Jess Pope was the National High School Bareback Riding Champion in 2016. In 2017, he was runner up before going on to ProRodeo, where he won the Permit Challenge and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year in 2019.
And in 2020, the Kansas cowboy proved to be one of the best in the world. He won the average at his first Wrangler NFR and collected $170,000 over those 10 days. He finished third in the world, right behind his mentor Tim O’Connell.
“What I love the most about bareback riding is, I mean, it’s just like a fist fight, I wouldn’t say that I like to fight, but I think I’m a pretty tough guy,” he said. “It takes a different cat to be a bareback rider. It is you and the horse, and you guys are going to go duke it out. Because when they hit you in the back it hurts and you got to hit them back harder.”
Pope is someone who loves the cowboy way of life, when he was 5 or 6-years-old, he won around $70 in a sheep riding competition at a county fair. He felt unstoppable and from then on, he wanted to rodeo.
“My goals from here on out in the future is to be a couple time World Champ and just make a living rodeoing, see my buddies all of the time and live the dream,” Pope said.