Cochrane steer-wrestler Tanner Milan is rounding into form with the meat of the season straight ahead.
Milan took home just over $7,000 for winning the Daines Ranch Rodeo June 16 in Innisfail. Not bad for 4.1 seconds of work.
The payout should put him near brother Straws Milan in Canadian Pro Rodeo Association (CPRA) steer-wrestling standings once the Daines Ranch results are figured in. Straws, who took home $1,177.35 in Innisfail, was fifth in CPRA standings as of June 11 with almost $5,500 in season earnings.
“It was really good,” said Tanner Milan of the Daines Ranch Rodeo. The 29-year-old defending Canadian steer-wrestling champ took the loot home with one Sunday pass. “I just kind of hung around at home and did a little work and went up there on Sunday. It was all right.”
The one-event weekend for the 2012 Calgary Stampede steer-wrestling finalist will probably be his last one-rodeo weekend this summer. He took money out of three separate rodeos – Rocky Mountain House (7th), Brooks (7th) and Lea Park (7-8 tie) – over the June 7-9 weekend. And he’ll be all over the map from here.
More importantly, he’s been catching steers faster as the season’s progressed. He’s gone from mid-five-second runs to the low 4’s.
“It was kind of slow there for a while,” he said of his early season. “Last weekend (June 7-9) I placed at all three rodeos I went to. A pretty good confidence-booster there.
“And it carried on to this (June 16) weekend.”
Aboard Lee Graves’s award-winning horse Jessie, Tanner Milan has been working himself into game shape with the Calgary Stampede less than a month away.
“We’re into a lot of fresh cattle now, running steers that are just new this year. It just kind of takes a while to get them lined out and figure out what they are. We’re kind of to that point right now.
“Everything is just starting to line out good. Kind of getting the feel for everything.”
In the weeks ahead of the July 5-14 Calgary Stampede, Tanner Milan and his brother Straws will be steer wrestling everywhere from Williams Lake B.C. to Reno, Nev., and in between.
“We’re full-bore now. I’m entered up in rodeos all in Canada and a bunch down in the U.S. leading right up to Stampede,” Tanner Milan said. “Should be pretty good. Should be fairly sharp by the time we get to Calgary.”
And that $7,000 he took out of Innisfail is just what he needed.
“That was a hell of a hit and just put me right back in the middle of things.”
Which is where he wants to be heading into Calgary.
