People talk about loving the process like it’s some kind of motivational strategy. For me, it wasn’t something I had to work at. I just loved it. All of it.
I think that was the biggest edge I ever had on anybody: what was work to them was fun to me. I enjoyed the practice pen. I enjoyed the repetition. I enjoyed every little piece that most people treated like chores.
I didn’t fall in love with the process because I read a book or heard a podcast. It was natural. I wanted to be so good at roping that I didn’t have to get a “real job.” That was the goal. I didn’t know if it would ever work out that way—I just knew I wasn’t going to stop trying. Rodeo was a labor of love for me from the beginning.
And that’s the deal. I wasn’t grinding for the sake of grinding. I was chasing something I couldn’t get enough of. Every day in the practice pen felt like a step closer to making that dream a reality. Not because I had to—because I wanted to.
Some guys love the rodeoing but don’t love what it takes to get there. And if you cheat the work, you’re eventually going to get caught. You might hold it together for a while, but not over a career.
A lot of people ask, “What’s the one little habit or trick that gave you an edge?” I don’t have a sexy answer to that. There wasn’t one. It was everything. I roped calves, I tripped steers, I team roped. I put time into every event, every skill. The edge came from stacking up those boring, daily reps.
And I never took anything for granted. That’s something that got instilled in me early. Because it’s easy to let your guard down on the stuff you think you’ve already got handled. But I learned pretty quick—those are the areas that end up costing you.
If you want to get real about improvement, you have to face your weaknesses. Not just identify them—turn them into strengths. A lot of people avoid that part. They don’t want to open that can of worms. But I looked for it. I worked on what I hated until I didn’t hate it anymore.
It all goes back to the same thing: loving the work. Loving the tiny adjustments. Loving the feeling of figuring something out in the pen that maybe nobody else noticed.
That’s the part I miss the most—not the buckle presentations or the interviews. I miss the practice. The rhythm. The relentless pursuit of being a little bit better than I was yesterday.
I don’t know how else to put it: I would’ve paid to do what I did. That’s how much I loved it. And in a way, that’s exactly what I did—I worked so I could rodeo. I trained so I could keep doing what I loved.
If there’s any advice in that, it’s this: Don’t chase something unless you’re obsessed with the day-to-day. If you love the work, you’ll always have a shot. If you don’t, someone who does is going to pass you.
—TRJ—
Go inside the practice pens of the world’s top team ropers and horse trainers with exclusive practice footage on Roping.com. The video library gives you an all-access pass to the drills, exercises and routines the pros use every day—watch how elite ropers prepare, fine-tune their horses and execute winning runs, then apply those same methods in your own program.
