Professional rodeo is a grind—one that requires complete dedication to the craft. The hours in the practice pen, the time away from the wife and kids and the stress of needing to win all make rodeo not for the faint. The pursuit of a gold buckle—and a childhood dream to make a living with a rope—will keep the best in the world on the trail for a while.

But sooner or later, everyone needs a break. Is it retirement? No, nobody ever really retires from rodeo. And none of these guys are quitters. But at some point, even rodeo cowboys need a change of pace. What finally pushed them over the edge to send them home?

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When and why did you step away from ProRodeo?

I actually did it twice. I did it in 2003 for about four years. Then I came back in ’07 and I rodeoed till ’13, the last year I made it. The first time, it was more of a burnout-type deal. At that time, my oldest daughter, Gabby, was probably starting junior high, and she wanted me to be around the house a little bit more. I think I actually ended up 16th that year, and you know how that is—that will burn a guy out. 

What made you go back in 2007?

A few things. I got a great horse, Spiderman, from Justin Davis and his dad. Then, Allen Bach asked me to take Joel around some. He was in high school and he roped really well. I’d pick him up on Thursday and drop him off Saturday night. Then I jackpotted with JoJo LeMond, and he asked me to go that next winter. We just kept winning, and we made the Finals, and then Luke Brown and I started. I had more success with Luke than I’d ever had. I was energized. I was practicing with the younger guys and I got better. 

What made you decide to finally be done?

I didn’t really crave being gone that much anymore. The whole grind, the whole process, I wasn’t as eaten up by it as I had been. I didn’t want to put in the extra anymore. There was so much I missed with my older daughter that I didn’t want to sacrifice the second time around. 

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When did you know it was time to quit?

I know exactly where I was and what I was thinking. It was 2019, and I was roping with Trey Yates. We were up in Canada. We went over the Fourth of July and we were buddied with Erich Rogers and Paden Bray, two of my best friends. We’d got to one of my favorite rodeos—St. Paul, Oregon—and we roped that afternoon and that night. 

We get done, we’re having a beer and we’re having a pretty good time there. I walked outside, and I remember thinking, ‘This is it; I know this is it, I’m done. Because this is one of the funnest rodeos, traveling with the best people, and all I want to do is go home and see my kids and be with my family.’ So I knew right then I was done. I would finish out the rodeos I was going to, but I knew that was it. 

Dustin Bird’s Life After Rodeo

Do you have any bucket-list rodeos you still want to win?

Ponoka and Pendleton. Those are two rodeos I want to win before I call it a career. 

Do you think you’ll ever rodeo again? 

When the boys are a little bit older, maybe, but it takes up so much of my time to go and to be competitive. I have to put in a little more work to be good. I have to work harder at it now since I’m older and slower. When I’m practicing for me, I feel like I’m missing out on time with my boys where I could actually be helping them rope. I feel like it’s selfish of me to keep going and going and going instead of being a dad. 

Practicing and roping just aren’t that high on the priority list anymore. I have too many other things that I need to get done, so I can’t make practicing a priority like it used to be. I’d get home from rodeoing and I’d just want to go to the practice pen. Now when I get home, there are too many things that need to be done. 

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When and why did you decide to slow down?

I slowed down in 2010, but I went back in 2015 to rope at the Finals with Junior Nogueira. 

What helped you decide to step away?

My kids were getting to an age where I felt like they needed the same opportunity that I had with my dad focusing on my roping. And I wanted to be there for my wife. I didn’t feel like it was fair to my wife working a job and me off running around, kind of playing. Also, my dad wasn’t in the greatest health and was getting older. And, I never really loved rodeoing. 

I love to compete and I love to rope, but I don’t like the traveling and the downtime of rodeoing. I love to ride horses—doing the cowboy things. When you’re rodeoing, it’s not really a cowboy thing. It’s about as far away as you can get from it. You’re either locked in a living quarters trailer or a pickup. You get to play cowboy for just a few minutes every night and I wanted to do it all day every day.

 I didn’t like the person rodeoing was making me. My dad was a very good man—he was a very hard man, but he was a good man. He showed me how to love and I just felt like I was being drug away from my beliefs as far as my religion. I was making decisions that I shouldn’t make, whether it was partying too much or having to sell things that I shouldn’t have. I just wasn’t in love with the person that it made me, and I felt like almost a selfish prick in a way.

JoJo LeMond: On Going Home & Starting Over

Was it hard to transition to life at home after rodeoing?

I dealt with depression and anxiety and everything else in there. I quit, but I’d never known anything else besides roping to make a living. That’s how I made a living for my family from the time I was 11 years old. And when I quit, I had the best horse I’d ever had—Goose, my gray—and that made it even harder for me to accept the fact that I was going home without any way to make a living. 

Will anything get you back out on the road? 

Maybe in four or five years, if my youngest wants to go, I’ll take him around some. But not until I don’t have any more kids at home. We’re showing a lot in the cutting, and it’s a whole-family deal. I just have to learn how to compete in the cutting, but I love it. 

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What made you hang it up this year?

To put it short, I wasn’t willing to do the stuff I had to do anymore to the people I had to do it to, to make it how I wanted to do it. To rodeo how I would want to rodeo, I just wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices anymore to do it. And if I’m not going to do that, then I’m not going to rodeo.

What did those sacrifices look like?

Just the time of every day. It’s just all about you—the whole world revolves around you making the NFR. When your kids are little, it’s not as big a deal. But now my kids are old enough that they’re doing their own stuff, and that’s time you can’t get back. I’m young enough that if I want to rodeo again, I’ll just do it after my kids are grown. I didn’t want to wait until that point in my life when I wanted to be done, but then my kids are grown and they’re not home anymore and it’s too late. This might sound stupid, too, but I always kind of had it in my head that I didn’t want the game to retire me. I physically still feel good. If I wanted to do it, I feel like I could still do it. 

Do you have anything left you want to win? 

I’d like to win the BFI. It doesn’t really bother me as much as people talk about or think it does, but it’s just the fact that it’s a really good jackpot. It’s the best jackpot. I want to win the best jackpot. 

Who haven’t you roped with that you’d like to before you call it quits for good?

I would have liked to rope with Luke (Brown). We always talked about it. I’ve won as much with Luke as I’ve won with anybody. We second partnered for a long time. And it just seems like every time me and Luke rope together, we do good. Luke or (Derrick) Begay, or Trevor (Brazile). 

Even though you’re not rodeoing this year, you’ve still won quite a bit.

Cody Snow and I won $50-some-thousand rodeoing, and I won a little jackpotting, and I was gone all year. Who knows what I spent trying to win that $50,000. This year, I’ve won like $80,000, and I’ve been to five places. And I didn’t have to spend anything to get it. The WCRAs have been great for that. I nominated Oklahoma City for the American qualifier when I roped with Kaleb Driggers and Bubba Buckaloo. I nominated the Lone Star Shootout and the BFI, and I won like $49,000 just at those WCRA events I got into.

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Want more stories like this? We interviewed Cole Davison, Nick Sartain and Kory Koontz, too, about their decisions to step away from ProRodeo, and their full interviews are rolling out on “The Score” podcast all summer long.

—TRJ—