Numbers don’t lie, and neither do gold buckles. That’s why you’re getting the chance to hear a second conversation with the one and only Clay Tryan. You listened to his episode more than almost any other we’ve recorded, and that’s no accident. His prolific win record is hard to top, and his winning attitude is worth studying and trying to understand.
We caught up with him as he prepares to rope at the Thomas & Mack, this time with Jake Long. He’ll be the third in his family to head for the quick throwing Kansas heeler in Vegas, and he’s got the same confident swag he’s always had going into the Finals.
With just two weeks until the start of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, here’s Clay Tryan.
More with Clay Tryan:
The Score Team Roping Podcast: Season 2, Episode 14 with Clay Tryan
Right-Hand Circle Drill with Clay Tryan
Maintaining the Head Horse with Clay Tryan
Clay Tryan: When to Go At ’Em and When to Back Off?
Clay Tryan: Stop Splitting Horns
TRANSCRIPT:
[Upbeat music]
[Chelsea Shaffer] Hey everybody, this is Chelsea Shaffer
[Kaitlin Gustave] And Kaitlin Gustave
[Chelsea] and this is The Score: The official podcast of the sport of team roping. This is The Team Roping Journal’s semi-weekly podcast, highlighting the team roping industry’s top talents and influencers through stories that inspire and connect ropers. We sit down with ropers from the professional ranks, as well as industry icons and producers to delve into topics that make the team roping world tick. This is Season 2. It will feature even deeper interviews, storytelling, and issue-based coverage, and we are so excited you’re here.
[Chelsea] Numbers don’t lie and neither do gold buckles. That’s why you’re getting the chance to hear a second conversation this year with the one and only Clay Tryan. You’ve listened to his episode more than almost any we’ve recorded and it’s no accident. His prolific attitude is hard to top, and his winning attitude is worth studying to try to understand. I caught up with him as he prepares to rope at the Thomas and Mack, this time with Jake Long. He’ll be the third in his family, and that means brothers Brady and Travis, to head for the quick throwing Kansas heeler in Vegas, and he’s got the same confident swag he’s always had going into the finals. So with just 2 weeks until the start of the National Finals Rodeo, here is Clay Tryan.
[Commercial] This episode is brought to you by Fast Back Ropes. They’re made in the USA since 1995. Check out FastBackRopes.com, and you’ll learn more about them at the break in the episode.
[Chelsea] Well, good morning Clay.
[Clay Tryan] How’s it going?
[Chelsea] Good. (Laughing).
[Clay] Outside in a Texas tack room doing this one.
[Chelsea] Yeah. It’s better than Skype, isn’t it?
[Clay] Maybe.
[Chelsea] Maybe?
[Clay] Maybe Skype’s better. I don’t know what’s good.
[Chelsea] Sometimes I think Skype, doing it over Skype is better. I don’t worry as much about what I’m gonna say as in person. I don’t think you’re gonna worry about what you say to me in person.
[Clay] Oh, I might. You never know. We’ve got the birds chirping out here so it’s a nice morning in Texas.
[Chelsea] Very nature. Very nature heavy. Well thanks for doing part 2 of your interview in person. This one is also brought to us by Fast Back. I passed their plant going down the road. Are you going to have the same rope this year in Vegas?
[Clay] As I did last year? Yeah. I plan on it. I’ve got the same 3 strand. I’m one of the last guys who still uses them, kind of old school I guess.
[Chelsea] How long have you been using that rope?
[Clay] Well I started out using it in 2003, then I switched to a 4 strand Ultimate 4 for a while, then I just switched back. So, I don’t really know if it’s what I’m used to or I head better with. I just like them.
[Chelsea] That’s awesome, okay. I figured what a fun thing to do with this podcast, is kind of a “Greatest and a worst,”. I love nothing more than your opinion on things. I wanted you to tell me the greatest moment in NFR history. Do you have one?
[Clay] For me?
[Chelsea] For anybody. Greatest thing you’ve ever watched in the Thomas & Mack.
