Under The Lights with Ash and Roy
Under the Lights Podcast with Ash & Roy brings you straight into the stories of the Western world’s toughest and most talented — legendary horsemen, elite rodeo athletes, and powerhouse musicians.
No fluff. No filters. Just real conversations about the grit, setbacks, and breakthroughs that built these icons. Ash & Roy take you behind the scenes and under the lights to hear what it really took to get there.
If you live the Western lifestyle — or just respect the grind — this one’s for you.
Kick back, crack a cold one, and enjoy the show.
Under The Lights with Ash and Roy
Tyson Durfey - Season 1 Episode 3
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Joining us is a man who knows what it takes to win at the absolute highest level—a PRCA World Champion, seven-time National Finals qualifier, and one of the most intense competitors to ever step inside the box… Tyson Durfey
From grinding it out on the road to capturing that gold buckle in 2016, Tyson didn’t just chase greatness—he built it. And these days, he’s taking that same championship mindset and helping athletes across all disciplines level up mentally, physically, and emotionally.
This is a guy who understands pressure, discipline, and what it really takes to win when the lights are the brightest.
Welcome to Underworld Podcast with Action Roy. It brings you straight into the stories of the Western world effects and post legendary force and rodeo access and our subject. No, no photos, just real conversations about the grip setback and the breakthrough that built these icons. Action Roy to be behind the scenes under the lights to hear what it really took to get there. If you live the Western lifestyle or disrespect the grind, this one's for you. Kick back, crack a gold one, and enjoy the show.
SPEAKER_01Hey everyone, welcome to Under the Lights with Ash and Roy. I'm Ashley Pietrich. I'm here with my host Roy Dingis. How are you, Roy?
SPEAKER_05I'm good. I'm ready for this episode.
SPEAKER_01Yes, you are. Listen, but first we gotta talk about that gorgeous day behind you. I'm a little jealous.
SPEAKER_05I mean, Texas is where it's at. I mean, how can how can you beat this?
SPEAKER_01No, I can't beat it. I can't even dream about doing something like that in the Northeast this week. Uh, but pretty soon, pretty pretty soon we'll we'll be there right there with you. Uh, we got a special guest today.
SPEAKER_05We do, and uh, he's actually a really good friend of mine, and a lot of people know him as the man in the pink shirt, right? And we'll get to that in the in this episode, but uh 2016 world champion calf roper. And uh Ashley, you've met him, and uh this is just gonna be a good conversation with a good man.
SPEAKER_01I have had the privilege to to meet Tyson. It was under the most extreme, horrific uh circumstances of a uh Texas ice storm. And let me tell you, that is the true test of a gentleman because he took us in and was just great anyway. But yes, uh right, we're so excited to have Tyson Durfee with us. Um, Tyson is a world champion tie-down roper, entrepreneur, one of the rodeo's like most driven competitors, I think anybody knows. Hailing from Savannah, Missouri, uh Tyson turned a lifetime of hard work into grit and discipline. He is uh crowned 2016 PRCA tie down roping world title. Uh, he won the American rodeo. His accolades are deep, and we are so excited for him to join us. So uh let's uh bring him in. Hey Tyson, how are you?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm excited, I'm really excited. I like the name of this under the lights. There you go, baby. That's like you're in a rodeo arena. This is good. I love it. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so Tyson is in his office, and it uh well, Ashley, you you've seen that. It that is just memorabilia, and uh, of course, Americana behind him. And uh when you go to Tyson's place, you gotta see that room.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the office is not uh it's not huge, it's very small, but it is American, it is rodeo, and it is cowboy. It's um I have my American flag back there, got a bunch of memory ability from rodeos, plus books. I'm pretty much self-taught in everything, so I have uh I'm not listening to a book, I'm trying to read a book and get better and grow. I don't love to read, uh, but I do know that knowledge is the key to everything. So yeah, it's kind of what we a lot of rodeo memory ability in here. I'll kind of uh pardon the mess, but I'll just give you all a quick tour here. Let me roll back here, and I have like all my back numbers uh all over the wall, tons of books, horseshoes. Those uh two sets of horseshoes are from uh that horse up there that I won my world championship on. I unfortunately lost him not long after I won the world championship, and um, but I kept his shoes and he was a great horse. He was in the prime of his career, he was young. Um, but yeah, we got some stuff up there, more back numbers, caps. My kids leave me messages on the door, which I love. Yeah, but yeah, it's just uh we got the Patriot, the flag in there. I've got the declaration of independence, bill of rights, of course, my pink stuff. That photo directly above here in the middle, yeah, of Billy Graham and his uh whole evangelist team. And they were in Washington, DC, kneeling outside the White House praying over our nation. And I was like, I told my wife, I just took a screenshot of it because I was watching uh it on YouTube. I was like, man, this is just such a great moment of what you know America should be praying over your leader, praying over your country. Yeah, you know, uh, and she actually took that and cleaned it up somehow and then blew it up and threw it uh on my wall for me as a present. So it's one of my favorite things in here, but I it's not a big space. This is actually a wash rack at one point indoor arena that I turned into an office. So yeah, it's cowboy, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01The galling that you unfortunately lost, was that Nico?
SPEAKER_02That was Nico, yes, ma'am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He he replied, you know. I think we're all just one good horse away from having our dreams, you know what I mean? Like, and I tell people that all the time, they're like, I'm having a hard time finding the right horse or doing this or doing that. I say, you know, just stay in the game because one good horse can change your whole outlook on everything. And and if you're a great cowboy, you get one or two, you know, in the rodeo industry, one or two. Um, and so that was that was my boy. He's I love him like I love family. Yeah, he's a good horse.
