Tyler Waters, an Ohio native who now calls Stephenville, Texas, home, will compete at his first Cinch Timed Event Championships March 11-13, 2021, substituting for Clayton Van Aken at the prestigious Lazy E Arena event.
Waters was the header responsible for the spins that helped Taylor Santos win the event in his freshman appearance in 2020, and the experience left him craving his own shot at the Ironman.
“I’m super excited,” Waters said. “My grandpa took me to the Timed Event when I was 8-years-old. I’m going to rope the next day with Richard Durham at the BFI, and my girlfriend Haley Kiehne is going to rope in the breakaway during BFI Week. So we’ll get to spend a whole week in Guthrie.”
Waters, a horse shoer by trade, is rodeoing with NFR-qualifier Durham in 2021 but will have the help of three-time World Champion Jade Corkill in the heading and heeling at the 2021 CTEC. He will also have a string of horses courtesy of the Kiehne family, including the sire to Junior Nogueira’s buckskin Timon named Pepto Bluelena in the heeling and a grey gelding Tres de Plata (also a son of Pepto Bluelena) in the heading.
Waters specialized in the calf roping in high school rodeo in Ohio, but when he moved to Texas in 2007, his focus shifted.
“The two calf horses I had were getting older and I sold them,” Waters, 33, said. “And the horses I ended up with were better to rope steers on and that’s why I switched.”
But throughout Waters’ career, he’s had his sights set on all-around performance—minus one CTEC event.
“I have bull dogged zero,” Waters admitted. “I did some youth timed events, and I won a couple in Texas and a couple in Michigan where they had chute dogging. I’ve never jumped. Vic Morrison put on a West Texas Timed Event at the college, and I won it three of those years. I do trip. I don’t get to do it near as much as I’d like to but it’s my favorite event.”
Waters plans to team up with NFR bull dogger K.C. Jones for some solid steer wrestling practice, including figuring out horses for that event. TRJ