[Clay] That I’ve watched?Oh man, that’s a great question. Well the coolest thing I did was before I made the NFR. My grandpa had NFR tickets. He had them for when my dad made the NFR. He went in 1984 and he went every year up until last year. He had season tickets with a guy and somehow he got kind of fenangled out of them, but my grandpa is one of those guys who wins in the end, I think. As soon as he got fenangled out of his tickets, my brother and I started making it every year. So he’s went every year except for last year to the NFR. I went Round 1 in 1997. That was a cool experience. Nothing exciting happened that year. That was the 1st year Speed and Rich won it. They won the 1st go round. I just remember it was kind of cool being there. I think one of the coolest moments, I remember last year we talked about, last podcast we talked about the race. As far as me being there, kind of taking me out of it. Kaleb and Junior, Clay and Paul, just having a good battle and it coming down to the last steer, and Clay and Paul won it, obviously. That was cool being there, watching that. You know, it’s weird being there and being in it because you don’t get to see as much as people watching it. You know what’s going on because you can get the sheets easy, they have a sheet every night that lets you know what’s going on, what’s going on in the average and who’s done what and all that, but as far as watching every run, sometimes you don’t see it because you’re getting on your horse. They have TV’s in the back but after you don’t do any good, or you did do good and you’re in the tent, you turn the TV on and you don’t even see half the runs. You go back to your room and you watch it sometimes, but that was a cool moment. I think when I was a kid the coolest moment was when Bobby Hurley and Allen Bach won like 5 rounds in a row. That was pretty impressive to do that. There’s been a lot of good moments. Everyone that usually wins a gold buckle, there’s usually some point in there that they made a good run to win it. I think for me the coolest moment I’ve had is me and Patrick, the first time I won it in 05, we were kind of out of the average and going for every go round and round 9 was really tough. We were 3.5. Not that 3.5 is as cool as winning the round when you needed to do it, but it was something, I guess.
[Chelsea] Mhm, and were you on Thumper?
[Clay] I was on Thumper, yeah. He rode Jaws. Probably our two best horses, for both of us ever at the NFR. I know mine, he’s the best one I ever rode there. I’m sure he would say the same thing. He might not say the same thing about his, but. I still think that was his best horse ever.
[Chelsea] (Laughing) That’s my next question. Which, I feel like the greatest horse question. I feel like it kind of answers itself, but maybe your opinion is different: the greatest head horse of all time?
[Clay] Of anyone’s?
[Chelsea] Mhmm.
[Clay] I mean, that’s hard to say. I think my brother’s is in the Hall of Fame so his would be right up there, Charles Pope. I never rode him or nothing. His horse was iconic and legendary. There’s always one coming along that’s great, Clay Smith’s horse is great right now. It’s been that way for a while. I’ve had a few throughout the years that were really good, that made my career good. I’d go with my brother’s probably. I think that the one thing about Walt that I thought was awesome, I rode him a lot when we first started out, he kind of got my career going…is I hadn’t rode him in probably, we talked about this in the last podcast. In 2010 I hadn’t probsbly rode him in 5 or 6 years, hadn’t ran a steer on him. I was kind of out of horses. I had just bought Dew and he had an abscess at Denver, I couldn’t ride him. He was just dead lame. My brother was up there and I rode his horse and I was like high man back, won the 2nd go round, high man back, I rode Dew on the last one, but he was 20 years old at the time and still felt good. That’s hard to do, 10 years of getting hauled down the road and still be good at 20. He was dang sure one of the best ones I’ve ever rode. But there’s so many different scenarios nowadays and it’s so different. I think Thumper’s the best horse I’ve ever rode at the NFR, the black one. If I had him now, I rope better now than I did back then, so he might be the best horse I’ve ever had. Dew was great at the George Straits, and I did win a few world titles on him, the Americade, I’ve had a lot of good horses, I’ve been fortunate. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing or just getting in the right spot at the right time.
[Chelsea] If you could pick one of the 3 great ones, Dew, Kate, or Thumper, and have only had one, could you say which one you would rather have had?
