After a slow start to 2024, it took Tyler Tryan until early summer to take the lead in the 2024 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year race. Armed with lessons learned this first year out on the hot and dusty, the son of three-time World Champion Header Clay Tryan, who’s 18 and calls Lipan, Texas, home, is ready to take on his sophomore season as a professional header.
Q: Take us through the first three seasons of your freshman pro rodeo year, with fall yet to play out at press time at the end of August.
A: I didn’t get to buy my card until my birthday on February 28, so I just jackpotted this winter. I won the first (pro) rodeo I entered (he and Logan Moore were 4.4) in Bryan, Texas, to fill my permit, then took off for the spring rodeos in California, which didn’t go very good. The summer went good, but it could always be better. I just want to get better out here, realize what I’m doing wrong and try to fix it.
Q: Who all have you roped with this year?
A: I started with Logan Moore, then roped with Denton Dunning for two weeks in June. I started roping with Denton again at Caldwell in August.
Q: How many different horses have you had out there this year, and do you share head horses with your dad?
A: I’ve had three horses out there with me. The main two (Johnson’s the 19-year-old sorrel and Butters is the 8-year-old palomino) are my dad’s, and I have a red roan of my own, Roan, who’s 10.
Q: What’s been your favorite rodeo so far?
A: I thought Reno and St. Paul were really cool. Reno was my first really big crowd. Same with St Paul. Packed house, loud, and those trees in the arena and the shape of it are just unique.
Q: For those who haven’t gotten close enough to notice, when did you lose your right thumb, and how has that impacted your roping style?
A: I cut off my thumb on February 28, 2022, which was my 16th birthday, at the Patriot Finals at the John Justin Arena in Fort Worth. I was roping with Denton Dunning, and we were no good on our first steer. Then I reached a pretty good ways for our second one. I remember my hand going numb and looking down. That’s about all I can remember. I don’t feel like I’ve changed anything. I could have, but I was out for such a long time that once I started roping again, I just learned to grab my rope like I do now and started roping.
READ: Rodeo Thumb – Research on Whether to Save or Amputate
Q: Was it a bigger physical or mental challenge to rebound from that?
A: I’d probably say more mental. I was out a year and a half. I didn’t get to swing a rope, and had 10 major surgeries on my right hand. The hardest part was just sitting there watching the ropings. There was a lot of waiting. It sucked, but waiting for the best possible outcome was the best option for me.
Q: How long have you known you wanted to rope for a living?
A: Since I was a little kid. I’ve always been the kid in the way at the ropings, who roped the dummy all day. It’s about all I’ve wanted to do, and that hasn’t changed.
Q: What are the advantages of coming from such a famous roping family?
A: You grow up in it, so you’ve already lived it. There are advantages, but you still have to work to get it done on your own.
Q: Are there any downsides, pressure from extra expectations included?
A: I don’t see any. I don’t see it that way.
Q: On the Tryan side, there’s your dad, NFR header Uncle Travis, NFR header Uncle Brady, NFR heeler Grandpa Dennis, NFR barrel racer Grandma Terri Kaye Kirkland and NFR heeler cousin Chase Tryan. Have they all impacted your young career?
A: Yes, they’ve all given me advice at some point. I spent a lot of time in Montana with my grandpa as a kid. He watches me rope and points out things he thinks I need to work on. But he doesn’t say much. He likes to let me figure it out on my own as much as possible.
Q: Your mom, Bobbie, is from another well-known roping family from Montana, the Robertsons, which include her NFR heeler brother, Matt Robertson, and sister, Arena de la Cruz, married to NFR heeler Cesar. Does your mom still rope?
A: Her whole family ropes. When my mom was younger, she got in a bad horse wreck and hurt her hip. It hurts when she tries to rope, so she doesn’t rope much anymore.
Q: Do your little brothers rope, too?
A: Braylon heels, and he’s already a 9 at 16. He’s going to be legit. Dash ropes, but he’s more into golf and baseball right now.
Q: What else do you like to do besides rope?
A: I play a little basketball at the house, and play a little golf. It’s a little bit disappointing when your 10-year-old brother (Dash) is five times better than you at golf. My fun is spending hours in the goat arena, roping the Shorty, and anything that involves a rope. The best way to stay sharp out here rodeoing when you don’t get to practice much is roping the dummy.
WATCH ON ROPING.COM: Full Heading Dummy Roping Lesson
WATCH ON ROPING.COM: Full Heeling Dummy Roping Lesson
Q: Is rodeoing full time what you expected?
A: Yeah, pretty much. You’ve got to get good enough to do it full-time and as a career, but that’s the plan. The entering and trading never end. Getting to compete is the best part by far. All the driving is the worst part, but I’m getting more used to it.
Q: Who do you get the most advice from?
A: My dad, by far. He doesn’t say too much. He mostly talks to me about how to keep my horses working good, and helps me with little things like my swing when I’m struggling or which horse to ride where.
Q: What were your goals for 2024 going into this season?
A: To get better. The NFR was a long shot, because I didn’t have anything won to start the summer with. So the goal was to get out here, see where I was at and try to get better. I also wanted to make sure I got into next year’s winter rodeos to give myself a better chance.
Q: What do your biggest roping hopes and dreams look like now?
A: I want to make the NFR. I need to get a lot better pretty fast to do that. These guys are awesome out here. They head so good, it’s unbelievable. You have to keep evolving with the game to make it out here.
—TRJ—
