The cagey veteran and the young gun- while Levi Simpson & Logan Cullen may differ when it comes to experience on Canadian rodeo's biggest stage, there is no doubt that both of them are top talents with a rope in their hands. The pair racked up $24,758 in earnings throughout the 2024 season to put Simpson as the #7 ranked header and Cullen as the #5 heeler going into Edmonton next week. CFR 50 will be Simpson's 13th appearance underneath the bright lights of the Canadian Finals Rodeo, meaning he's qualified to over half of the CFR's that have included team roping. Throughout his illustrious career, Simpson has racked up 4 Canadian titles, 2 NFR Qualifications and 1 World Championship while establishing himself as one of Canada's greatest team ropers of all time. On the other hand, it will be 21 year-old Logan Cullen's first trip to the Finals but make no mistake, he'll be ready to shine.
Question: How's it feel going to your first CFR?
Logan: I'm excited. It's something that I've been looking forward to doing, I'm glad I finally got it done. It should be cool up there in Edmonton, I'm excited to see what that's about.
Question: How was your season?
Logan: It was good. It was dang sure the best one I've had yet. We caught more steers, I think our run was better this year. We were better at just beating our cow and not overthinking things. We just went and made our run and let it all work out.
Levi: It was quite a bit of fun rodeoing with Logan. I got my good horse back so that was pretty nice, I was able to utilize him and win a little bit more.
Question: What's it like roping with Levi?
Logan: He's about the easiest going guy that I've ever been around. He doesn't get fired up about much at all. He's a really good partner. If I screw up a couple, he's just like 'Whatever, we'll get to rope another one'. It takes a lot of pressure off a guy knowing that your partner ain't going to get mad if you screw one up.
Question: What's it like roping with Logan?
Levi: Man it's a lot of fun. We spend a lot of time making fun of him. It's pretty good, he's young and ambitious, he ropes good and he don't mind driving so that makes it good for me.
Question: What do you think makes your guy's run so good?
Logan: I think us both getting our good horses back this year helped a lot. My good horse was hurt for all of last year and I got him back this year. I've rode him so much, that I just know what he's going to do every time. He's easy to heel on. It might not always look the easiest, but I'm able to catch on him. Same deal with Levi, he got his sorrel horse back after being out there for a little bit. We both got our good ones back and it felt easier this year.
Question: What's the story on your good horse?
Logan: I bought him when he was 7 in Arizona. He's definitely not the brokest or funnest to ride around or warm up but once you get in the box and have someone standing there holding his hip in, he's pretty easy after that. He's 12 this year and I call him 'Whiz'.
Levi: I think he's 12 years old. I rode him the year that I roped with Ryan Motes in 2022 and he ended up having some soundness issues that took about a year and a half to get settled out. I sent him to Coulee Equine in the spring to get him rehabbed and back in shape and then I cracked him out again in Bonnyville. We kind of just carried on, I rode him the majority of the year. I took my younger buckskin that I rode last year on some of the longer trips to help keep the old guy going.
Question: What do you think you learned this year to make it your best year yet?
Logan: The biggest thing I probably learned is that when you have chances to win first you gotta make sure you take em. But then when you get a stronger steer or one that doesn't square up and handle as good, the biggest thing I did was take one more swing and make sure I caught to win 4th or 5th. It seemed like last year we either won 1st or we didn't catch, so I worked a lot on making sure when the cow turns I heel it every time. Whether the cow's in a good shape to heel him fast or if I need to take 1 or 2 more swings to make sure I catch and get a cheque out of it, cause it all adds up in the end.
Question: What rope do you use?
Logan: I'm a Powerline guy, rain or shine. Hard Medium
Levi: I use the Powerline Lite Extra Soft 90% of the time. I will dabble in a few others now and then but most of the time, it's the Powerline.
Question: What's your favorite rodeo up here?
Logan: Ponoka, especially with Lyle adding that money, it makes it one of the greatest rodeos in the world to go to so obviously that one. Another one I really enjoy going to is Armstrong, it's about the closest to a 'hometowner' that I have, so it's pretty cool. When the announcer says you're from BC, the crowd gets all wild and it definitely gets your heart pumping. It's a fun one to be at. Crowd wise and as far as people getting into it, it's by far the best one I've ever been to, they get rolling in there.