[Clay] No, that would be impossible, because they all did something for me that made it good. Thumper was better at the NFR, Dew was unbelievable at the George Strait and the other ropings, so was Thumper. Thumper was good at the ropings. You rope better at certain times. There will be times when I don’t rope as good as I used to, so then I might even have a better horse than all of them, but I won’t be able to show it. That’s the weird part. Guys that are good at what they do, they have the best horses because they’re just good at what they do. Everybody always says “Well, this guy had a horse,” well, if he’s a guy that reaches at the barrier every time, that horse ain’t gonna be like Walt, he’s just gonna be another average horse. I was joking with Driggers the other day and I was like “You’re not gonna win Horse of the Year because you don’t show them enough. You throw too fast. So you don’t know if the horse is any good or not, “ and it’s honestly true.
[Chelsea] (Laughing) yeah.
[Clay] It’s honestly true, because he has had some good horses, but I’m just saying. When you throw so fast there’s no way you can ever win it because no one ever sees the horse, you just run 16 feet and throw it. It’s harder to showcase a horse when you’re going at them that hard. I have to go a little farther, so it’s a little easier to tell.
[Chelsea] Did you help break in NFR steers? They said they broke them in yesterday.
[Clay] Yeah we roped them yesterday and the day before. Yeah, they’re great. They looked like as good of a set as there is. I mean you never know. They always look worse in the arena than they are but that’s more the arena than the steers. As far as the way a steer should look, they look like the perfect set.
[Chelsea] How did you guys break them in yesterday?
[Clay] We just roped them. We roped them a couple times the first day. I mean, we run them down obviously, then just head then and heel them, try to do a good job. Everybody does a pretty good job. Everybody kind of knows what they’re doing It worked pretty good. I mean, it was kind of a cluster because we had 80 of them.
[Chelsea] Alright. So the NFR this year, you said you’ve prepared and busted your butt before and had terrible NFR’s and you’ve barely practiced and had good ones, or not put in the effort, so
[Clay] I mean, I’ve always put in the effort in practicing, but didn’t rope like that set up a lot. I don’t know what I’m doing yet, haven’t started doing it yet. I think more about the NFR is just that it’s like any other roping or rodeo. You might rope a good BFI one year and then not the next, and then the year you roped a good one you won it. I mean, a lot of it is getting off to a good start, being good in the average and all that. The NFR’s weird. I’ve had good ones, had a lot of bad ones. It’s kind of one of my spots where I don’t feel like I rope as good as I could ever, but maybe that’s just the way I think. I’ve been there a lot too, so I guess I’ve got a huge sample size. Some people have been there 3 times and done good a few so they think they’re good there. Well, maybe if you’ve made it as much as me maybe you wouldn’t have been as good every time. I don’t know, I like to do better there. That’s one spot that’s bothered me. I feel like I should have done better than I have. We’ll see, it’s just one year at a time and hopefully it’ll be good this year.
[Chelsea] and Johnson and Dew are both going?
[Clay] I don’t know what I’m doing yet. I’ll probably take Johnson for sure, but I’ve got another little bay horse I bought. I might take him too. Dew’s getting too old. I’ve rodeod on him a bunch, I just jackpot on him a little bit kind of around Texas. He’s just getting too old. He’s still pretty good. I might run a few on him today, just to kind of keep him in shape and keep him going. I rode him yesterday.
[Chelsea] Are you horse shopping? Are you always horse shopping? You said somebody is coming; you’re trying a horse?
[Clay] Oh yeah, more than you think. I’m just always looking for something, or if you see one. I rode this horse a couple weeks ago and this guy is cool, he’s bringing him back over for me. He’s gotta be in the area, so he’s coming by this morning
[Chelsea] I gotcha. I feel like I hear a lot of people, maybe not a lot, there’s a certain group of guys that can or will sacrifice everything to spend $100,000, $150,000, on head horses, or higher than that.
[Clay] Yeah.