SPEAKER_01Very those are tough losses. I think uh most horsemen have been in those shoes, and you don't wash that on any anybody. Uh Tyson, talk us a little bit about the trail from hometown Missouri down to what you know, Texas area, and and what what brought you into that rodeo scene so highly competitive?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so my dad was a trainer. Um, he would train a lot of the young athletes in the Midwest. He would uh train almost all the horses at the time back in the day. My dad was like the only you know guy riding 20, 25, 30 head a day. There were some guys that trained just kind of decided maybe they were, you know, an electrician or a plumber or whatever, and then they rode a couple horses here and there. My dad was a full-time guy. And so we just got up every morning and we rode a lot of horses, worked a lot of horses. And it was from you know 6:30 in the morning till 11:30, 12 o'clock every night. Uh, it was me, my dad, and my two brothers. We were all on the ranch and some hired men, so there were no women. Uh, there was, you know, lots of drinking going on, lots of dirty jokes, definitely not the Christian lifestyle that I live now. Uh, but I learned at a very young age that like if I wanted to be a winner, that I had to put in more effort than anybody else. And and I went to my dad one time, I was about 14, and I said, Dad, he's I said, uh, he asked me, he's like, What do you want to do? And I was like, Well, I want to be the guys on TV. I don't want to be just behind the scenes, you know, I want to be the guys on TV, I want to travel, I want to go all over the world and all over America, and I'm gonna be the guy on TV. And he and he said, Well, son, uh, you need to see me show me that you're putting in more work than you're putting. And I'm thinking, like, I'm already starting a day at 6 a.m. and finishing, you know, 10, 11 o'clock at night. And basically he slapped me in the face and said, Well, that's not good enough. You need to do more. He said, What you need to do, he said, I see you working, but I want to see you working on the things that move the needle. And so I started to prioritize the type of work I was doing from just cleaning stalls, feeding horses, doctoring cattle, doing all that. But then I was like, How much time am I actually practicing on my swinging, my my delivery of my rope, my running down the rope and tying and flanking, my exercising? And I wasn't, I was I was essentially, you know, a mindless robot doing the physical labor every day, which is fine, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it didn't align with my goals. My goals were to be the best in the world and a top ranked and be on TV and all this stuff. And so that's when I was about 14 years old. I started to make that shift of okay, we need to prioritize our work. I started waking up even earlier, which is crazy because most of my high school career I started at like 4:30 a.m. I would finish the day around 11:30 a.m. So I didn't sleep a lot growing up, like I just worked. There was no prom. I never went to a football game, I didn't do a basketball game, I didn't go to like school dances. I I can probably count the amount of times on one hand that I hung out with like friends and didn't work. Um, so there was none of that. And I'm so thankful that it was like that for me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because at the time I I was sad, not gonna be lying. Like, I remember going to like, you know, most of the rodeo kids didn't go to normal prom because you were at a high school rodeo. But we did have like other proms and like other things, and I just didn't, I didn't go to any of my like my high school proms or anything. I was just like, man, I kind of wish I would have, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, like, I mean, I got to hang out with the president, I got to meet celebrities and do things that only happen to me. And I'm just a dumb Irish kid from the Midwest, right? That my life would not look like that if I wasn't good at roping. Yeah, so I basically gave up a lot of youth things to be excellent at a skill that allowed me to live a life that you know is just incredible, it's so much fun. I mean, competing at Houston in front of tens and thousands of people and taking my kids now that I'm an old man, I'm still winning. I am still winning that are young enough to be my kids. Um, but taking them to you know, meet Riley Green or hang out with Ella Langley or get to watch these performers on the dirt or from the back of the bucket shoes, like it's just incredible memories, and none of that would have happened if I would have been more concerned with hanging out with my friends than actually developing my craft and wanting to get out of the ranch and and you know be a you know a national rodeo cowboy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so speaking of winning, you just won the first bracket at Houston. Yeah, yeah, it's so cool because uh Weatherford, where we are, it's gotten to be uh like Steamville's the the cowboy capital of the world. Uh well, I think we're seeing a shift to Weatherford, with you know, and then of course we got Tyson. Uh it's so cool to sit around at our little local spots, yeah. Because every place in Texas shows the cowboy channel, every restaurant. Um it's so cool when Weatherford guy comes up or a Brock guy, somebody everyone's cheering, yeah, and watching Tyson win Houston.
SPEAKER_02You finally got your guitar. Yeah, you know, when I I won like I've won that super series set probably five or six times over the years. I've always loved Houston, it's my favorite rodeo, it's where I met my wife. Um, it just got so many great memories from Houston, and I've won I just love it. And I just you know, there's some of those arenas you just ride into and you're like, Yes, this is what I work my whole life for. And Houston's that rodeo, the Americans that rodeo, the national final. Like, I just love like the big venues, the the high stakes. And uh when I retired, they started giving away guitars. And anybody knows that rodeos or retires from doing like something like athletics for a long period of time. The moment you retire, the next year that somebody wins something, it's gonna be way cooler. You know, it's like, oh now they're giving this, and they never gave that when I was doing it, you know. And but I did get to come out of retirement after basically three years off. And uh, I won a guitar the other day, which is super cool. Like, I didn't know how to play it, but uh it is it is sitting in the house on the wall right now, so it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01That's a heck of a trophy. I don't think you know, we've got a lot of trophies around here. I do not have any guitars, so I'm gonna start making some phone calls and some better marketing and so my favorite thing that I've ever won, like yeah, like under, let's say, like, you know, belt buckle to like guitar level price point.
SPEAKER_02I won a gun one time. I was like, oh man, this is like super cool. Love the guns, you know, wind guns, uh, won a guitar, one belt buckles. The thing that gets used the most that I've won is not a saddle, it is a uh, and I'm not sponsored by but uh a DeWalt drill set. I won it at Caldwell, and Roy knows me, like we know each other deeply. I freaking work, I don't jack around, I'm always hustling. And I actually built a house right by Roy's house with that DeWalt set. So I'm all about unique gifts and and useful, useful. Uh so yeah, I was I I won't be able to use the guitar, but maybe I can talk my wife into using it. I thought you were gonna say the polar is it a Polaris or the Can M. Polaris? I won't, yeah. No, I want a Polaris at the American. That's probably my all-time favorite one, but that's like price point, like you know, it was some thousand bucks, you know.