Levi: Probably Ponoka by far, just with the unique setup and how hard it is, it's got to be one of my favorite rodeos up here. There's getting to be so many good rodeos up here though. I look forward to going to Williams Lake every year, it's a little different setup with a longer box and it seems like it's not just your normal setup where you just go fast.
Question: Who has been the biggest influence on your roping career?
Logan: That would be my dad for sure. Growing up, he'd take me to Arizona and let me go rope down there. It was by far the biggest thing that helped me, him taking me down there and hauling me around to a bunch of ropings. He's always supported it, it's what I've always wanted to do so he's darn sure been a big influence on it.
Levi: The biggest influence growing up would've been my dad and my brother. My dad taught us a lot about what to do and then my brother and I did a lot of matching back and forth growing up, just trying to out-do each other. And then growing up watching Speed (Williams) rope, he was always my idol as far as trying to be able to do what he could. I mean being an 8-time World Champion, it's pretty hard not to look up to him.
Question: What was it like growing up? How'd you get hooked on roping?
Logan: I grew up on Vancouver Island. My family, we commercial fish. I did that for 10 years in the summertime and we'd go to Arizona in the winter. Dad grew up roping a little bit and then with his job, he'd work from the end of April to the start of October so he'd go down to Arizona for a month or two during the winter. So I got into it that way, there was just a handful of us that roped on the island once a week. Dad ended up buying a place down there in Arizona and started going for a little longer so I'd go down there and hang out and rope a bunch. That's probably how it all started I guess.
Question: What else do you want to achieve in your career?
Logan: I haven't figured that out. I really enjoy doing the futurity stuff and like doing that in the moment. I enjoy riding the young ones and being able to go show them, it's rewarding at the end of the day after putting a lot of work and time into them. I'd like to eventually try to make the NFR, that would be the end goal and win a World title. I haven't really decided yet if I want to stick to the rodeo side of things or the futurity stuff or maybe both. I haven't really gotten that far yet. Just keep roping and hopefully win a Canadian title one day too, that would be pretty cool.
Levi: I've had a goal basically since I started rodeoing to be a 5 time Canadian Champion. So I got one more to knock off the list to kind of fulfill what I had set out to do. And then I've kind of shifted gears into the futurity world and I have a few new goals as far as trying to become one of the high end rope horse trainers and being a top competitor at the futurities as well.
Question: If you could ride one other CPRA horse, which one would it be?
Logan: Jerry's horse 'Hoss', he makes it look pretty easy. He scores good, hauls butt and gets around there and separates good and looks easy to heel on. He'd be my top pick for sure. Jerry does a good job, he rides a lot of good horses and deserved to win that Horse of the Year deal.
Levi: Man, I was really looking forward to trying to get to ride the dun horse that Trey Gallais rode all summer. That would've been a fun one to ride, I think that was a heck of a mare. I've rodeo some of the better ones already, Dawson's yellow is a lot of fun. I'd like to ride Kash Bonnett's bay horse, that sucker is so fast, he looks like he makes things happen pretty fast.
Question: Who else are you excited to watch in Edmonton?
Logan: Trey & Jerry, they've got a great run down that looks easy for them. Kavis & Denim, they look pretty good and they like to go fast and they're real good at it too. Everyone who made it seems like they're capable of going fast and it will be fun watching for sure. It'll be exciting to rope with them guys there.
Levi: Man, I'm excited to watch everybody. I've been around long enough to see everybody that's there and who's up and coming. Probably the most exciting team to watch to me is Kavis & Denim, they're the young kids on the block but just about everyday they're kicking our butts. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch them and hopefully try and beat em a little bit.
Question: What's the gameplan leading up to Edmonton and when you get there?
Logan: We've been practicing on our good horses here once a day, just running 5 or 6 and just staying sharp. We don't do anything crazy, just make sure everything feels good. I guess we'll take it steer by steer and try to get passed em all and see how it plays out at the end of the week. Try to keep it simple anyways.
Levi: I keep it pretty simple. It's something you work towards all year to try and get there. The money is really good in the rounds and the average so just try to get there and take it one steer at a time. Try to rope each steer the best that you can and hopefully they're calling your name out to do a victory lap either each night or at the end of the deal. Just try not to overthink it, it's what we've been doing and keep doing. It should be pretty simple, just nod your head and rope the steer like any other rodeo.
Get entered up in the 2024 CFR Team Roping Pool before next Tuesday! Details below
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