We’re digging through our archives for Classic Moments in team roping, and we came across this column from a 26-year-old Clay Tryan, written in May 2005. While two decades have past since this writing, Tryan’s sentiments are still well worth reading.
Rodeo’s all I’ve really ever known.
When Travis and I were little, my mom and dad both rodeoed. They took a break from it when we were in school, but my dad still went to ropings and amateur rodeos. He just didn’t do it full time or try to make the NFR or anything.
We were still always around rodeo, but when we were younger, Travis and I were really into sports. We didn’t really rope that much, but maybe in the summertime a little bit. We were into basketball, baseball and football. We even played hockey one year. We played every sport. The winters were pretty cold, and there weren’t many indoor arenas around here back then, so roping year-round wasn’t an option anyway.
When we went to the amateur rodeos, they had junior breakaway ropings for the kids, so we did that a little bit. But we were little sports fanatics. Our dad was our baseball coach, and we did two-a-day practices when school got out. We were into it. I wasn’t very big, so I quit playing football when I was about 12. But I kept playing basketball and baseball until about high school. That’s about the time I started wanting to rope more.
I played on the baseball all-star teams when I was 11 and 12. When I was 12, they took the best kids from Billings and we got to play in an all-star game against kids from Japan. That was pretty neat. I didn’t rope much then because of all that. But once you get to high school, sports become year-round and get pretty serious. I wasn’t into the summer tournaments, and the coaches looked down on us missing that stuff for ropings and rodeos. It wasn’t as fun anymore, because that’s all they wanted you to do, and we were starting to rope more.
I decided about that time, when I was about 14, that I really wanted to rope. I loved all the other sports, but I started to really improve at my roping and that was fun to me. I got pumped about it. My dad had done it, and I knew it was what I was wanting to do.
As a kid wanting to rope, I had a lot of advantages because of my family. I saw how my dad did it. He roped really good, and we had a roping ranch camp in the summers where people from back East came to learn to rope. So Travis and I spent our days out there in the arena where my dad was teaching people how to rope.
Around 1994, the NFR started being on TV more and being a big deal. They televised all 10 rounds, and when I was 14 or 15 I can remember the sport kind of taking off. Where I’m from, I’d never seen those guys. They were mystery people to me. The Jakes and Clays and all the guys who rope good don’t ever come up here to Montana, so to see those guys rope got me pumped up and wanting to do it.
From that point on, roping was all I wanted to do. I just loved doing it. I wasn’t that good back then, because I didn’t start roping much until I was 14 or 15. There are a lot of kids now that rope great by then. But by then it was all I did, so I got to start making a lot of runs. And they started building some indoor arenas, so I could rope all year round.
When I was in my early teens, I’d set a video camera on a barrel and film myself roping the dummy. Then I’d watch it over and over, dead spots and all. I watched videos of the good guys roping, too, and studied how they did it.
My dad got Travis and I a pretty good horse to rope on when we first started. She was a bay mare named Sugar, and she was the real deal. We had other horses to practice on, but Travis and I shared her at the rodeos and she was awesome. If she was around today, we could ride her at the rodeos.
Travis and I both started out heeling, then I got my finger in the dally once when I was pretty young. So Dad had us both head for a while for safety reasons. I headed for my dad at the amateur rodeos when I was about 15 or 16. Then, when I got older, Travis headed for him. I would just go catch ’em all and Dad’d rope two feet pretty fast. So I got to learning how to win and got some confidence. He was a way better partner than I deserved when I was first starting out, so that made it pretty fun.
My dad was big on no mistakes. No breaking the barrier and no missing. He was tough on us, but in a good way. He just said it like it is. If we wanted to do it, he wanted us to give it our all. There is always another day, like they say, but you need to think about what you did wrong today. My dad knew what it took to be good, and he taught us that professional attitude.
When we were learning to rope, Travis and I went where our dad went. We never got to rope in low-numbered ropings, because we weren’t there that day. We roped in the higher-numbered ropings and we left.
Jake and Tee (Woolman) were the best when I was born, and they’re still out there winning. That’s why it’s so hard to make it in. There aren’t that many open spots. My dad was honest with us. He told us there’s always someone out there working hard and roping good. You always have to keep trying to get better. That’s something I hope I always keep trying to do. I still go out there every day to try to get better. Speed Williams is doing the same thing. You have to dig deep if you want to make it out there.