[Chelsea] Will you get to the point of your career where that’s a reality? Are you at the point of your career where that’s a reality?
[Clay] No. It would have been a long time ago but not anymore. I’m not gonna anymore. I mean, I can’t say I wouldn’t. I spent a lot on Dew and Kate at the same time, but I got 2 horses. Horses are worth whatever a person wants to pay for them, and they do matter. A good fit matters a lot. Whether it’s Riley Minor and his horse, or Clay Smith and his grey. I’ve done good on my little sorrel lately. Some people have a good fit. Then there’s guys like Driggers that’ll ride 6 horses during the year. Everybody’s different. Some people want to give a lot and they should. A horse does matter. Some guys throw so fast, I don’t think it matters what they rode. Roping’s changed a lot. It’s just how fast it’s gotten, how good guys handle their rope. A lot of misses, but a lot of fast times. It’s kind of like baseball. There’s a lot of strikeouts, a lot of home runs. That’s kind of how rodeo’s gotten, with the team roping
[Chelsea] Is that good for the team roping?
[Clay] I don’t like the way it looks. I know how talented they are. I’m not taking away from how good guys rope because the ability is good. Yeah sometimes I go somewhere and I’m like, “It looks terrible,”. I don’t like the way it looks. I don’t even want to be an old school guy. I think it’s just taking away. You used to kind of go and be able to see good runs and see the way a horse looks, and now it’s just speed, speed, speed. You go to jackpots and everybody always says “Oh, a leg placed,” or something somewhere, but then that leg beat you straight up. You were going too slow. It’s just changing. It’s not going back. It’s just going to keep getting faster and faster. To me a lot of it has to do with what kids see when they’re 12 to 16 years old. That’s what they think’s normal, every 12 to 16 year old kid. Nowadays with the videos they get to see you rope all year so that’s just what they work on and that’s just normal to them, so it’ll just keep getting faster.
[Commercial] This episode is brought to you by Fast Back Ropes, a sponsor of our Rope Vegas program that’s tracked every level of pro rodeo team roping all year, from the circuit standings, to the Resistol Rookie race, to the Thomas and Mack. Fast Back has an exciting line of ropes ready for this year’s NFR, including a new breakaway rope that you’re gonna have to see to believe. With the ropes too, they’re also have a steady stream of Mach III’s in Vegas, and that’s the rope our guest Clay Tryan has done most of his winning with over the past 2 decades. Find them at all the major trade shows in Vegas, and watch Clay Tryan do battle every night with a Mach III in his hand in the Thomas and Mack. Remember to visit FastBackRopes.com to find out where you can find a retailer to shop for ropes and to learn more about these made in the USA ropes.
[Chelsea] Johnson, something that people have said to me about him is that he has that trait where not doing anything badly is a specific trait on his own. Johnson just is rock solid. Is there anywhere where Johnson is great, or does Johnson just not do anything wrong?
[Clay] I kind of don’t play him up as much, and I don’t know why. Maybe because he’s not the fastest horse I’ve ever rode, but really is good. He might be the best rodeo horse, regular season, that I’ve ever had. He scores good every time, he faces good, the only weakness that he has is he doesn’t pull that good inside. Other than that, he does everything pretty good. He runs hard enough, you can reach on him or run close. He makes it happen. He’s got a good way. You make good runs. You’re always pretty fast. So I don’t play him up cause he doesn’t seem like he’s the fastest horse that’s ever lived. It seems to me that people think if it’s the best horse it’s got to be like Riley’s, it’s gotta be a fast, fast horse or Clay Smith’s grey a couple years ago that was unbelievably fast. He still is. He is good, he doesn’t mess up, he’s one of my favorites. I ride him all the time. I do think he’s been a pretty good horse. He just doesn’t have the superstar qualities, but roping’s changing. It’s not about the fastest horse that ever lived. He scores good every time, he faces good like outside of them. He does do a lot of things really good, and he does them every time. He doesn’t ever screw up.
