By Ted Harbin, TwisTed Rodeo
LAS VEGAS – It’s a good thing Cole Franks spoke his mind a couple months ago.
The bareback riders who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo got on a conference call to discuss what 105 horses they were going to have at the premier event. There are some disagreements and some haggling to break down the horses they considered the very best.
Andrews Rodeo’s Fresno was one of them.
“That horses is just really fast and pretty electric, and it’s a fun horse,” said Franks, who rode Fresno for 84 points to finish in a three-way tie for sixth in Sunday’s fourth round. “I fought my tail off to get that horse here this year. I’ve always liked that horse. I got on it in Salt Lake (Days of ’47 Rodeo) and did really well.”
It paid off for Franks. It wasn’t much – just shy of $2,000 – but the 2021 intercollegiate champion and rookie of the year collected his first payday of this NFR. He is eighth in the world standings with $212,333.
“You just have to have to freaking full send it,” said Franks, 24, of Clarendon, Texas. “It doesn’t matter what these horses are doing; you just have to spur. With fast horses like that one, it’s a little harder to just spur and go at them instead of flashing them up. It’s just go, go, go, go”
He went, and while the ride was fast, his NFR has been slow. By this time a year ago, he had pocketed $65,000; this year, he’s at $12,000.
“I’m riding just as good, if not better, than I ever have here,” he said. “It just seeks like I keep drawing toward the bottom of the pen or when I think I have a pretty good chance at winning a round or at least being at the top, those horses just don’t quite show up.
“It’s hard not to get down a little bit, but at the same time, I feel I’m doing about as good as I could possibly do with what I’ve had so far.”
He’s ridden four horses for a cumulative score of 334.5 points and sits seventh in the aggregate race. It’s a marathon in Las Vegas, not a sprint, and he has six more chances to take money out of Sin City.
“It’s been kind of a bummer, and I felt like I was on a losing streak,” Franks said. “The last three times I’ve been here, everything just flowed really easily.
“I’m know I’m doing my job, so this all depends on what the horse is going to control. That’s out of my control, so I’m not going to worry myself about it. If I was screwing up, it’d be a whole different story.”
He’s writing the script, and there’s are more acts to follow.
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