Pope and Reiner may be on the mountaintop looking down, but there are other Resistol bareback riders who want to knock them off the cliff. Clayton Biglow is closing in on his seventh straight NFR. The 26-year-old from Clements, California, is in the top 10 on the money list and holds a bit of history in his pockets: He is the 2019 world champion.
Leighton Berry has bounced back from a broken back suffered early in 2021. He returned to action in August of last year and still finished 23rd in the world standings. His promise was sidelined, but he proved his place again in 2022. He has earned more than $100,000 and is almost locked into his second NFR – he finished the 2020 season ninth in the final world standings after pocketing nearly $80,000 in 10 days.
“I think my 2022 season is a good representation of a roller coaster,” said Berry, 23, of Weatherford, Texas. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of successes, but I’ve also had a lot of dry spells. All along, though, I told myself I was going to keep to the plan.
“I started a roll right after I won Reno (Nevada) and Ponoka (Alberta), but rodeo pretty much humbled me the next week.”
That happens in rodeo, where there are many variables. One thing that’s been constant has been the relationship each cowboy has with Resistol.
“Resistol’s motto is ‘We live it every day,’ and I try to stay true to that because I get to be a cowboy,” Berry said. “To put on a Resistol is to keep reminding you to stay true to yourself and stay true to the cowboy code.”