📸 Clay Guardipee/RodeoReadyShop

Going into Round 10, Statler Wright’s path to a World Title was clear: earn a check, maintain his position in the NFR Average, and hope his brother Ryder didn’t win the round outright.

Statler held up his end of the bargain. His 87.50 was good enough to split sixth in the round, and he went on to win the Average by 11.25 points.

As for Ryder, well, let’s just say Statler owes his other brother Stetson a very good Christmas present. By tying Ryder atop the Round 10 leaderboard with an 89.75, Stetson prevented Ryder from winning the round outright, allowing Statler to squeak past his big brother.

“This is just the start of my career, I’ve only been riding broncs for five years and to step up here and be a World Champ, shoot, I don’t know, the sky is the limit now,” he said.

In the end, Statler captured the World Title by a razor-thin margin of $346, finishing with $455,940.35 to Ryder’s $455,594.29. Stetson won Round 10 and ended up third in the World.

“To have guys in my corner like that, to be gunning for at the same time and rooting for me, it’s amazing,” he said. “In my eyes, they are the greatest bronc riders in the World, to be up there right along side of them and fight with them it says a lot (about me). It’s hard to do, I rodeo with them all year. They’re damn for sure hard to beat and I think that’s why we thrive so well while we’re here, because we have each other….To be up there right along side those guys and to be on top, is pretty special.”

Statler entered his second NFR ranked ninth in the World and more than $112,000 behind Ryder, who came in at No. 1. But Statler rallied in Las Vegas, winning three Go-Rounds and collecting seven checks to amass $274,068 in NFR earnings.