SPEAKER_01So that was most we were talking about Nico a little bit earlier. What one of the biggest things that legendary horsemen just seem to always have an eye for a great horse. Let's talk about a little bit about horsepower in the calf rope and and and what it really takes to elevate you.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh I I feel like so. If you were to break calf ropen down into like a bar a pie a graph, yeah. You got 50.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, talk to us harness racing people. We want it, we want the pie graph.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's like 50 to 60 percent horse, right? You may be the best roper in the world, um, but if you don't have if you don't have a right mount, you're probably not gonna win very much, not on a consistent level. So for me, I figure like 50 to 60 percent is the horse. And then uh let's say, you know, a portion of that is horsemanship. So you could take a guy like me that grew up training horses, been on thousands, I've been on thousands of head of horses in my life. I cut you kind of develop a feel for what winners are. Now, my dad, who's been in hundreds of thousands, far better horsemen than I am, he could take a dink and make them look pretty damn good. Like that's just you know, that's just old Midwest talk there. I mean, he could take a horse that was not very nice and and he could develop, but my knack has always been picking the winners. So I'm like, what is the winner? And so when I say I rode, you know, hundreds and thousands of horses, it's like at competitions, not just in the training arena. And so I was able to, you know, say, all right, this horse is consistent, this horse works great, but he can't handle the pressure. When the noise gets up and the crowd comes up, he he makes an erratic move, and I don't want any erratic behavior, I want consistent behavior, and so I think it's just the feel of riding that many horses and a lot, and that's kind of an art that's lost. There's not many people in the CAFR open space. I can probably only think of one uh other than maybe myself, and it's Haven Medid that has rode a lot of horses and trained a lot of horses. Yeah, um, that probably had that real feel for how a horse works, and it's it's a huge you know, testament to him, him or me, but at the end of the day, it's horsepower, it's mechanics. I would say mechanics being able to operate and win under pressure is probably 25% of the math. Let's say horse 60, that's 20 at least 15. The rest is mindset and athleticism. And I put I put athleticism very low on the totem pole. The worse horse you have, the better athlete you have have to be. The greater horse that you have, the less of an athlete you have to be. And that's why I mean, I'm ancient, I'm 42 years old. I am freaking ancient compared to a Riley Webb that's 19. I'm literally convinced about it, right? How do I still win? It's because I ride excellent horses. And if I don't have an excellent horse, I'm just an average guy. So understanding like how to pick the right horse and how to keep that horse working over a multi-year period. We don't ropers don't transition horses every week, you know. We find a great horse, and it can last two, three, five, six, eight, ten years. So it's it's really understand the horsepower, being great mechanically, having a good mind, uh, and athleticism, I think is it is important, but it's not the most important by far.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha. Could you talk about your the current roster you've got in the barn right now? You're rolling on.
SPEAKER_02I got two mayors, they're freaking excellent. One is a bay mare. Uh, they were both first year pro horses last year, so they were I would consider them green. They weren't used to fireworks and they weren't used to huge crowds and the stands, you know, when people are pounding on the stands with their feet. So I had last year, uh, I was kind of bringing them along a little bit, but they nearly got me to the NFR last year as green horses, and so I'm super excited this year that they're both fresh and they're they're finished. They're fresh and finished at this point. They're not scared of everything. Like go to Houston, they're gonna work, they're gonna work at Cheyenne. Uh, last year I was able to win Cheyenne on my uh Bay Mare. Her name is Baby Ray, she is 10 years old this year. She came through the ranks of um uh high school and college, and then I picked her up, and then Fancy, uh my Dunmare that I rode the other day at uh Houston. Well, Corey Solomon rode my Bay Mare, and then I rode my Dunmare. So both of them got outs at Houston, which is great. Um, but Fancy was trained by a guy that trained under my dad, so it's really cool that um because the way his training style is very similar to my father's training style.
SPEAKER_01So it's almost like he's kind of home, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And and the horses I've bought from him, I've bought several over the years, uh, they flow right into me very well because I understand that training style. But they're two great horses. Fancy's eight this year, uh, baby Ray is 10. Uh, they're they're you know great horses, they're consistent horses, and uh they're mayors, so they're either pissed off or they're very willing to do their job amazingly. But uh, but they're awesome.
SPEAKER_01I love a gritty mare.
SPEAKER_02I love me too. You know why I like a gritty mare? Because a a gilding or a stud is like a man, you just you can whack them upside the head and they forget. We're as a species, the male species. I wanna say stupid, but you know, we we take a little bit more like get it, get a hold of you to get it through your head. With the mare, I just have to show my mares, I don't have to do nothing to I show them and I I treat them right and they work every time. I was always a guilding guy my whole life until the last few years. I've turned into a mayor guy, and I love mayors, I love them.
SPEAKER_01They're they're you're gonna add marriage counselor to your long list of all the incredible advice that you give.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know about that. But I love my mayors at this point, they're they're great for my stage of life. When I was 20, you know, I didn't have the patience I do now. Um, but at this stage of life, my mayors are awesome. I just love them. They're they're the only way I roll if I can, if I have the choice.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. So so speaking of all that, uh, we covered everything there, Cheyenne, retirement, and mayors. So take us back before you retired. You had a good mayor and you sold that mayor, because you were retiring, yeah, and then you were retired a couple years, and then take us through that. And then when you came back, yeah, won Cheyenne.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was kind of a kind of a weird deal because I was about 37, 38, something like that. I'm way older than that now, so uh I won't tell you my age, but um I was just kind of burnt out, man. I've been doing it since I was four years old, you know, 35 years, just the same thing, the same rodeos every year, uh, been been successful, won the world, achieved every goal I ever wanted to achieve. I just hit this spot where I just like I was just done, man. I'd I I was just done. And there was a COVID year where I was home a lot, and I'd never been home. I'd always my whole life been on the road, and never been home. And I uh was building a brand new house and I built my home and I just really enjoyed like building my home and I I enjoyed doing construction and I enjoyed being in my same bed every night, which is something I'd never done. I never even knew I liked it because I just my entire life I was on the road, and I was like, I'm gonna go hard this year through COVID, and there was like only a few states that were open. There was South Dakota, Oklahoma, you know, Kansas, portions of Texas, Idaho, a little bit in Utah. So every competition, the best in the world was at it. Instead of, you know, 5,000 rodeos across America, they're only in a few states. So each rodeo, if even if it was a podunk rodeo, like at a thousand bucks or something, they would get the best 200 ropers on planet Earth. It was tough. And I went in, I ended up making the national finals. I went the last week of the season, I was 23rd in the world, and I won every round of the tour finale and won the finals. Going from 23rd to 12th and making the national finals and then coming here to Texas for the national finals. And we got done. I wrote my last calf, and I remember thinking this might be the last calf I ever wrote, you know, is it is in is over here. And I just thought I'd done everything I want to do. I wasn't like depressed or anything, but I wanted to be home with my family. Two little kids in diapers, you know, the whole thing. Those of you that, you know, are up in age, not up in age, but not in your 20s, because I couldn't have thought about this in my 20s. But if you're in 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, you understand what I'm talking about. It's nice to be around your kids when they're little because someday they're gonna grow up. And I I just I did, I was retired. I I was dad, I sold my good horse. Uh uh Shane Hanshee ended up with her, wrote her at the NFR. Um, it was super fun to watch him compete on her, but I got like literally depressed because I was used to competing all the time. Yeah, how I would stuff down, I would say depression or anger or whatever was like I literally just put a tool belt on and went to work, like literally, it was an outline, like hanging out with President Trump at these places to like tool belt framing a house. Like, and Roy knows I'm not joking because I ain't joking, am I Roy? No, you're not framing siding, roofing. I mean, I was just a working man, and I think that I was so and I and I really enjoy creating, I love building things and creating things, and financially I didn't need to do that. Like I didn't I did this because I wanted to do this, I didn't do this because I had to do this, and um, but I love creating things, so I built these houses, I built this house, I started trading land and doing more of that stuff. I have a place that Roy knows that I've been developing and clearing timber and just I just went to work. But after a while, working is so boring if you're used to nodding your head and competing and and doing all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01The adrenaline, you missed that adrenaline.
