision. He also never realized the sacrifice that his career cost his family. “In my job there is a selfishness to it, a pride in doing it for myself. But I really truly believed through my career I was doing it for them. I consider them to be my biggest fans in the world, alongside their mom, who still is.” Flint is quick to give Katie credit for the girls’ success in the rodeo arena. “We did a lot of neat stuff. My job put us in the rodeo business, but the person that taught them how to ride and take care of horses is their mom – she college rodeoed.”
On March 11, 2009, Flint, at the age of 41, suffered a heart attack. “We were home, and I was working out. I was out of breath and had stations set up – my wife, Katie, was trying to visit with me and I couldn’t talk – I ended up having a heart attack that day. We lived 11 miles out of town and she drove me to the ER in our little town.” Being in shape saved his life, and after a couple of procedures, he was back in the arena. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t forget about it. I was working out when I had the heart attack. I was angry and confused. If I had a heart attack doing this, when’s the next one.” He had to wear a heart rate monitor and had to take a few breaks when his heart rate exceeded 140 bpm.
His favorite part of his job is also the worst part of it – the travel. “What a wonderful thing – I’ve watched the college basketball tournament and I know where all the locker rooms are. The best thing is I fulfilled something that was always in me – performing in front of crowds. Singing and dancing and being in front of people fills up a place in you that other people don’t understand. I get to be on a starting lineup and bring people joy.” The PBR has had a record setting year. Before each rodeo, Flint has a little huddle with the bullfighters. “Look over your shoulder,” he reminds them. “These people paid to come see us, we are doing something right.”
“There’s no handbook or guidelines about family – I’m a small-town guy that worked my way up. “In middle age, I’m in front of 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden … no matter how ready for it you are, you aren’t ready.” Being on the road every weekend took it’s toll on family time – he missed a lot of things due to travel. “It’s the part of this job that people don’t think of. At the time, I was making decisions based on what was best for my family. I do believe I was. My girls have had an amazing life. “
Flint has used his platforms to promote the sport of rodeo. From his studio in Montana, he has produced 66 podcasts, According to Flint, featuring guests from all walks of life that Flint has encountered over the years and some who he is meeting for the first time. His years of knowledge in the industry makes interviews easy. Flint has also hosted “Outside the Barrel” for 18 years at the National Finals Rodeo. “I don’t do the show because I’m a rodeo clown, but because it is a separate passion of mine. That’s all I ever wanted to do – I wanted to be a talk show host, to be on stage. If you want to be effective, you have to perfect your craft. That’s what I tried to do.” Flint also hosts the NFR’s Buckle Ceremony following the nightly performances. “That is part of the transitioning.” He wants to be an Ambassador for the lifestyle. “I see how close it is to disappearing – part of my job moving forward is to preserve the Western lifestyle.”

I’ve learned how to win and lose – to deal with adversity – that’s easier said than done. I try to be thankful from the beginning and look failure in the eye.

he first time Riley Wakefield went to the Cinch Timed Event Championships, he and his older brother Brady were star-struck. The next time he attended, 15 years later, he went as a contestant, finishing in fourth place. At the 2023 Cinch TEC, the O’Neill, Neb. cowboy turned in a time of 366 seconds throughout five rounds to finish fourth and win $10,000. After applying for the prestigious event for the past five years, Riley was first on the alternate list this year. He got the call in early February that someone couldn’t make it, and there was a spot for him. He prepared, making four or five runs in each event, every day.
It was in 2008, when Riley was eleven years old, that he and his family, including parents Jim and Susan Wakefield, went to Guthrie’s Lazy E Arena as spectators. “It was a treat,” Riley said. He and Brady saw their heroes among the competitors. “I just remember seeing role models,” he said, “seeing people in places that I wanted to be, people with extreme talent. We had old videotapes of the finals so we knew who guys were, and when they’d walk by us, we’d stare at them. And to see them in person, we were star struck. It was a pretty amazing experience.”
He and Brady, who passed away in a vehicle accident in 2015, got their picture taken with Trevor Brazile.
