Major Rodeos: NFR, Music City Rodeo (Nashville, Tenn.), Utah Days of ’47 (Salt Lake City, Utah), Snake River Stampede (Nampa, Idaho), National Western Stock Show & Rodeo (Denver, Colorado)
Major Ropings: USTRC Finals
NFR Qualifications: 4 (2021, 2024–26)
Star Horsepower: Malibu, Cockys JR Shine (Junior)
Rope choice: Powerline HM
It took a win at the #15 Shootout at the 2013 Cinch USTRC National Finals of Team Roping in Oklahoma City for Douglas Rich to feel like he could hang with the big dogs.
“There were a lot of guys that roped good; they had a lot of teams,” Rich said. “It was by far the biggest roping I would go to every year.”
Pair that with a repeat win at the same roping in 2015, and Rich had a feeling this dream could become a reality. More than 10 years later, the Herrick, Illinois, cowboy is now a two-time NFR qualifier, having first made it with Coy Rahlmann in 2021 and later with Jake Smith in 2024. Rich currently sits in the top 15 as the 2025 season creeps on.
Rich, 30, moved to the Stephenville, Texas, area in 2018 to put his skills to test against the best in the world—the guys who do it all day, every day.
”I don’t think a guy ever knows if you can do it until you get down there and start butting heads with those guys,” Rich admitted.
The head-butting he faced during that time in cowboy country set Rich up for his years of ProRodeo success. In his first full year on the road in 2019, he took out for the summer with Cory Clark. “I think maybe Paul Eaves was helping us enter,” Rich said. “He entered us where we could drive everywhere, we didn’t have to fly; he didn’t make it too hard. It was a lot of fun. I went a lot of places I’d never been and went to rodeos for the first time that you watch on TV or hear about when you’re growing up.”
Two years later, in 2021, Rich and then-partner Rahlmann found themselves heading to their first NFR. In Las Vegas, the team won the sixth round with a 3.6-second run, placed in three other rounds and finished eighth in the average with a 45.5 on seven head. When it was all said and done, they finished 11th in the world.
Douglas Rich and Docs Gunslinger Chic winning a round behind Coy Rahlmann at the 2021 NFR. | Jamie Arviso Photo
“The atmosphere to that rodeo, you can’t even explain it,” Rich said of the NFR. “Even grand entry for the first time, you do the practice, and you run the steers through and there’s nobody in the stands, really. But when you ride in there, it’s like nothing you can imagine.”
“I can remember the first round, you sit back in the tunnel and then you ride in the box,” he continued. “It’s like you don’t even have time to think about it, really, because you are about to run one. It feels like they’re just on top of you.”
Seven Sun is the flea-bitten gray gelding seen with Rich at majority of the rodeos. “Malibu” is responsible for the success he had leading up to the Finals in 2021.
At Rich’s second NFR appearance in 2024, he placed in two rounds with Smith and ended up 14th in the world.
“I felt like we practiced pretty good for it, but I don’t think you could ever be fully prepared for it,” Rich said. “You can set up the arena and you can try to get the strongest steers, but the steers are strong in there and the arena is tiny. You can prepare all you want and feel like you’re really ready, but it’s a different feel in there.”
Cockys JR Shine, better known as “Junior,” is the bay gelding that Rich now depends on after recently selling Malibu.
In 2025, Smith and Rich have been riding the momentum they built last season. Rich heads to his third NFR in the No. 13 position with $114,787 won so far.
Since picking up his life and moving where he could be surrounded by greatness, Rich has proved time and time again that he can hang with the best of them.
“I think it doesn’t matter if you’ve made it once or made it 20 times, it’s something you get excited about,” Rich said of the NFR. “Every steer you run in there has that same feel; you get nervous, you get butterflies. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made it just once or twice, I think that always stays there.”
Rich’s third trip to the Thomas & Mack brought his second career round win. He and Jake Smith placed third in Round 1 of the 2025 NFR, then won Round 2 the next night with a 3.9 for $36,667.95 a man. Rich finished the year 14th in the world with $183,337.
The partnership only got steadier in 2026. Smith and Rich won the second round at RodeoHouston, took second at the Cody NesSmith Memorial for $30,000, and then won the Music City Rodeo in Nashville on May 30 with a 15.1 on three head, worth $7,982 a man. That win moved them to No. 2 in the world going into the summer run.
“Not saying that we’re even close to where we need to be or like the end goal — we still need to do good this summer — but it dang sure helps to where we’ve been catching and got some momentum going,” Rich said after Nashville. “Sometimes we don’t always execute it, but we talk about what we’re trying to do anyway.”
Rich finished the 2026 regular season No. 11 in the heeling standings with $126,483, good for his fourth NFR qualification and a third straight trip to Las Vegas with Smith, who finished No. 8.
This article was originally published on Team Roping Journal — Ropers. View original article →
