“There once a cowboy who’d never been throwed, there once was a horse who’d never been rode,” as my dad used to always say.

Now, professional rodeo cowboy Cody DeMers has been “throwed” on occasion, but he is still one of the best bareback riders in the world. And he’s not too shabby on the saddle broncs, either. DeMers, 26, is a three-time qualifier for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Over the last three years, he has won over $400,000 in prize money.

In 2003, the 5-foot-6, 155-pound athlete won the first and fifth bareback go-rounds at the NFR and placed 12th in the aggregate. He also won the all-around bareback crown at the Calgary Stampede. DeMers finished the year in seventh place in the world bareback standings with $116,437, placed 20th in saddle bronc with $41,833, and took seventh in the all-around, with $141,237.

At the 2004 Calgary Stampede, he received $50,000 for winning the bareback’s showdown round, posting a 90-point ride on a world champion horse called Alley Ways. He wound-up with a total earnings of $67,000 for the Stampede by again claiming the all-around. DeMers won the eighth round at the 2004 WNFR, and ended up seventh in the world bareback standings with winnings of $133,792.

Last year, he captured the bareback’s 10th go-round at the Wrangler NFR and took seventh in the aggregate. DeMers finished 11th in the world in the bareback, with $117,834 of earnings. All-told, he has won over a dozen bareback championships at different rodeos around the country, and placed runner-up at the prestigious Pace Classic in Dallas.DeMers went to school in Boulder, where he wrestled on the Panthers mat team as a junior. He transferred to Capital High his senior year, graduating in 1998, and then attended the College of Southern Idaho in Boise. He joined the PRCA in 1999. DeMers, who now resides in Shirley, Ida., is presently nursing a sprained wrist. He has amassed a career earnings of $596,113.

“I think what makes Cody successful is his absolute, total love for the sport, and his 120-percent dedication to it,” said his mother, Marilyn DeMers of Boulder. “It’s all he lives for. Ever since he was little, all he’s ever talked about and dreamed about was the NFR”