SPEAKER_02There's you know, the how I found my adrenaline was like go roll in jujitsu and let these, and I don't know anything. So these guys just beat the crap out of me. That's how I was like getting my kicks, like these guys are popping my ribs and choking me out, um but I was uh just working and I had a minor heart attack. And I'm like I'm like, I can't like what's going on. So I was carrying a water pump up from the river. I was irrigating for some cattle, and I was carrying the water pump up. I get halfway up and I just I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe, have chest pain, you know, everything starts spinning, and I just crawled my way to the truck and laid the seat back, and I sat down for like 20 minutes. And here I am. The only way I can, you know, get rid of like my not, I wouldn't know if it might have been depression, I don't know. Let's just call it that. I don't care if we call it that, was to work hard. That's why I stuffed it down, and then I start getting sick, and I can't even do that. Like, and I'm I'm trying to figure out what's happening to me. And I have one, and then it happens again and again and again and again and again. It happened six times before I went to the doctor, and my body's breaking out in full body rashes from my neck to my ankle. Um, I'd have these pounding massive headaches that lasted all day long. I just could not get away from, had no energy, and the only way I could get away from them is go in my room and lay down in a dark room. And my wife's like, What is wrong with you? Because this is not the man that I married. The man I married is a is a goer, and all of a sudden I'm like, I can't get out of this dark room. I just want to sit in this dark room because I just can't take it. And I was going to the bathroom 12 times a day, and I couldn't hold, like, couldn't keep any food in it. It was just running through me, and all this stuff was going on. Well, finally, long story short, we book a appointment with a cardiologist, and he's he's a good one. We pulled some strings, he worked for some NBA teams, and we get in there, and he's like, he hooks me up the the thing with all the wires, the EKG, and he's like, he's like, How do you feel? Like, well, he's like, Do you have chest pain? I'm like, Yeah, I got some chest pain. He's like, like, I'm not trying to freak you out. He said, But I think you're having a heart attack right now. And I'm like, I'm like, freaking hey. He's like, I need to get you in for a heart calf immediately to make sure there's no blockage. He's like, he's like, every since I can't use the guy's name, but he's like, every since COVID, you will be, your mind would be blown, the amount of 40-year-old guys that are physically in shape, not overweight, that are dropping dead from heart attacks. He's like, I would really like to get you in to and I'm like, how's this possible? I've always exercised, I've always worked physically, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chew. Uh, other than hard work, I don't have a lot of you know bad health vices. And he's like, You needed it, so we do it. We go in there, and the funny thing was we get in there and I'm kind of like loopy because they put the the thing on you, and he's trying to, you know, he they go in there or they go up from your growing, they cut you in your growing, they go up your heart, and I kind of see the screen where they're like squirting dye all over the place, and we get done, and I'm like in and out of consciousness. I'm there, but I'm like not like wide awake. It's almost like a fuzzy dream. And I wake up and he's like, Did you go to war? I said, No. He's like, Did you grow up, you know, with a rough childhood? I said, yo, yeah, very rough. Yeah, very rough. He's like, Because you have like you have a piece of shrapnel on your heart. And I'm like, well, he said what looks like a piece of shrapnel on your heart. And he's like, you also have one in your hip. And uh he's like, but the good news is you uh don't have any blockage, so I don't know why you're having these attacks. And I said, Well, I used to I tactically shoot, and sometimes if I'll like, you know, whatever, get aggressive, I'll shoot plates, and sometimes the bullet fragments will frag off and hit you. And I remember getting hit in the chest with a bullet fragment, but I didn't think anything of it. I just was like, it's not that big a deal, you know, and just kind of kept going. So that was the chest one I and I got one of the hit, but ironically, I ended up having a um, and I know I'm rambling, but I ended up having chronic. Uh I ended up having like a chronic viral infection. My red blood cells were like literally dying off. They were like zombie cells, and they were dying and clobbing together. And my blood was so thick that my heart couldn't pump it through. Anytime my heart rate got up, I was doing something physical, my heart uh couldn't pump it through like my extremities and all over the stuff. And then I'd have these attacks where I get all weird, and then I'd just chill out, let my heart rate come back down, take some uh ibuprofen or aspirin or whatever it is, and it would it would go away. But it it got to where at 155 it would happen every time. I could time it like clockwork. I'd watch my I'd watch my heart rate when it gets to 155, boom, it would happen. Long story short, I called my best friend, I was like, Man, I think I'm dying. Because this doctor was like, I don't know, I can't help you. And I was like, I think I'm dying, man. And uh he's like, Did you call Dr. West? And I said, No, I who the, you know, what do you mean? He's like, Well, you know him. I said, Well, I thought he was just a chiropractor. I don't know. Like, we had one of these, so I did these like business networking events and stuff like that, and I met him at this deal, but I assumed he was a chiropractor. I didn't know what he was. Well, he's like a like a um uh uh autoimmune specialist. And I went to him and 45 days later, uh, I was like breathing fire again. I did 15 treatments with him, um, and they're very holistic. There are no chemo, radiation, none of that crap. And uh what I had would eventually turn into cancer, and uh he got it flushed out of my body. Now I can't eat like I used to eat. I'll still, I still I don't eat perfect, but I don't drink sodas very often. Maybe, maybe, maybe one a week. You know, I I'm not eating chocolate every day, I'm not eating cakes every day. I'm I'm really trying to dial in and not eat tons and tons of bread. I will still have a piece of bread, I will still have pasta, but it's very, very mild. And the cool thing about this doctor was only guy I ever seen in history, most of them want to pull your blood and run it through a blood panel, and they'll take their piece of paper and their clipboard and they'll read the report. This guy pricks your finger, you put it on a slide, and he looks at a microscope in front of you, with you there in the room, and it goes up to a big like screen TV, and he actually analyzes it your cell in front of you while you're there, so you can actually see what's going on. Wow. I went up there, did 10 treatments, and