CFR 51 Novice and Jr Steer Riding

– BY CLAY CREASY, CANADIAN RODEO NEWS WRITER

Novice Riders Carry a Big Tradition Into the CFR

The novice events have long been a proving ground for young rodeo contestants that sets Canadian Professional Rodeo apart from its neighbours to the south. This year’s field of competitors looks poised to leave their names alongside the legends who came before them.

Clay Greenslade: Double Threat

Strathmore’s Clay Greenslade, who finished the season atop the Novice Saddle Bronc riding standings, will make history at CFR 51 as the first rider to ever compete at the Canadian Finals Rodeo in both the novice bareback and saddle bronc events.

He traces the roots of that achievement to the punishing final weekend of the 2024 CPRA season. Over the Labour Day stretch he took his last two chances to earn a critical top three finish in the Novice Saddle Bronc riding field in Armstrong and Cochrane, while fitting a trip to St. Paul for the Lakeland Finals in between. At those finals, competing in both events meant climbing on 10 head in four days. “That stretch really showed how hard it can be,” Greenslade reflected. “But it also showed me that if I was going to do well in both events, I needed to push that little bit harder to accomplish my goals.” Despite his effort, he finished $50 short of a CFR spot — but gained a blueprint for the seemingly impossible path he travelled in 2025.

That blueprint helped shape his off-season. After setting hockey aside, he hit the gym hard, focusing on building up the strength he felt he’d need. “This winter I just put my head down in the gym so I’d be ready for the grind,” he noted.

The grind came. This season, Greenslade and travelling partner Jace Lomheim entered everything they could — a schedule that included many of the same CPRA novice rodeos and Alberta semi-pro circuits as they’d entered in 2024, while adding stops in Saskatchewan and Manitoba at as many CCA events as they could fit in — taking full advantage of the agreement that lets regular season earnings in the Bareback and Saddle across those associations count toward CPRA novice standings. “Every rodeo and every dollar earned counts,” Greenslade emphasized.

And a grind it was. Greenslade and travelling partner Jace Lomheim entered everything they could — entering many of the same CPRA novice rodeos and Alberta semi-pro stops as the year before, while adding many Saskatchewan and Manitoba CCA events — taking full advantage of the agreement that lets those earnings count toward CPRA novice standings. “Every rodeo and every dollar earned counts,” he emphasized.

That agreement makes his accomplishment even more remarkable, as by the time the dust settled on the 2025 regular season, Greenslade rode 130 head from January to August while balancing both events. “I really wanted to make the CFR in both, and get season leader in the broncs,”  — and he accomplished just that.

His greatest test came in July when a post-ride hang-up at a rodeo left him with a several broken bones in his foot. For several weeks afterward, “I basically wore an air boot up until I’d put on my bronc riding boots,” he said, crediting his mother’s physiotherapy expertise for keeping him going.

Both riders departed in mid-August to begin their post-secondary careers on the prestigious Tarleton State University rodeo team in Stephenville, Texas. Greenslade speaks highly of the as “everything’s been pretty great. We have our indoor arena and a gym all together, and with practice horses every Wednesday you hardly have to go to town except for class — and it’s only ten minutes away.”

Despite missing out on a few end of season opportunities, Greenslade took solace in the fact that “we really did all we could during the rest of the season, and the chips fell where they did.” Coming into Edmonton with ahead of second place by over $5,000, he appears to have played his cards well. He plans to use this season’s experience to approach] the CFR “like another rodeo”, while hoping to stay healthy and finish what he started out to do.

Jace Lomheim: Returning to Defend His Title

While Greenslade’s dual event appearance in Edmonton will represent uncharted territory, Hughenden’s Jace Lomheim finds himself looking to end this year in a similar fashion to 2024. The reigning Novice Bareback champion again sits atop the standings heading into the CFR, albeit with a much slimmer margin. “This year was good — there was a lot more competition with Quaide [Skjonsberg] and Clay competing in the bareback,” he observed. “We had a lot of fun and made a lot of miles.”

That mileage included many exhausting weekends navigating across most if not all of the four Western provinces, while also representing the first full season the two hit the road without their retired bareback-riding fathers in the truck every weekend. Despite venturing out with that paternal guidance, Lomheim pointed out, “With the two of us rodeoing together, we had two drivers that got along and we had a lot of fun.”

Despite their intense schedule, having to leave for Texas in mid-August gave Skjonsberg two extra weekends to try to catch him for the regular season lead. Lomheim recalled with a laugh, “At one point they said he had me beat by $200”, but after the CPRA office discovered a calculation error from one of the last semi-professional results, “I got him by $53.”

He credits the team at Wainwright’s Regain and Prosper Rehabilitation for providing him with the training regimen he worked on all winter combined with the recovery treatments he received helped him withstand all of the rides and travelling. “They gave me a workout program and stretched me out, which helped me a lot.”

Feeling similarly excited about his early experience at Tarleton, Lomheim finds himself surrounded by top talent: almost 20 top notch bareback and bronc riders on the men’s team, with almost more bareback riders at his school than the rest of the region combined. “Everyone’s in the gym, always pushing each other to be their best,” he remarked. With a unique set of holiday trailers for the team members to live in at the University’s rodeo facilities, life at the school’s “trailer park” adds a social side too — with many evenings filled with  “spike ball and card games”.

Lomheim will look to conclude another strong CFR performance, then return to Texas with plans to balance his studies and college rodeo schedule with plans to take his PRCA permit and hit the road. Given the October 1st start to the 2026 PRCA season, both him and Greenslade plan to reach their goals for the upcoming season in the same way they’ve worked through this successful year. “One horse at a time, one jump at a time.”

Ryder Topolinski: Consistency Pays Off

Ryder Topolinski quietly built a season to remember in the Junior Steer Riding. In his third year competing in the event — and his first going hard on the CPRA trail — the young Albertan made sure to put steadiness as his main focus.

“I went into the year wanting to be consistent,” he explained. “When you work to ride a cow every weekend and try to place at every one, it goes a long way.” That mindset paid off, although one big weekend helped immensely. Over the Canada Day weekend, winning the Ponoka Stampede, along with a win in Airdrie and another placing at Williams Lake, it seemed like “everything fell into place.” That incredible weekend pushed him to the top of the standings after what he described as “a dogfight” in the early part of the season. From there he maintained his carried on his consistent ways, while still having some doubts he would stay ahead of the field. “Sometimes you think you’re not going to hold on [to the lead], but things have a way of working out.”

Topolinski’s rodeo career started early, getting on mini bareback horses before moving to steers, while always receiving coaching and support from his stepfather Danny Corr, while also travelling with his stepbrother Auzyn Corr, who narrowly missed qualifying for the CFR in bull riding this year. Baseball and dirt biking may fill his spare time, but rodeo has always been his main focus.

Heading into the CFR, Topolinski hopes to stick to a simple plan: “Just ride consistent, don’t try to do too much each ride, and don’t let anything get to you.” He’s aware the Finals stage will be bigger than anything he’s faced outside of the Calgary Stampede, but he’s embracing it, and will look to carry on his winning ways in Edmonton.

For Greenslade, Lomheim, and Topolinski, their young careers may have winded down different paths to get to the 2025 CFR, but their similar drive to succeed while extending their respective family’s rodeo roots have taken them to the top of their events, while gaining valuable early lessons that will help them as they represent the future of our sport.


2025 CFR NOVICE & JR STEER RIDING QUALIFIERS