The CINCH Timed Event Challenge is an invitational event, taking the best twenty cowboys in the world, to compete in five events: steer wrestling, tie-down roping, heading, heeling, and steer roping, in four rounds, with the best fifteen going on to the fifth round. Fastest time in all four events, over five rounds, wins. Riley was leading the average going into the fifth round but a sixty second run in the team roping put him in fourth place for the finish.
A 2020 graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Riley has been living in Stephenville, Texas. But this winter, he was at home on his parents’ (Jim & Susan) ranch near O’Neill, during what was the worst winter in the last ten years in north-central Nebraska; O’Neill has had 57 inches of snow. The snow and cold weather made everything harder to accomplish. “We had three feet of snow on the ground, and it was an absolute workout to get to the horses. You had to lift each leg through the snow.” All the watering was done by hand, because the tanks would freeze to the bottom by morning. “We hand watered everything,” he said. Riley’s girlfriend Jenna Dallyn helped him, loading cattle, roping with him, until she had to return to High River, Alberta, to work. Then his dad helped. Jim “was out there every day, all day, pushing cattle. When Jenna left, he had to fill in and be the guy to help me. He was a huge part of this.”
Cinch TEC contestants designate “helpers,” who head, heel and haze for them. Cinch TEC contestants cannot head or heel for each other, but they can haze for each other. Riley’s header was CJ DeForest; his heeler was Tanner Braden, and Allen Good was his hazer for three rounds with Mason Couch for the last two rounds. Nerves wore on him for round number one, which showed up in the heading. “That first head loop I threw, it was not a good head loop but a nervous head loop. It was sloppy,” he said. “I was feeling the nerves.” But when the tie-down roping came around, he settled in. “As soon as I tied my first calf, I felt a lot more comfortable. The set-up fit my horse perfectly. He has a lot of run, he’s fairly free, and he doesn’t take my shot away.”
In February, after getting the call that he would be competing at the Cinch TEC, Riley was nervous. The event was so important to him, the concept of being a “true” cowboy and showing skills across four disciplines, had him anxious. So nervous, that he’d never felt this much nerves since he and Brady backed into the box at the 2012 National High School Finals Rodeo, when he was a freshman. The brothers had done some mental training, with one of the pieces of advice being that they should visualize the best thing that could happen and the worst thing that could happen. It worked; he and Brady finished as reserve team roping champions that year.
So Riley applied the same concept to the Cinch TEC. He knew, if he failed, that he’d still have family and friends who still cared about him, and he could still have the chance of being invited to compete at next year’s Cinch TEC. “After I looked failure dead in the eyes,” he said on a Facebook post, “the rest of the Cinch TEC was pretty smooth sailing.”
He grew up on the family ranch south of O’Neill, in the Sandhills of Nebraska, with a dad who was a pro steer wrestler and roper.
When family friends came over to the Wakefields to rope, it was Brady and Riley running the chutes, and looking up with respect to the men who practiced with their dad.
“It was an honor to ride their horses around after practice.”
Like many young cowboys, they fell in love with the sport. Jim and Susan hauled their boys to Little Britches Rodeos and youth events all over the region.
The brothers loved it, Riley said. “We took a liking to it and got small successes along the way, that keep you going, and sooner or later, you get bigger successes, then bigger and bigger, and by that time, we were hooked.”
In junior high, Riley wanted to be a bull rider. He followed the PBR faithfully and got on roping steers at home. But in eighth grade, he realized the timed events were more his thing.
In high school, he qualified for state finals and the National High School Finals all four years, competing at Nationals four times in the team roping and once in the steer wrestling.
In college at Gillette (Wyo.) College, he made it to the College National Finals Rodeo in 2017 in three events, then two years later, won the tie-down in the Central Plains Region while a student at Northwestern Oklahoma State.
Riley rode his horse Gator for the tie-down roping and his horse William for the heeling, borrowing horses for the other three events. Gator has been a long-time project for the cowboy. When Riley’s horse died of colic three years ago, friend Austin Barstow suggested that Riley borrow Gator, who showed potential but was really green. “I knew from the start that Gator had tremendous ability and athleticism,” he said. “But he is extremely playful. He is difficult to catch, he messes around, and he sees how much he can get away with. That’s been the struggle, to get the business attitude out of him.”