then at the end of 10 treatments, they prick your finger again, and um they they run it, and you can see the cells. Like after 10 treatments with them, you look at your cells, and they're like healthy and normal, and all the zombie cells are gone, and it you can actually see it, and then you can feel it. You can you start to feel better and do things. And so I go back about once a year for a checkup, but I remember laying on the uh operating table right before I uh before they put the gas on me. I was like, I was like, if I have to go meet Jesus today, like what's the number one or what's the things I wish I would have done? Like, number one is obviously more time with my wife and my kids. I love them to death. I mean, I'm not good at a lot of things, but I feel and really try to be a good father. Like I I really, really work hard at that. Yeah, number two was like, I wish I would have been, and I'm still working on this one, a better friend to people, where like I slow down just a little bit and like, hey, how was your day? How are you doing? Yeah, you know, instead of just going, going, going, going, going, which I'm still a work in progress at that, and I'm I'm trying to get better. And then three was I wish I would have rodeoed longer. And when I got healthy, I flew from the from Dr. West Clinic in Pocatello, Idaho to Nebraska and bought fancy, the one I just won the rounds of Houston. So, like there was no grass growing underneath my feet. I called my wife, I said, Hey, uh, I'm not retired anymore. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna rodeo and I'm gonna make the national finals again in my 40s and I'm gonna do this. She's like, honey, you don't have your health. You don't own a horse. You don't have concerns. I hadn't rode a horse in a year and a half. Uh, I didn't have a truck and a trailer, I didn't have a rig. And so it was, she was like, because I mean when you're rodeoing, it's everything just to get all those once. And once you sell out, you're done. Nobody makes comebacks in rodeo and does good, like it's too hard. And so I really had to prioritize my practice, my horsemanship, my body, my health, my flexibility. Flexibility is mostly, you know, people are like, what are you doing? Um, I start with a sauna every day. After that, I run sprints on the treadmill, and then after that, I stretch. That's literally my entire workout. Uh, because I need flexibility in my 40s. I'm still most of y'all know, like old men are strong as hell. Like they'll shake your hand and put, you know, the old men are like as far as like strength, they're they're they're so strong, but we lose our flexibility and our speed, our ability to use our legs. And so that's really what I have to work on at this. Other than that, it's just horsemanship and and making sure my horses are dialed in. But that's kind of the the whole thing that brought me back. And then to come back and win Cheyenne last year, it was like it was amazing to me because it was an emotional roller coaster. I competed, I think, 23 times at Cheyenne, only made the short go one time, and I came back the last guy to win the championship and mess my run-up to lose the championship the year that I retired. So I thought I was done. I thought I would never have another opportunity to win the daddy of them all, and then to come back after you know a hiatus of several years and then win it again is like wow, man. If you want to do something and you feel like God's on your side and you're diligent and focused and you have effort, man, anything is possible. Anything's possible.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing. How are you feeling now? Since everything's gone, feel excellent.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I recently actually bought my own microscope and got my whole own set up. And hopefully, next week I'll have it all set up in a room where I can test my own blood to visually see where I'm at, because we can do like the blood markers and the blood panels, which I still do with Dr. West. But I was like, hey, I want to do this by myself.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And if I can do it by myself, I can also test my horses, I can test my cattle, I can do all this stuff. And so uh, you know, as a doctor, he can't say that I can do this or not do that, and he didn't give me permission or tell me to do it. I was just like, I want to do it for myself. So I'm hoping next week I can actually start testing my own blood. But as far as like and visually, just visually testing my own blood.
SPEAKER_01Right, right.
SPEAKER_02But physically, I feel amazing. My energy levels are really high. Um, and the only thing I don't have in my 40s is that all night drive, uh, like driving, competing the next morning. So in rodeo, you'll compete at one rodeo, get out of there at like 11 p.m., and then 800 miles away, you'll have another rodeo at like 11 a.m. the next day, and you'll have to drive all night long, get in about an hour before you can compete, get ready and go. And I just can't do that anymore. I did I tried it last year, and it's just it's just too much. I can't do it. Um, but other than that, I mean, I'm as I feel literally as good as I did in my 20s at this point.
SPEAKER_05Well, yeah, and I would say because I think the first round in Houston, did you catch a stirp or something? But you went down, yeah. I was thinking of myself, if I did that, I'd still be laying there.
SPEAKER_02Well, you want to know something else. I went to Houston, but what you didn't see on the TV was I went to Tucson a couple days before. And Tucson's a long road, like it's 15 hours there, it's 15 hours back at Tucson. You know, you're running like 25 to 35 miles an hour when you rope the calf, like you're going wide open. I did the same thing two times in a row at Tucson. My hips were so out, like my one leg was like that much shorter than the other one. I landed on my shoulder and jacked my shoulder up. So I hit the ground out of five runs. I missed two calves, I missed two and hit the ground three times. And that's freaking rodeo for you. And because then I come back and I win Houston. So it's not about hitting the ground or losing or being sore, it's about how well you get your ass back up and keep moving forward. And I believe what Houston was for me, it was pretty cool because I just got off Tucson, I wiped out, got my butt kicked, felt old as hell. You know, when you hit the ground, you get up a little slower in your 40s than you do in your 30s, and then I go straight to Houston and kick ass. So it's like it's like you're still gonna wipe out, you're still gonna suck, but in rodeo, the most thing that the only thing that matters is getting up and keeping moving forward. But I was pretty damn sore for about two weeks. Not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_05Well, and and this week you gotta finish it off or this coming week.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I go to uh yeah, I compete on uh uh at Houston on Tuesday next week, and then uh Thursday, Mercedes, Texas, down on the border, and then back to Houston. So we're going and blowing.
