Can Dalton Massey Hold Onto Number One All Season For A World Title?

Dalton Massey came off a strong winter rodeo run positing him first in the world standings with hopes of NFR and Candian Finals qualifications in 2024.

Courtesy of Dalton Massey

The "Big Mans Event" is always a crowd favorite as it showcases a cowboy's horsemanship along with their strength as they wrestle up to 600-pound horned cattle to their side. You will always hear the crowd cheering for the cowboys when they successfully finish their steer wrestling run.

Dalton Massey is the number one steer wrestler in the world right now with $76,744.48 in his pocket before the crazy summer rodeos begins.

Massey started the 2024 season off with a big win at the Columbia River Circuit Finals and the momentum just grew from there. He split the win in Fort Worth, Texas riding Tanner Milan's horse "Eddie." His success in the winter rodeos continued by making the finals at Rodeo Houston and placing great in Tuscon, Ariz. He spent his time switching back and forth from his horse "Rodney" and Milan's horse "Eddie."

Steer wrestlers are known to travel in groups and Massey has some great people surrounding him. He finds himself in the truck with Tanner Milan, Ryan Shuckburgh, and Stephen Culling. Coming into the summer run, Massey feels great and makes sure to spend any time he can get in the gym working on his recovery and increasing his strength to stay on top of his game.

The rig plans to travel back and forth between Canada and home with hopes to qualifiy for another Canadian Finals and of course the goal of riding under the bright lights of Vegas in December.

Last year the Hermiston, Ore. cowboy entered into the 2023 National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in the number one position, and he is attempting to set himself up to do that again.

"I want to set myself up for a solid chance at a gold buckle," he said.

Gold buckle dreams started at a young age for the 31-year-old cowboy. He rodeoed a lot as a kid and after a short break he got serouis about steer wrestling his freshman year of high school. It wasn't long and he fell in love with the sport. He quit working any other events and just focused on the bull dogging.

"My grandad, Sid Britt, had horses and steers at his ranch all the time which allowed me all the practice I could get," he recalled.

Throughout college Massey circuit rodeoed and followed the amateur rodeos while working as well.

"When I turned 26, I started rodeoing full time," Massey explained. If he was not on the road he would fill his time with work, ranching, and even do some carpentry work on the side.

Dalton climbed the ranks and from 2020 through 2022. He finished just outside the top 15 to qualify for the NFR in both 2021 and 2022. In 2023 that all changed, and Massey qualified for his first NFR. The big man says he's thankful for the support he gets on the road from his sponsors that for him include Wrangler, Farm City Pro Rodeo, Revita Equine, Elmer's Irrigation, and Best Ever Pads.

The Steer Wrestling is a close race and will be interesting to watch this season. Dalton holds the number one position having won $76,744 with Dakota Eldridge in the second position earning $69,107.81, No. 3 Stetson Jorgensen $55,879.45, No. 4 Ty Erickson $53,597.65, and rounding out the top five is Will Lummus with $51,120.26. Full Steer Wrestling World Standings Click Here.