At a rodeo in 2021, after Riley roped a calf, Gator misbehaved, stepping away from him as he tried to re-mount. “It took me a full minute to get on him. He was inching away from me in a circle. He wasn’t dragging the calf, but he was moving away.” A few weeks after that, Riley took him to the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, where he worried how the horse would respond to an indoor arena with noise and lots of activity. “I was nervous and had no idea what he would do, but the circuit finals was a turning point. He worked better than he ever had, in a loud and pressure-filled environment.” The twelve-year-old bay has improved. “He’s more business-like now, and I think we’ve both grown up together. I’ve learned how to train one and ride one correctly, and that’s more important than a lot of people understand. A horse is sometimes only as good as his rider.”
For the steer tripping, he rode Todd Eberle’s horse Mississippi, and for the heading, he rode Danielle Wray’s horse, Peanut. Danielle was instrumental in helping him in 2021 when he qualified for the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo in three events, and at the Cinch TEC as well. “I couldn’t have done either without her.”
Riley, at age 26, is working at making rodeo his fulltime job. It’s not easy. Last year, he competed across the nation, at times broke and trying to prove himself, not only to the rodeo world, but to himself. “I went through some hard times, really low times,” he said. “I questioned why the heck I was doing this. I have my (college) degree, why am I not at home, working, making for-sure money.” He remembers tough times last summer, traveling in a small trailer with a shower, no bathroom, and two bunk beds, and the time in Caldwell when his traveling partner headed to another rodeo but Riley stayed for the short round. From 6 am, when his buddy got on the road, till 4 pm, when a friend arrived, he sat on the grounds with his lawn chair and phone, while Gator grazed, “taking it all in.”
Rodeoing isn’t cheap, either, with entry fees and fuel bills. “You pull the trigger anyways,” he said. “You can’t be emotional about (spending) the money. You have to trust your talent. If you worry about the money, you’re going to be worried all the time.” During the hard times, he talked to his dad, telling him he was ready to come home. “I remember calling my dad, and he said, ‘you chose to do this, you’re going to stay on the road.”
It can be a game of confidence, Riley said. “When you’re new on the trail, you feel like you have something to prove. You feel like you’re not trying to lose, instead of trying to win, not looking like an idiot, instead of going out there and wining first.
The fourth place finish at the Cinch TEC has boosted his confidence. Now, when backing into the box, “I’m thinking about how fast I can be instead of how not to mess up. I’m thinking of what can go right instead of what can go wrong.”
His parents are behind him one hundred percent. “If I didn’t have my parents helping me out, I would be working a nine-to-five,” he said. “My wins are just as much theirs as they are mine. We’re a team.”
This summer, he will rodeo full time, competing at 80 rodeos, heading to California in April, with a bounce in his step and more confidence under the cowboy hat.
Rodeo hasn’t always come easy to him. “I wasn’t one of those guys that was consistently winning,” he said. “It took some things I needed to work through.”
There were several times he could have quit, but he didn’t. “To me, it’s the fact that I put all the work in and I didn’t want to waste it. I wanted it to pay off somehow.”
“I felt like I could have decided to teach school, forget about rodeo and make some money. I could have, and I’ve had ended up OK. But I had the opportunity (to rodeo) and I have so many people behind me, and it’s what I love to do and what I’ve worked for, so why not let it pay off? And if it doesn’t, that’s fine, but I want to give it the chance.”
His hard work and perseverance is yielding a profit. “I’m so glad it’s paying off now. There’s nothing better than hard work paying off.”
Riley credits his sponsors with helping him stay on the rodeo road. They are Rattler, Wrangler, Wakefield Insurance Agency, Pritchett Twine and Net Wrap, Laursen Chiropractic, Twin Creek Ranches, and Make An Impact.
Cody Doescher won the 2023 Cinch TEC with a time of 312.7 seconds (total on 25 head); Russell Cardoza was second (321.7 seconds); Lane Karney was third (355.3 seconds.)