story by Michele Toberer
Although football was a big part of 15-year-old Jason Wilson’s life for the past 8 years, when he bought his first American Professional Rodeo Association card last year, he chose to begin focusing his energies solely on bareback riding. Following in the footsteps of his father, Jeremy Wilson, who rode bareback horses for over 20 years, Jason had plenty of experience in the sport of rodeo and started riding steers when he was just a 1st grader. “I remember watching my dad when I was really young, and I just got hooked on it and have stuck with it!” In Jason’s first year with the APRA, he was excited to win the 2019 Champion Rookie Bareback Rider title.
Jason is a freshman at Mount Anthony Union High School in Bennington, Vermont. He shares his time living with his mom, Nikki Wilson, in Bennington, and his dad in Pownal, Vermont, which is just 5 minutes from the New York border where he competes in the New York High School Rodeo Association. He is grateful to have the Pond Hill Rodeo Company just an hour way from him, in Castleton, Vermont, and took advantage of being able to compete there last summer at their weekly APRA sanctioned rodeos. “I also traveled to rodeos in Lake Lucerne, New York, and several of the Lucky E Ranch road shows they put on.”
“I am really hooked on bareback riding. I love horses and it’s a fight to stay on the bareback horses from the second the ride starts. It helps keep you in pretty prime shape to stay with them.” Jason works out all winter long at his own gym he has set up in his basement. “I put my rigging on my spur board and ride it to help with my form and staying in shape. I lift weights all summer and I run two to three miles on the treadmill and lift weights before school each day.” Jason’s favorite classes in high school are science and math, and he aspires to go to the University of Tennessee Martin on a rodeo scholarship once he graduates. “I really like their rodeo team at UTM.”
Jason claims to be more of an outside person, so doesn’t spend much time watching the professionals on television, but he has had the opportunity to go to a couple rodeo schools put on by Tyler Waltz and appreciates the skills he’s helped him with. “I like to go biking and ride dirt bikes and feel that both of those activities also help keep me in shape for rodeo.”
The APRA finals was quite an achievement for Jason, who went into the finals in the fifth-place position, alongside men nearly twice his age. “It was all such a great learning experience. All the other competitors were so good to me and I learned a lot from them and made a lot of new friends. I was so excited to win the rookie of the year title on top of it. And, although my dad retired from competing a couple years back, he traveled with me and I really enjoy doing all of this together with him. My main goal for this year is to qualify for high school nationals and place in the top 10 out there, and to qualify for my second APRA finals and win another APRA champion title.”
