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AFTER winning bareback bronc rides in five countries, David Worsford admits he will be nervous when he jumps on a bucking horse at his hometown rodeo at Taroom on July 19.

The Taroom Rodeo will herald the start of the Northern Run in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association, a series of four rodeos in Queensland and three in the Northern Territory on successive weekends.

Worsfold works on family properties between Wandoan and Taroom and admits he was more nervous at home than at Calgary in Canada, the most famous rodeo in the world.

He won a novice bareback bronc ride at Calgary during eight years competing overseas and has a second and first in the past two years at Wandoan.

“I try so hard at home, everyone knows me,” he said.

He goes into the new season in the APRA with a pro tour title to his credit in the season to April 30 for most money won on tour.

“I was third in the finals in 2014 and want to win the next title.”
Worsfold started his career overseas as a bull and bareback bronc rider but retired from the bull ride after aggravating a groin injury at a rodeo in Brazil.

His best pay cheque in the bull ride was $7000 US at a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo in Pennsylvania in the United States.

He was a New Zealand champion in bareback and won a rodeo in Brazil as well as in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Among a lot of success, Worsfold rates his novice bareback win at Calgary as one of his best.

In the run up to the annual Taroom Rodeo, Worsfold will use a spur board at home for some bareback practice.

“I also do some weights at home but work on our properties helps with fitness,” he said.

“I ride a lot of horses for work and break in a few horses as a sideline.”

He admits to having been thrown from a horse he was breaking in but “not for a while”

“One can surprise me,” he said.

He said the key to bareback bronc riding was aggression.

There was little need for practice when he was on the rodeo circuit in America as he would compete every second or third day and at a number of rodeos each weekend.

“January to April was quiet so I would do a bit of fencing and break in a few horses,” he said.

In Australia, it is mainly one rodeo a weekend, especially for a cowboy who calls Wandoan home.

When he started his career, Worsfold said he used to love driving to rodeos.

Now if it is a choice of driving or flying, he prefers the plane.

After the Taroom Rodeo on July 19, Worsfold will compete at Clonurry and Mt Isa in early August and then fly to the Northern Territory for the end of the Northern Run.

By the end of the Northern Run, he hopes to be leading the pro tour standings again but most of all, he wants to win his first title at the National Finals Rodeo at the end of the current season.

Rodeo Program: July 19 Taroom; July 26 Richmond; August 1-2 Cloncurry; August 8-10 Mt Isa; August 16 Katherine (NT); August 23 Darwin (NT). August 30 Mataranka (NT).

More information from APRA on 07 4661 8183

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