SPEAKER_01You're going and blowing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um biggest victory. Now, when I say victory, it doesn't even have to be like a win, yeah, just something, something that you remember that was such a victory in your in your soul.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think having a great family is my best victory. I mean, if we're not throwing that, I mean it's easy to say God and family. Like I think almost every man would say those two things. Um, but like just watching my kids grow, you know, I got great kids, they're so much smarter than I was, and they're you know, well, their parents are together, you know, and there's no alcohol and there's no violence, and there's no not that my parents are bad people, they're awesome, but they you know, they were raised by veterans that didn't have father, you know. I mean, they just didn't they didn't go into World War II and go into Korea and and then enlist in Vietnam and all this stuff. Like, my parents didn't have a fair shake, so I didn't do any of that, I didn't go to war. So being able to like be home and be a father and then put good manners into my kids and like watch them develop into amazing human beings, like my nine-year-old, she says some of the most profound things. I'll be like, honey, I'm I'm so sore, you know. I'm because I mean I get sore, I'm I'm sore, like it hurts bad. And she's like, But dad, she's like, you know, uh, if you have Jesus in your heart, he can heal you, and you can go on and you can go win, you know. So it's neat watching your children have that foundation to talk about the Lord, to lift you up, to give you wise counsel, and uh it's that's my biggest victory, you know. Obviously, my wife uh is is my best friend, and my wife and my children are definitely my most amazing victories in life, I think, other than Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, family, and then all the other stuff after that. The child curses yeah, the toughest defeat. Oh, um, when I was uh in 2005, I was living in the backseat of my truck, yeah, and uh I had no money. I mean, when I mean no money, I had no money, and I had borrowed everything that I could from banks and credit cards, and I lost all their money too. And I had uh one rodeo, I had enough money to enter one more rodeo. I was living in the backseat of my truck, and it was raining outside, it was cold and wet and rainy in Alberta in May. And if I didn't win the next day, I was like, my dream was over again. I'd already lost my life savings a couple years earlier, and then I was trying to do it again, and then I lost all that money again, and so I just I felt like in the beginning there were so many failures, and it all kind of piled into that one where I was like that night, I was like in the backseat of my truck. I just cry into myself. I'm like, how, why am I such a failure? Like, why does this keep happening to me? How come I just can't figure this out? Yeah, and I just kept going. I called my mentors, I called my father, and they gave me some sound advice. And I went and I I uh won uh third in the first round, fifth in the second round, second average that rodeo won $4,500. And I placed at 19 out of 20 rodeos after that night. That night was the lowest point of my life to one of the hottest periods I ever had, and I went on to win a championship in Canada, the first ever American to win a Canadian championship that year. And so, just for anybody watching, like if you're going through hell and it's hard and you don't know like how you can take one more moment, just focus on the next step. Because usually when it's the hardest and it's unbearable and you don't think you can take any more on the other side of that, just not very far is where all the glory starts to take place. And I've noticed in so many instances in my life because, like I said, I'm just a dumb Irish kid and I'm not super smart, uh, but I learn really good through putting in a lot of reps and hard work. That's my style of learning. And I um in the real estate business, I lost my tail, uh, nearly went completely bankrupt and broke in that until I figured it out about 10 years ago, and then it really compounded quickly. Recently, in the cattle business, I started a feedlot this year, and I have lost my tail in the cattle business. But now I'm starting to get things kind of figured out and how to make it make money and how to be profitable. In the beginning, I was like, go as big as we can, buy hundreds of cattle, all this stuff. And and and when sickness comes in, you can't stop it, you lose a lot of them. A lot of them die really fast, especially if they're not straight. And so I'm learning and I'm adapting. And so for me, I don't get as emotionally scared now when crap's really hitting the fan like I used to, because I'm one of those guys that jumps in and figures it out as he's going. I'm not a I'm not one of those slow guys that's like, oh, we'll just do, you know, and that's a good approach, probably far better than me. I'm like, let's put a half a million bucks in and jump in with both feet and figure it out as we're going to the workout, um, which scares my wife to death. But we always seem to figure it out, you know. Um so understand that the glory is on the other side of the massive failures and losses, and really without those losses, you don't learn because you don't learn from success. Yeah, that's what everybody likes to talk about on these podcasts. You learn, you learn from the failure from getting your tail kicked. And to me, it's like a testament of if somebody's really a man or a cowboy or really hungry for successes because they keep going on the other side of the failure.
SPEAKER_05So that's what they say, the darkest hours just before dawn, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_05So we got a nice flow. I'm gonna run inside, grab my charger. My laptop is dying. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01Well, I know Roy knows all this story, so while he's going, I'm gonna ask a little bit. Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_03Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Roy's fine. We'll we'll we'll get back to Roy. You have an incredible relationship with your wife. The two of you have built so much together. Can you can you talk to us about like the businesses that the two of you have and and how that works?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you know, everybody wants to talk about like work. Life balance and I don't believe in that one bit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I used to. I used to try to be like, I'm done at this time, and it works cut off, and it's but I really want a work, life, and family mix.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I just want to know where the priorities are. So my priorities are my wife and my kids. But my business and my roping and my horse, everything weaves into it. I want my children involved in our businesses. They know about mom's clothing designs, they know about how everything works behind the scenes at the rodeo. So uh we do a lot of things. I buy and sell and trade land. I'm not a realtor, but I buy like larger tracts of land, like 50, 60, 70, 100 acres and above. And I cut them up and then I sell them in smaller tracks. Uh I love land. I think it's a great investment, especially if you can do things to improve it. Um, then we have the land thing. Uh, I built you know, custom horse properties and sold those. Um, I've had online businesses for about seven years. I did a lot of online businesses and a lot of online marketing. Uh, but I just got tired of being inside. It just I thought, you know, I can't stand being inside anymore. I just want to get outside and get in the dirt, you know. And I was doing that rodeoing, but it's just not the same. I love, you know, like a day like today in Texas where it's just gorgeous. I love being outside and breathing the air and being in the grass and seeing the trees. So that's really what puts me more to the land trading side. We have a silversmithing and a belt buckle company.