DIVISION: NATIONAL 8 / EARNINGS: $100,000

Chuck Nelson

“Not many guys can say they have won as much money at one time, the way we did at the NTR Finals,” said National 8 Finale winner, Chuck Nelson. “That’s a lot of money and it really feels good, we are very blessed to get a chance to enter a roping like that.”

Nelson of Flandreau, S.D., lives just down the road from his roping partner, Dan Olson, both in their native South Dakota as well as their winter homes in Arizona, providing the duo with plenty of opportunity to practice together.

“We are just two old guys having fun,” Nelson laughed.

In preparation for the Finals, Nelson said he stopped heeling in order to focus solely on his heading.

“My goal was just to have fun,” said Nelson who was astride his 10-year-old gelding, Tickle—a horse he has had since he was a colt and one that he says makes his job easy.

“I get a lot of help from the whole Olson family,” Nelson explained.

“Both of Dan’s sons, Jordan and Logan, help me out quite a bit and are just really good kids. It works out great that we live close no matter where we’re at. I always rope more with them than I do at my own house.”

Nelson and his partner came back second-high call in the short round of the National 8 and the pressure was on.

“We had been making things click all day,” he recalled. “But I didn’t get my hopes up before that final round. We just went out and had fun like any other run. I am still just speechless that something like that could happen to us, and we could win that amount of money. I was the happiest guy in Arizona that day.”

Dan Olson

Dan Olson of Flandreau, S.D., visits his son, Jordan in Surprise, Ariz., for a couple months each winter. Jordan, was at home practicing when he heard the news that his dad had won the National 8 Finale.

“I literally tied my horse up and hurried over to Wickenburg as fast as I could,” said Jordan, who puts on a number of clinics at Rancho Rio throughout the winter. “I got there just as they were presenting them with their saddles and buckles. It was an awesome experience to get to be there with them.”

Olson also received phone calls from Erich Rogers, Cory Petska and others who were geared up to rope that day at the George Strait Team Roping Classic in San Antonio, Texas.

“A lot of those guys were friends of our sons,” Olson explained. “But through the years we really got to know them when they would stay with us during the summer. A lot of them are like family to us now.”

From their ranch in South Dakota the Olsons raise and train horses through Olson Quarter Horses and Dan was riding a 12-year-old mare that came out of their program. Their daughter, Whitney, takes a lot of their horses to the barrel futurities and if they don’t make it there, the boys start them in the roping pen. They have had a long list of horses go on to excel at every level in both barrel racing and team roping.

“I can’t thank Ty Yost enough for putting on an event of that magnitude that allows ropers of all levels to have a chance to rope for that kind of money,” Olson granted. “The NTR ropings are truly second to none on every level. Yost has tremendous cattle and an amazing workforce at all of his events, from the announcer, to the secretaries and flaggers. This was, and probably always will be, the most memorable roping of my career.”