[Chelsea] I see him more in pictures than I do videos because I get the pictures from the photographers. Whenever I’m going through to choose photos to use for big spreads or covers, I don’t ever pick Johnson. It doesn’t ever look like he’s doing anything, he doesn’t look outstanding, but you’re always catching and you’re always winning. There’s nothing flashy about him I guess.
[Clay] Yeah. Oh I think it’s flashy whenever I face and you see me going all the time. The people that rope good know. I mean this year alone I won the Lonestar Shootout on him with a short score and short setup. I won the Windy Ryon on him with a long score. I won the roping in North Dakota with a short score in a small arena, even smaller than the Lonestar. Then I won on a long score at the West Star roping, all on the same horse. Well all those horses that I talked about, they were all there too, and I’m 40 not 28 so the horse has got to be good. I just don’t, people like to brag on their horses, I don’t. I think he’s really good and it’s all about, you know what it is. It’s all about winning. It doesn’t matter, the rest of it. He placed in Horse of the Year this year, he won 2nd, which is cool. The only guys that were ahead of me, Clay Smith’s horse doesn’t have papers. Coleman Proctor won all of his money at one spot, and Riley kind of did the same a little bit. Or Riley was behind me I guess. Who else was ahead of me?
[Chelsea] Umm
[Clay] Driggers!
[Chelsea] Driggers, yeah.
[Clay] Driggers rode like 6 horses, so it was hard to tell with him. Then me, I’m on pretty much the same horse, or have the last 3 years honestly. So yeah, he was deserving of it, I believe.
[Chelsea] Yeah, totally.
[Clay] Just because of what I’ve won on him.
[Chelsea] Guys told me beforehand that he was deserving of it.
[Clay] Yeah, is he Walt? Is he one of the greatest of all time? I don’t know, but I’ll tell you what, roping evolves, so like I said, all of these horses I’ve had, so right now, he’s better than any of the other ones I’ve ever had. Except at the NFR. Thumper’s NFR style would be, until they move it out of that building he would be great. I think Speed’s horse is the best one I’ve ever seen and honestly mine might be close to 2nd. I feel like he pulls good and faces good. So that’s kind of where roping changes, but there’s not many good horses at the NFR. If you know what you’re watching for, people don’t know what they’re watching for, but if you do, you know there’s not many good ones. They’re roping smaller steers this year which will help. I think the last few years, even though I won a few gold buckles, they were just out of hand. I mean roping the biggest steers you do all year in the smallest arena made no sense to me. It shouldn’t be like that this year. It should be back, times might get fast though because of the steers this year. We’ll wait and see.
[Chelsea] You can say no, but as far as Jake at the NFR, how do you think your run’s gonna come together with Jake at the NFR?
[Clay] I don’t know. It’s a kind of wait and see deal. You have to have a game plan and I have one. I’m not gonna tell you what it is, but if you execute it…Both guys have got to be now. That’s the thing about roping. Times are so fast at the NFR that the times of, not taking anything away because they won 8 in a row and it will never be done again, but Speed and Rich would be off a little bit and they’d just go catch one and be 5.1 and be 4th in the round. The only way a 5.1 ever places is if everyone misses. I mean, a lot of times if you make a short 4 you don’t even win nothing good. So, both guys got to be on. It’s a fast, speed game. You’ve got to catch a lot. You probably need to be good in the average. I mean it’s however you want to rope it. You can’t miss a lot but you’ve got to make a lot of good runs. To me it’s just like roping at a jackpot except it’s a rodeo. It’s a 10 head jackpot. The rounds matter a lot. Like I said, some guys have good years and do great and then the next year they don’t. The young guys if they have one good year they think they’re gonna do good every year and they’re wrong.
[Chelsea] (Laughing)
[Clay] They’ll figure it out. That’s just part of being young. Then old guys sometimes go for the average. I think it’s cool to win the NFR average but I think it’s better to win it, it really doesn’t mean—some guys that won it just went for it, I mean good for you. Guys like last year that were going for it, winning it, what mattered just meant who wins the most money there, not if you win the average.