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_02We've made belt buckles for uh Riley Green, Ella Langley. Ella Langley was just out here a couple days ago spending a day out here on the ranch with us. Um, we made you know you have friends, Tyson, that you can invite, you know. Yeah, next single, you know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, I will tell you, Ella is just the nicest lady. I mean, she's such a sweet girl. Um, my little girl, I didn't tell her, but that Ella's like, here, Praise, hold my phone, I'll forget it. You know, and my praise just had Ella's phone for like half a day. You know, my little girl, it was one of the sweetest scenes. We're walking from one set to another set, like not set, but like one part of the ranch to where they were going to shoot on the other part of the ranch. And my six-year-old just runs up to her beside her, and this little kid with brown, bouncy hair, and grabs Ella's hand and they start holding hands and they're walking and talking and risins, looking up at Ella. And Ella's like, Hey, tell me about you know, because they were talking about dance and you know, singing and all this stuff, and you're they she was just so so classy, so classy. Um, and we we shot a new music video uh with her, Shay and I make a cameo appearance as well as uh Dale Brisbee's in it, uh Wade Bowman, uh the all the Texas country guys, JB Mooney's in it, uh, but it'll be coming out here pretty soon. But my point is we do a lot of different business. We got the belt buckle business, we got uh Shea Babies in about 3,000 stores nationwide, it's growing like crazy. Um, but we don't we try to do everything together. We try. Yeah, you have tons of you know, tons of things going on and lots of employees going all directions. Communication is key. Like last night we went out on a date, we went and watched uh I Can Only Imagine Two, which is a great Christian movie. Uh, and then we went down and had coffee and sat down and talked. And we talked about our family, we talked about the kids, what our future is, we talk about our businesses, and so we try to communicate as much as possible, but we are we're trying to build something together, yeah. And there's not there's probably very few times I've ever been like insecure in my masculinity because I have such a strong woman, you know what I mean? Like we we we compliment each other. I'm like, man, you look beautiful. I can tell how much effort you've been putting in in the gym. Like, you look amazing, and she compliments me. Like the other day, she came up to me and gave me a hug and said, You know, I'm proud of you for not giving up on your dreams. Like the best thing in the world because I'm like, it would be so easy at my age to not try to get out there and beat 20-year-olds anymore. But for her to come up and give me a hug and say, I'm proud of you for chasing your dreams, is like, man, that means the world to me. So we're just we try to work together and we recognize, you know, not to get too Christian on anybody, but I believe there's good and bad. And I bad, I believe the bad is represented by the enemy, the devil. And when we feel that enemy start to creep into our relationship, we're really good about like if I need to walk away, get a calm head, and then come back, we're very good about it because I don't want to say anything or do anything under mass emotion that I will regret forever.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So God's given us the discernment, and we're not perfect. And there are times when it's so hard. We're we're we're normal human beings like everybody else, but to have the faith in Jesus to know that hey, we can come back to this and we can say, you know what, yeah, I was prideful there. I shouldn't have said that. I am so sorry. When I was a kid, that never happened. Nobody said sorry in my house as growing up, but I'm like, how can I put my pride like completely away? And and she's very amazing with it too. Like, let's put our pride away. We're on the same team here. Rising tide lifts all boats, and how can we work together? And that's really how we do it, and we're busy. I mean, we work from 6 a.m. to midnight nearly every day. Um, and so, but that's okay. I think God created us to be busy, we're supposed to be doing those things. It's like the some of the most miserable times of my life when I feel like I'm not like testing myself and I'm not pushing my back up against the wall, and I feel like uh I have unchecked potential. Like God's like, hey, I gave you that talent for a reason. You're not supposed to be watching, you know, YouTube get up and go do something, you know. And so I feel the most alive, and and I believe that's how my wife feels as well.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and uh good, uh it's good that y'all go on on dates, right? So uh and and you do take trips with your family a lot, I said you know, to Florida or the islands or wherever, and I think that's good, is it's good to work, yeah. But going back to the Bible, I think it was Paul said, What good does it do a man to work his whole life and lay up treasures, yeah, and not enjoy life? Right. So many people say, Oh, I need money for my retirement, I want to work, work, work. They forget family, forget their spouse, and life passes them by, and then they can't enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02So, my favorite memories of my life prior to my own family was spending time with my mom's family, and I've seen both sides of it because as a kid we had no money. When I we had no money, when I mean no money, like we go for weeks without electricity, we would not have food, I would have to go find food. We had no money, and my mom never took a government program, she just would not do it, and so we would go to like my mom's side of the family, and there was you know, eight, one she's one of the eight, and each one of those eight had kids, so the family things would be huge with nothing, no money. Uh, uncle would give us you know sleeping bags, we'd sleep on the ground, and so no matter what financial situation you are, you might see you know, my wife or myself post videos of like at some island somewhere on a yeah $25,000 vacation. That's only now, y'all. That's not the majority of my life. I'm in my 40s. Back then, it was like going fishing with my uncles or going sledding on a trash can lid because that's the only sled we had, and so it's about working hard but having fun, like Roy said. And you don't need money to have fun, you just need a joyful heart and a joyful, you know, family and joyful people. And uh I will say it's nice being able to travel and do some stuff, but we didn't have that forever. I mean, it's only in the last couple of years, and we live in a very nice home and a very nice place, but it's only the last couple of years we stopped buying our stuff from Craigslist. Like we used to buy all of our furniture. I mean, that the main couch in my house come secondhand from a dude that paid 20 grand for it, that I paid him two. So I got the look of a 20 grand couch, but I paid two for it, and that's like literally been my entire life is like that. So you don't have to, you know, spend a bunch of money. It's not about money, it's about joy, it's about finding a way and uh just creating memories and experiences that create time blocks in your mind. Because if you're if you do the same thing like repetitive, your mind will erase it. You only will remember it if you create memories and experiences in your brain. So I'm all about creating those, like Roy said, and living with joy, and and anybody can do that, whether you're rich or you don't have much, or you're working for you know 18 bucks an hour, 15 bucks an hour, or you're making 10 million, you know, you can do it anywhere.
SPEAKER_01Joy in your heart. That's it's so true. I want to get into what the future holds and what's next step, but before that, producer Britt, uh we've got a mixed public, right? Uh, we've got probably half rodeo fans, maybe a third Western lifestyle, a third harness racing, and a third rodeo. I would love to take a little peek at like past performance um of a rodeo that you've been into. Um producer Britt, do you mind? Oh, it's the man in the pink shirt. I'm so glad. Yeah, let's could you talk us through this this run? I think this was the American. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_02Let's see which one this is. Is this the final round? Yeah, it's 6.95. I think it is.
SPEAKER_01I think there's I think both goes are in this video. I think this is the first go. You'll know.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'll tell you right now, I felt called this day. This was a special day for me. Um, this is the 695 run. I actually borrowed that horse from a friend of mine. Okay. With cash and prize, I went about 146,000 that day. And this is 2014. 146,000 went a long way back then. Um, I didn't have hardly any money when I made that run. We had recently bought our farm, our little our first place in Weatherford, Texas, and we uh didn't hardly have any money. But walking into that arena that day, I felt the presence of God all over me, and I knew I was gonna win it. That doesn't almost never happen, but it happened to me that day. And um that run was my first major, major win as a professional rodeo athlete. And one of the memories that I'll always have from that run was my wife, after I made that run, ran up to me, jumped on me, and gave me a big like, you know, like where they put their legs around and you give you a hug and all kinds of stuff. And I remember the joy that I got from her in a little sports hack for anybody that's ever out there. If you've done something where you've made your family, your husband, your wife, your father, your mother so happy, and you've made like their day or the month, you need to hold that memory in your brain and play it over and over again before you compete at the next competition.
SPEAKER_01Right, I love that.
