{"id":292320,"date":"2026-05-14T04:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/292320\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:32:10","slug":"tim-oconnell-gets-season-rolling-earns-trip-to-rodeo-corpus-christi-short-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/292320\/","title":{"rendered":"Tim O\u2019Connell gets season rolling, earns trip to Rodeo Corpus Christi short round"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 The last two years have been a grind for Tim O\u2019Connell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The three-time PRCA World Champion Bareback Rider (2016-18) suffered a tear in his left groin on the tail end of the 2023 season. Since then, he\u2019s undergone four surgeries on his hips and done everything possible to get back on the\u00a0PRORODEO\u00a0trail.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell returned to competition last season, but had to start from scratch to compete at rodeos and he wasn\u2019t quite ready for the strain of a full schedule.<\/p>\n

The Cascade, Iowa, native looked like his old self at Rodeo Corpus Christi on Thursday, though. He matched Championship Pro Rodeo\u2019s Ranch & Co. Time for an 87-point ride to place second in the long go and qualify for Saturday\u2019s 12-man short round at the Hilliard Center on the Corpus Christi Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to be able to get into (Rodeo) Corpus Christi, get a big check out of here in the long round and get my season rolling,\u201d O\u2019Connell told the\u00a0PRORODEO Sports News\u00a0on Friday night after the conclusion of the final section of the long round. \u201cWithout looking at numbers, that probably puts me in the top 30 (of the PRCA | Bill Fick Ford World Standings).<\/p>\n

\"\"Iowa\u2019s Tim O\u2019Connell is getting back in the swing of things. PRCA | Courtesy photoScreen_Shot_2026-05-13_at_10.02.34_PM<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only been to six or seven rodeos, and I\u2019m getting things underneath my feet. It\u2019s been a long two-year process to get back to this point. But I\u2019m feeling good, feeling healthy and I\u2019m thankful for all of the opportunities I got in the last two years as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missing action for the bulk of the last two seasons, forced the 10-time NFR qualifier and three-time NFR Average champion to essentially start over and compete at whatever rodeos he could get into \u2013 the same way Stetson Wright<\/a> had to at the start of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell essentially started the last two seasons behind the game. He couldn\u2019t compete at some of the most lucrative rodeos of the winter run like the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo and\u00a0RodeoHouston, two rodeos that he places at the top of his list every season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are two of the rodeos that I would really like to (win) to capture pretty much all of my bucket list rodeos to win,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 34-years-old. I know where I\u2019m at in my career as a bareback rider. It\u2019s closer to the end than it is to the beginning. You don\u2019t get very many chances to go back to those rodeos and compete. That was tough on the ego side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite the challenges of the last two seasons, O\u2019Connell\u2019s motivation to chase a fourth\u00a0PRCA\u00a0World Championship and further pad his hall of fame resume hasn\u2019t waned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe motivation for me is that elusive fourth gold buckle,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in the race a lot of times to capture that fourth one and go into some really elite company\u2026I\u2019ve been very close to it and I\u2019ve always set my sights on the next world title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being forced to step away from bareback riding also reinvigorated O\u2019Connell and reminded him just how much he loves loading up in a bucking chute and squaring off with the best bucking horses in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love getting on bucking horses. I love getting into a fight with a bucking horse. I love conquering these animals,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m starting to learn how to take the small wins even in a defeating ride. My expectations have to be a little different. You don\u2019t get better at something by not doing it and I didn\u2019t get to do it for two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell\u2019s opening trip in Corpus Christi may have been just what the doctor ordered to get his PRORODEO season kicked into full gear. And the horse he paired up with proved serendipitous.<\/p>\n

Ranch & Co. Time is a special horse for O\u2019Connell. His brother Will O\u2019Connell is the General Manager of Championship Pro Rodeo and purchased the NFR bucking horse, formerly named Tequila Time, from Burch Rodeo Company.<\/p>\n

Will then gave Tim and his wife, Sami, the opportunity to name two horses and a bull after their business, Ranch & Co. Interiors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since his return from injury, Tim O\u2019Connell<\/a> doesn\u2019t typically compete if his draw isn\u2019t suitable for picking up a check and he made sure to make the trip to the Coastal Bend when he saw which horse was next to his name on Thursday\u2019s\u00a0daysheet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen that horse for a very long time, even when Burch owned him,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201c(And I watched him) when Will brought that horse to the NFR in the hopper pen. I was really excited. I knew it was a big chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The short round of Rodeo Corpus Christi commences at 6 p.m. (CT) on Saturday at the Hilliard Center. The rodeo is available to stream on the Cowboy Channel Plus App.<\/p>\n

\u2013PRCA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 The last two years have been a grind for Tim O\u2019Connell. The three-time PRCA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-292320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}