If you’re a fan of summer’s HOTTEST series, Yellowstone, and also a fan of ProRodeo, then you may have noticed a few familiar faces during the rodeo scene in the episode that aired August 2nd.

After winning Pendleton Round-Up last September, bareback rider Tilden Hooper found himself in a different kind of spotlight during the filming of an episode of “Yellowstone” near Park City, Utah. “It (the set of a TV show) is like a rodeo really,” said Hooper, who helped on the episode. “It takes a lot of different moving parts and people behind the scenes to produce what you see on TV or in the arena, so it’s pretty cool.”

Sid Steiner, the 2002 steer wrestling world champion, and his son Rocker Steiner who is currently making a name for himself in the bareback riding, also made an appearance in the episode.

Fans are likely to notice some of ProRodeo’s top athletes in bareback riding and saddle bronc riding.

“The episode had a shot of Rocker Steiner riding bareback, and Sid, Bob and Joleen (Steiner) were there and involved with the storyline, so we happened to be around town, and Sid asked if we would help buck the horse,” Hooper said. “I ended up flanking the horse and helped Rocker out there. Kaycee Feild was there too helping do pickup, Cort Scheer was on the bucking chutes and made it in some shots, and Jake Finlay was there too. It was a handful of contestants who stopped and helped.”

“For the bucking scenes, they did all of those in one take, but there was a lot of stuff leading up to it that we did 20 takes of,” Hooper said. “But the riding part, they understood the danger there. That is what I noticed, they respected the bucking horses and made it as safe and as good as possible.”

“All the feedback has been positive, and in general the rodeo community likes seeing cowboys on a show like that since it’s authentic,” Hooper said. “They get on board with rodeo every chance they get and promoting the sport in every way they can. Those guys are gung-ho with rodeo, and it’s awesome to have a TV show or business like that in our corner rooting for us.”

Courtesy of ProRodeo.

Hooper is a six-time qualifier for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (2008-09, 2011, 2014 and 2018-19). Feild is a four-time world champion bareback rider (2011-14) and a 10-time NFR qualifier (2008-15, 2018-19). Scheer is a saddle bronc rider who has competed at the NFR six times (2010, 2012-15, 2018), and Australian saddle bronc rider Finlay is shooting for his first Wrangler NFR, sitting 17th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings as of August 12th.

Yellowstone airs on Paramount Network Sundays at 9/8c.

(Press release courtesy of ProRodeo.)