[Chelsea] Yeah. Speaking of young guys, who are you excited to watch in Vegas this year? There’s quite a few young guys that made it.
[Clay] Oh, I don’t know. They’re all good nowadays. They’re all so much more advanced. There’s not one, I compete against them so I don’t really care, it doesn’t really matter to me. Kids are just more advanced nowadays, because of the videos, they’ve been around. They all know each other before they started. I’m kind of right at the end of the generation that, I mean I didn’t know anyone when I started. I’d never been to the National High School Finals, I never high school rodeod, I never did any of that. So when I started rodeoing, me and Petska were the same age. He was roping with his dad out there and I was roping with mine at Houston. He was about the only one. We were both 18 years old at Houston. I didn’t even rodeo that year. I just went to Denver and made it. Back then they took, which they still do but nowadays they start the year so differently, but back then if you placed at Denver you could go to Houston. I did good at Denver so I got to go to Houston, so I just went to a few rodeos that year.
[Chelsea] Speaking of that stuff counting, are you going to try to make the circuit finals for the circuit? What boat are you on as far as the circuit finals counting, not counting?
[Clay] Oh, I’m against it.
[Chelsea] All the big stuff counting?
[Clay] Oh, I don’t know. It’s good for the sport but the money was already there. Houston’s been great. It’s the best rodeo, you know, besides the NFR all year. They try the hardest too, it seems like. They’re awesome, but they had it before it counted too. It counted, then it didn’t count. So it’s like, well the money has already been there. Sometimes these commissioners want to take all this credit for all this new money and it’s not new money. The American happened before it counted last year. I don’t know, to me it’s good in a way but it’s bad in a way, it’s got its positives and negatives. It skews NFR world titles, who the best is, then…I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone cares. I think people care in the business.
[Chelsea] (Laughing)
[Clay] It makes it hard to make the NFR when all that stuff counts. A lot of those teams that make it wouldn’t make it, which I don’t like. I’m one of those guys that I don’t like to see guys make it who shouldn’t make it because of that. Nothing against whoever it is, whether it be me or not. I kind of like to see the best guys make it and if you make it the right way, so be it. Nowadays it’s not like that. I don’t really get into all that. You’ve just got to win where you go. I guess I need to win Houston again and make it easy on me, or The American, then it makes your year ridiculously easy.
[Chelsea] If you did win Houston or The American would you stay home and back off your rodeo schedule much? I don’t feel like you would.
[Clay] Oh, I would skip some things.
[Chelsea] You would?
[Clay] Oh, I would skip the miserable stuff. Oh, for sure! There’s some stuff we do rodeoing that makes no sense. Yeah, I would skip the nonsense stuff for sure, but you can’t really do that. You can win so much at the end now that it just keeps you out there all year long. Pretty much you’ve got to go until the end. No one makes it, I mean there might be a few teams that have it made in August, but other than that everybody finally gets it made end of August or early September.
[Chelsea] Yeah. What about now, I guess last question, because you’re not in it but maybe you’re paying attention to it, what about the All Around race?
[Clay] Oh no, wrong guy.
[Chelsea] You’re not an All Around race guy?
[Clay] No, I’m not an All Around race guy.
[Chelsea] You don’t care?
[Clay] No, I don’t care about the All Around race.
[Chelsea] (Laughing) Okay.
[Clay] ‘Cause you don’t enter the All Around, so I don’t care. I care about the regular events. I think that what I have noticed this year, because I don’t watch much anymore of anything, I just rope and leave, but I love team roping, I really do. The calf ropers look good. There’s some young guys coming along. Not that there hasn’t been some good guys, but there’s, it looks like they’re getting a new influx of young guys and that event is starting to look tough.
[Chelsea] Do you have a pick in the calf roping?
[Clay] No.
[Chelsea] You don’t have any fantasy picks? Are you gonna have a fantasy team?
[Clay] No.
[Chelsea] You’re not?
[Clay] No.
[Chelsea] Why?
