CFR 51 Primer Steer Wrestling

– BY TIM ELLIS, CANADIAN RODEO NEWS WRITER

Scott Guenthner is no stranger to leading the steer wrestling field into competition at the Canadian Finals Rodeo. He will do it for the fifth time in the last eight seasons when the CFR opens at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

“To get it done again means a lot, especially with the competition we have in Canada now,” says the four-time Pro Rodeo Canada bulldogging champion. “It’s not like it’s just the younger guys pushing you but the older guys are putting pressure on you, too.”

It’s Guenthner’s tenth qualification for the Canadian Finals and will be his ninth appearance (didn’t compete in 2014 due to injury). And on three previous occasions when he entered as the season leader, he left as the Canadian champion.

“It always helps to be number one and to know you’re in the hunt for another championship,” suggests the 34-year-old, Provost, AB, cowboy. “It gives you a little boost of confidence but it doesn’t change my mindset going into the finals.”

“I just want to go bulldog, run each steer for what it’s worth and do what I can do on him and let the chips fall. I don’t really overthink it and look ahead too much. I just do what’s in my control which, a lot of times seems like really nothing between having a horse and a steer and a hazer and everything else. I feel like if you go there with a positive mindset and try to make the best run you can on them, that’s really all you can do.”

That philosophy seems to be working. Since 2017, Guenthner has finished no worse than third in the regular season standings. Each year he didn’t win the season leader award, he was less than $700 out of the number one position. The exception being 2021, when he competed at just eleven rodeos. But this season was not without its challenges.

“I had a really good spring but after Calgary, I didn’t bulldog great,” offers Guenthner, who won his second Calgary Stampede title and now sits twelfth in the world steer wrestling standings. “I wasn’t totally focused. I was trying to decide if I should take another run at the NFR or not.”

“I had been planning on just staying in Canada and going to rodeos on the weekend. You start getting rundown more with crossing back and forth across the border than if you just stay in Canada. I’ve also been dealing with a back issue that I have to be careful with. It’s something I have to pay attention to now.”

At 34, Guenthner is younger than half of the CFR contingent of steer wrestlers, which boasts a combined 104 CFR qualifications. The group includes four cowboys over the age of 40, something the eldest of the group says he’s never heard of before.

“It’s pretty cool that guys can still be competitive at that age,” says Curtis Cassidy, who at 46, will compete at his 23^rd CFR in the steer wrestling and makes a record 39^th Canadian Finals Rodeo appearance overall. “What also makes it fun is that it’s anyone’s game. Whoever bulldogs the best every night will end up the champion and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

That’s because less than $18,000 separates first and twelfth going into the Finals with just a 16-hundred-dollar gap between Guenthner at the top and Ryan Shuckburgh in second spot.

The over-forty class includes six-time Canadian champion, Cody Cassidy (44), two-time champ, Tanner Milan (42) and Ontario’s Tim Kemp (43). They’ll be joined by reigning world champion, JD Struxness, 2023 NFR qualifier, Stephen Culling, Harley Cole, Brendan Laye, Layne Delemont and the only CFR rookie in the group, Clay Guthrie.


2025 CFR STEER WRESTLING QUALIFIERS