The Etbauer family is known as being an iconic saddle bronc riding family from the 80’s and 90’s but now, Trell Etbauer is blazing his own trail.
Despite growing up in a family where both his father and his uncle were World Champion saddle bronc riders, Etbauer says that his childhood wasn’t any different than anybody else’s. His family was humble and helpful no matter what.
“I try to help people out whenever I can, it’s kind of hard to follow in those guys’ shoes a little bit, they did it so good,” Etbauer said.
Etbauer followed in the bronc riding footsteps early in his career but in 2010, he had an accident in Deadwood that was followed up by another accident in the pasture. He took three years where he did really rodeo. He gave bronc riding another try in Kimble.
“I got up there and stuck on that horse and as soon as I crawled in the bucking chute I knew it was a bad idea, everything was way too tight…” he said.
His ended up getting a reride, let everything on his saddle out two holes and went on to win the rodeo. This win put him just short of the $1,000 it takes to be eligible for the Linderman Award. So, he entered Liberal, Kansas where he won second and got his $1,000. But it was right after that, that Etbauer hung up the bronc riding.
He is a multi-time Linderman Award winner.
“The Linderman was always one of my top goals because it was something that really fit me. I wanted to, I liked being an all-around hand… There just wasn’t a whole lot of people that would work both ends of the arena and I kind of liked that,” he said.
The Linderman Award is something that Etbauer took a lot of pride in and it will always be special. This year, his daughter is junior rodeoing but with the slower pace on the ranch he decided this is the year to go for a trip to the National Finals Rodeo. He is currently sitting No. 16 in the PRCA World Standings.