Brant Cookston enters WCJR 2024 with a 1.5k point lead

Cookston knows a good thing when he sees one and is playing tug-of-war with a partner he knows he’s working with: Conley Kleinhans. Kleinhans and Cookston first met in a 2023 Yeti Junior World Finals qualifier, and together they have won the 2023 Junior World Finals Open and the 2024 Corpus Showcase.

“I like playing with Conley because he really scores,” Cookston said. “He manages the steers and when we’re in a smaller arena on a rope, he can actually come out and get the steers on a short rope and keep them picked up without really ever getting any slack in his rope. With Guthrie, however, that pen is big.’

With a good partner in place, Cookston is also doing the work in the practice cage.

“I’ll ride it for 30 to 40 minutes before I can even turn a handlebar,” says Cookston, who has started a business breaking down colts and training horses. “Then follow only four or five (oxen), making two or three good sweeps over their backs, stopping (the horses) and not dawdling; I might think about it sometime. But other than that, just not really putting a lot of pressure on (the horses) and spending more time with them than just running.”

Although he hasn’t decided yet which horse he will ride in Guthrie, he wants to keep all his horses solid because that is the key in Guthrie.

“I’m just going to try to keep my horses as solid as possible,” Cookston said. “I want to get good practice runs; I’m not really going to practice going fast. I will chase a few quickly in the practice box, but the most important thing that I am out there all week is that my horses are ready for that, so that they can handle it all very well.”