2019 Reserve World Champion Orin Larsen Says He Has Unfinished Business

Last year, Canadian bareback rider Orin Larsen came so close to winning the World title, finishing second behind Clayton Biglow at the 2019 NFR.

The Reserve World Champion says he is ready and determined to get his gold buckle in 2020. “He’s a good friend, he’s a good ambassador to the sport,” says Larsen of Boglow, “nothing against Clayton, but I’ve got some unfinished business to take care of.”

After a slow winter, Larsen is finally building momentum, recently making dramatic jumps in the standings. Winning not one but two rodeos this past weekend, he now sits at sixteenth, just one spot shy of NFR contention, and he’s been showing out for just about every rodeo he can get to.

“Honestly, I don’t have a choice,” he says. “It’s kind of one of those take no survivors situations, and you just have to kind of get on everything, go to places you’ve never been to or considered going to before. ... Every rodeo is going to count and every penny does too.”

Knowing it will be a fight to the finish this year following the shutdown, on what it will take to end on top, Larsen says, “Nothing but grinding - that’s all it takes. It’s going to be an absolute bloodbath, I think, when you come into August. And a lot of rodeos who got postponed are moving into August and moving into September, so it’s going to be whoever grinds the hardest, and it’s going to be a battle. And I’m really excited to see how this plays out.”