[Clay] I just wanna rope. I just like team roping.
[Chelsea] (Laughing)
[Clay] I don’t know, I’ve just never been an All Around guy.
[Chelsea] So, you just like team roping. Are you gonna go sit and watch at the South Point or—-
[Clay] No, no.
[Chelsea] are you gonna take in any of the other team roping, or you just like NFR team roping?
[Clay] No. I’m gonna go sign autographs at some of the spots, but I don’t get time to go do it. I think it’s great, people win a lot of money. A lot of my buddies go out there and I hope they do great, they’ll send me some of their runs. I don’t really get a chance, I don’t have time to go do it. Kind of everything is overlapped on top of each other. I think it’s all, the NFR what it’s grown to, it was big when I first made it and it’s huge now, it’s almost unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s social media or what makes everything bigger, I do think it is.
[Chelsea] You’re welcome. (Laughing).
[Clay] You bet. I mean, you might have. People see pictures of people doing fun stuff and wanna go do it.
[Chelsea] I don’t think that’s it.
[Clay] I mean, what has happened with Arizona? I have lived in Arizona. I lived there from the time I was 18 until 25 in the winter before I moved to Texas. If I went somwewhere in the winter that’s where I went. It was a destination spot. My dad lived there in the 80’s when they were rodeoing, so it’s been, everybody knew the weather was nice there. Now all of a sudden did everyone figure it out? I don’t know what’s going on.
[Chelsea] I think that those like 60+ ropings,
[Clay] I mean, they’ve had those. They had those when I was down there. Over 40 Wednesdays isn’t a new thing. Dynamite Arena, my dad roped at Dynamite Arena. There was nothing there. It was in the middle of nowhere, way out there. He told me a story of how they had a match roping out there one day, yeah Dynamite Arena is still going. Now everybody, I don’t know, is it social media? Everybody knows, “Hey, Phoenix is warm in the winter!”. I don’t know. It’s kind of odd for me. Like Wickenberg when I lived in Arizona, I never roped there one time. Now everybody, it’s the spot.
[Chelsea] That’s where you hang out. I don’t know. Ty worked wonders in Wickenberg.
[Clay] Someone did. Well, Mike Fuller and all the others.
[Chelsea] Beaver Bird.
[Chelsea] Yeah, Beaver was there forever.
[Clay] He had ropings there though, low numbered ropings, for a long time.
[Chelsea] Long time, yeah. Since the 90’s I think.
[Clay] Yeah, Arizona’s amazing, what it’s turned into.
[Chelsea] Yeah. Are you gonna go before the finals?Go for like the week? Vegas week?
[Clay] No. I’m gonna go to a jackpot a day over here in Texas, there’s a lot of them here.
[Chelsea] Do you just love it, or are you jackpotted out?
[Clay] No, I like it. I like jackpotting. I think it makes you good. It makes you good at rodeoing. It makes you good when the big jackpots come around.
[Chelsea] Who are your jackpot partners right now?
[Clay] Jake Long and Jade. Those 2. They haven’t been very good, but Driggers’ roping is coming up.
[Chelsea] The jackpots haven’t been very good, or Jake Long and Jade haven’t been very good?
[Clay] No, no, they’re good all the time. No, they’ve been just kind of, everybody has been all over the map. Some of them have been good, there’s been a couple good ones. They have a lot of them down here and most of them are right around where we all live right here. We see a lot of these guys all the time.
[Chelsea] Perfect, well thank you for part 2. You were nice to me again. I thought maybe you would come at me a little bit more, so I’m glad.
[Clay] No, I’m not gonna come at you on air.
[Chelsea] (Laughing)
[Clay] It’s gonna be off air. I’ll rant to you a little bit, but we’re good.
[Chelsea] (Laughing) Thanks Clay.
[Clay] Thanks.
(Soft music)
[Commercial] Thanks again to Fastback Ropes for bringing us this episode with Clay Tryan. Remember that you can watch him in the Thomas and Mack with his Mach III and we will talk at you later in the week.
