They may have come from Down Under, in North American parlance, but three young Australian rough stock riders made it to the top in Canada this weekend.

Two brothers from Warwick in South Queensland, Lachlan and Callum Miller, as well as Strawbs Jones of Clermont, were among the 12 finalists in their events, competing in the Canadian Rodeo Final in Red Deer, Alta.

In Lachlan’s words, “we’ve all had a pretty successful dig.”

In his favorite event, the saddle horse, he rode every horse in all six laps, placing in two laps to finish third overall behind eventual champion Zeke Thurston, who was the leader before the final, and Kole Ashbacher.

Younger brother Callum prefers bull riding and won the first round as the only cowboy to score, but didn’t cover a bull for the remainder of the week.

“These are the best bulls in North America, and it’s the same with horses,” said Lachlan. “90% of the pen is NFR qualified.”

Strawbs competed in the bareback finals and rode the majority of his six horses, winning the final round with 88 points.

“It was our first year to have a real crack at CFR,” said Lachlan. “It’s cemented in my own head that I can do it, I can play with the big guys.”

According to their mother Tracy Miller, Lachlan first went to North America three and a half years ago, followed by Callum a year later, thanks to a rodeo scholarship at Oklahoma Panhandle State University.

“We were lucky enough to go see them for Christmas 2019, just before everything took on a pear shape,” she said.

“They have both been practicing rodeo since they were very young – they were both passionate about it.

“They have expressed a desire to chase it overseas, where it’s a much bigger industry – it’s one of the best sports in the United States and Canada.

“We are just happy to support them, and they are the pride of Australia.”

Lachlan said they received a lot of support from home, with text messages coming from their comrades throughout the Canadian final.

“I like it here – I have a good job on a ranch north of Calgary with cattle, then on the weekends I go bronc horseback riding, so those are my two big passions together,” a- he declared.

“Everyone knows us Australians.

“Canadians are like us, it’s easy to get along with them.

“They say they need captions when we have a drink.”

Lachlan works with a herd of a mix of purebred Herefords and commercial Herefords crossed with Red Angus, while Callum works at an Angus stud north of Calgary.

Although they’ve only had 30 rodeos this season, they expect a full season to double that number next year as things will hopefully get back to normal.

Amanda and Mark Salisbury and the Bimbadeen Brangus family in Monto, who employed both Lachlan and Callum when they were younger, were among those who watched the final action with enthusiasm.

“We never looked back – Lachie stayed a year before he went to college, and he came back every scoring and weaning season on his vacation to help.

“They were both a pleasure to have around, hard working and great workers with the cattle and the horses.

“We knew one thing for sure: life was definitely less colorful here when they left!”

One of the Miller brothers is having fun on horseback in Bimbadeen. Photo – Amanda Salisbury.

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