It doesn’t matter what country you hail from, if you’re sitting with your daytimer and planning out your pro rodeo season, the Finning Canada Pro Rodeo Tour events are most likely on your list of rodeos to enter. The tour that consists of nine Canadian rodeos has over $1.3 million in added money in 2018, something that entices WNFR and CFR regulars like bareback rider Caleb Bennett each year.

“The biggest thing I look at is stock and money,” Bennett said about choosing which rodeos to enter. “The more I’ve rodeo’d, the more I try to rodeo smarter, not harder. So I try to go where the best competition is as far as guys and horses and where the most money is.”

In fact, of the top 50 rodeo committee purses on the 2017 PRCA rodeo roster (including the WNFR, according to the PRCA Media Guide), five rodeos on the Finning Pro Tour make the list. Wainwright sat at No. 50, Armstrong just above at 49, Strathmore’s committee purse was in the No. 32 spot, Ponoka split No. 12 and 13, and the highest committee purse in Canada was the KDays rodeo in Edmonton at No. 8 on the list. 

“The Finning Pro Tour Rodeos are right smack-dab what I’m looking for when it comes to planning my rodeos out… those are at the top of my list as far as what I try to go to first before I go to anything else,” said Bennett, who has six WNFR and four CFR qualifications to his name.

The complete Finning Pro Tour Events consist of: 

- Wainwright Stampede: June 21-24, 2018, Wainwright, Alberta

- Ponoka Stampede: June 26-July 2, 2018, Ponoka, Alberta

- Williams Lake Stampede: June 29-July 2, 2018, Williams Lake, British Columbia

- Manitoba Stampede & Exhibition: July 19-July 22, 2018, Morris, Manitoba 

- Edmonton K-Days Rodeo: July 20-22, 2018, Edmonton, Alberta

- Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede: July 26-28, 2018, Medicine Hat, Alberta

- Strathmore Stampede: Aug. 3-6, Strathmore, Alberta

- Dawson Creek Exhibition & Stampede: Aug. 10-12, 2018, Dawson Creek, British     Columbia

- IPE & Stampede (Armstrong): Aug. 29-Sept. 1, Armstrong, British Columbia

- Finning Pro Tour Finals: IPE & Stampede (Armstrong): Sept. 2, Armstrong, British Columbia

Last year, Bennett saw huge success on the tour placing at six of nine tour events, earning big checks like $7173.14 for a fourth-place finish at the Edmonton K-Days Rodeo and $2526.72 at the IPE And Stampede in Armstrong, and a total of over $17,000 at pro tour events alone. 

“Being able to win at those rodeos is huge for me,” Bennett said. “I try to get up to Canada as much as I can and making the Canadian Finals and possibly winning the Canadian title is just as important to me as making the NFR or winning a world title.

“They’re just as important as our tour rodeos down here, with the extra money added at them, the payouts, the better stock, being able to go to them up there and almost get double the bang for your buck because you’re going to be getting your Canadian count in, getting tour points up there, plus world standings points down here to help qualify for the NFR.”

Levi Simpson and Jeremy Buhler on route to the Canadian team roping title at the 2017 Canadian Finals Rodeo - CPRA Photo by Mike Copeman.

Another competitor who can testify to the impact the Finning Canada Pro Tour rodeos can have on both your CPRA and PRCA rodeo season in three-time Canadian champion and 2016 world champion team roper Levi Simpson. Simpson and partner Jeremy Buhler earned over $16,000 across the tour events in Canada in the 2017 rodeo season, with their largest checks coming from the Ponoka Stampede and the Edmonton K-Days Rodeo.

“Just between Ponoka and Edmonton I won roughly 14 or 15 thousands dollars,” Simpson said. “So without that win at both of those rodeos I would have had to do a lot more at the finals to even have a chance to be a Canadian champion.”

The CPRA sanctions around 50 rodeos a year and co-sanctions those rodeos with the PRCA, adding to their list of over 600 events around Canada, the U.S., and now Mexico. When you look at the dollars-per-rodeo ratio, Canada can be considered a very rich place to compete. The top end rodeos within the tour are also not only co-sanctioned but sit on two prestigious tour lists. 

“It’s pretty awesome to have rodeos like Ponoka in the tour that are not only in the Finning Pro Tour in Canada, but they are also in the PRCA Gold Tour as one of the biggest 15 rodeos in the world,” Simpson said. “That’s going to draw a huge crowd of athletes and spectators from all over because not only do you get the best competitors in Canada but you get the best competitors in the world.”