A born-and-raised Coloradan turned Utahn, Ben Jordan and his 13 brothers and sisters grew up under the roof of his father, who ran a repair business.
“I worked in the business all growing up,” said Jordan, 32. “My mom died when I was really young … so we had to work quite a bit.”
Following a two-year mission trip to Southern Spain, Jordan and his wife Ashley moved to Utah as newlyweds, and Jordan became an apprentice at a plumbing business. Ten months later, he purchased the operation and began building a repair service dynasty in the form of Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric.
“We started up in November of 2015,” Jordan said. “We had a kind of determination—we were going to try to grow as fast as we could and just [use] good business practices. Taking care of our customers really worked out well for us.”
Today, Jordan’s business is among the service repair industry’s largest in Utah and, in addition to his Salt Lake City location, he’s also serving residential customers from his Denver and Dallas hubs.
“We service about 40,000 customers a year, and we specialize in sewer and underground,” Jordan explained.
It’s a heavy load for someone on the ProRodeo road, but Jordan credits the great managers handling the everyday operations of the business for his ability to follow his relatively new roping dreams.
“I grew up in Bennett, Colorado, right down the road from where J.B. James lives and Eric Martin and those guys,” Jordan said. “We hung around those guys, but we never really did anything. Then, right before my mission, my brother got a head horse and we used to go over to Eric Martin’s house, and we would rope and hang out with them.
“Fast forward, and 2020 was the first year I bought a horse, so I told my wife, ‘I think I want to start team roping.’”
At the time, Ashley didn’t know much about the sport, but the mother of four under 10 does now.
“I ended up buying a house with an arena, and we have an indoor there in Utah,” said Jordan, who spends his winters in Weatherford. “I got the bug real bad, and then I really just started going.”
Scott Lauaki and Hagen Peterson are often on the heeling end of Jordan’s roping pursuits, and they’ve seen some notable wins in the arena over the years from good World Series qualifier checks to putting the heat on the competition in Round 2 of The Feist at the 2023 BFI.
“Me and Scott entered the BFI last year, and I’ve never been to a roping like this. We ended up placing in the second round,” said Jordan, who, with Lauaki, got a Round 2 time of 6.5 for third place and $4,000.
The team was also in the average at the 2023 Greeley Stampede and, in 2024, they again found themselves in the money in Round 1 at Denver’s National Western Stock Show & Rodeo—a good note on which to start their rookie pursuits.
“We placed in the first round at Denver,” Jordan said. “We won the round in our set in Denver on our first steer, and then I messed up the second one to come back to the short go, but we ended up placing in that round, so that was pretty good.”
At the time of print, Jordan was holding the No. 15 spot in the Resistol Rookie heading standings, and he was getting some runs in at the Lone Star Shootout in Abilene, all aboard his go-to mount, Surfin For Cash, a 2014 sorrel Frenchman’s Guy gelding called “Nelson” that came from the late, three-time NFR header Quinn Kesler.
“It means a lot to me,” Jordan said. “Quinn trained him and, when I first started, we’d always go over to his house and he would tell me, ‘This is going to be my next good one.’ And he ended up selling him to me. He’s been such a blessing.”
Blessings, it seems, are what Jordan enjoys most from his time so far in the sport. He feels he’s absolutely received them, but he really finds his joy in sharing his blessings.
“I’m extremely blessed with my business and to travel and, then, these guys like Hagen and Scott that rodeo with me and they go everywhere with me. I wouldn’t say I have the biggest accomplishments in the arena, but helping these guys do what they love, and they help me with my roping every day, and that’s what I really pride myself on,” Jordan said. “I think the most addicting part of this sport is the people I get to be around every day. The people we compete against every day, they genuinely care about how we’re doing.”
—TRJ—