SPEAKER_02And that's one thing I've I've always done was I use that memory. Uh, I use the memories of my children just like after Cheyenne running up to me and just giving me a big, massive bear hug to propel me to put my mind in a state to win at the next one. And um, that was a that was a huge run for me because I I didn't have any money, and I actually won an Americ uh American Ranger that day. I still have it. And uh it it was just huge for me, and that can happen to anybody too, just anybody watching this, like your life can be like that too, and it doesn't have to be in the roadie arena, it could be like buying that first house, or it could be like fine, like dreaming of owning a horse and finally getting that horse, you know, or you can relive those those things because remember the things that you take for granted, you and me, other people are praying for right now, yeah. Yeah, and so you know, I could say, Oh, it's just the American, it's yeah, it's what 12 how many years ago, 12 years ago, something like that. But how many people were praying for a big win like that? So it's very special, special for me, and I think a lot of people can can learn from that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and I don't know if you realize it, but that video there, the late great super looper was comment commentating on was he really? Yeah, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02I would love to hear that commentary, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, moving on from here to the end of the year. Do you have tell us a little bit about your schedule?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, just rode on. Like I'm going hard. I'm going hard really. About uh June on, I'll be at a competition every day from June, July, August, September. Um, goal is national finals rodeo. I'm set up in a good position to do it. Um I typically don't go to so it's right now in the standings, you'll see like a lot of guys at the top that you maybe won't see later in the season. What happens is the new season kicks off October 1st. Yep. You have all these young guys or guys trying to get qualified for some of the earlier rodeos, so they'll burn up like 10 or 15 rodeos right at the front. Yeah. And so you'll see some of these names that you don't note up at the top, and then you'll have a guy like me that won't hardly go to anything. I'm gonna go to the big ones, and that's it. And I'm gonna save my rodeos because as rodeo athletes, you can only go to so many rodeos, you can only go to 80. So if I burn up 15 or 20 right at the beginning, it might look really good, but it's they're gonna pass me later in the year. So what I do is I rodeo uh all the big ones early on, Denver, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, just the big ones. And then once we get through the into like May, June, then I'm gonna go hard and I'll finish strong at the end. That's how I do it. But we're going hard, we're gonna make the national finals. Um, I really have felt like even years ago, I told my wife, I was like, I want to be a four-year-old badass. You know, like that, because I remember like, you know, make meeting ex-military guys or something when I was younger, and they'd be out like running five or ten miles, and they just they were just gritty and tough, and and I was like, Man, I want to be like that guy. And so obviously not in a physical standpoint, but in the rodeo arena, I want those young guys to look at me and say, man, that guy, that guy's another level. And I'm doing it not for my own pride, but I want to show my kids that at whatever age, whatever stage, you can still achieve greatness and to never give up on something that you really want, no matter what it is, whether it's rodeo or it's you know building a church or a business or whatever it is, never give up, never ever give up. So I'm Rodeon. I want to do it as being an example for people, a source of inspiration for my wife and my kids, and and uh we'll do it this year and then we'll see what next year looks like. I don't, I don't know. I'm not gonna, I'm just gonna take it one year at a time and we'll go from there. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_05Hey, you mentioned coffee earlier. There's a the good friends of mine, good friends of ours, uh, they're actually Texans, they sponsor this show, Cow Puncher Coffee. Oh, cool. Yeah, you really need to try this probably the best coffee I've ever had in my life.
SPEAKER_02I will uh I will you got some at your house? I do I'm gonna I'll come over and we Roy and I live close together, so I'll come over and have a cup of coffee with you. I would really try some cow puncher coffee for sure.
SPEAKER_01Hey, producer Britt, can you roll that line out for cow puncher for us?
SPEAKER_00Thank you to our great sponsor, Cow Puncher Coffee. For the day, it isn't just a cup, it's a kick in the saddle. Bold, smooth, and built for early mornings and long days. It fuels the kind of determination that gets work done. Rich flavor without the bitterness, strong enough for the arena, smooth enough for the porch. Find it at cowpunchercoffee.com.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Texans are Texans, right? Nice. Where are they? Where is that cowpuncher coffee in East Texas? East Texas. Nice.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's incredible. I we uh it was we we had the opportunity to meet Jim and his wife. Uh they own they own Cow Puncher, they're an absolute blast to be with. It's a great product, and we really we were really excited. Uh Tyson, we're gonna roll some quick fire questions at you.
SPEAKER_02Do it. Let's get it.
SPEAKER_01All right, favorite movie Cowboys John Wayne. What plays in the truck while you're driving down the road?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, um, it's a mix between 90s country music, uh between mid 80s to 99 alternative and rock. So from ACDC to Nirvana, uh, and then I will throw an occasional early 2000s hip hop beat in there. So I'm gonna have everything. Yeah, but it's my area is like 2000 and before. Those are the kind of the music I really like to see.
SPEAKER_01Or you like it with you real quick.
SPEAKER_02Uh, like I was thinking about right now. My favorite thing I like to listen to right now, this very, very moment. Uh Cody Johnson. Okay, love me some Cody, uh Laney Wilson, Ella Langley, Riley Green. Like those four people, like if I could just have them on repeat in my truck, I'd be totally satisfied.
SPEAKER_05It's did you hear Blame Texas, Cody Johnson, the one that just came out? Uh uh. You gotta listen to it. It just came out. I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_01I haven't heard him yet. Um, what is your what would be what's your ideal walk-up song when you're going into the box?
SPEAKER_02Uh, it's always been ACDC, uh, back in black.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I like it.
SPEAKER_02I almost changed to a completely black shirt this year, uh, from the beginning, like no more pink, just jet black, and then when they paid back in black, but my wife wouldn't let me do it, so I decided wasn't worth the argument.
SPEAKER_01Um, early bird or night owls. Seems like you're both.
SPEAKER_02I'm actually both. I don't like to stay up late and I don't like to wake up early. So who's your biggest cheerleader? And now I I will do both. I will definitely do both.
SPEAKER_01Who's your biggest cheerleader?
SPEAKER_02My wife and my family.
SPEAKER_01Toughest critic.
SPEAKER_02Oh, my wife, for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh pet peeve of yours.
SPEAKER_02Laziness can't stand. I cannot stand people who are lazy and or move slowly. I need to work on that because I know some people can move slow and get a lot done. Uh, but I'm I'm very much a fast mover, and I and my dad, man, my dad would whip the tar out of me with a rope if he ever caught me walking. Like if I was doing something, I needed to do it at a jog. I was not allowed to do it at a walk. So uh slow moving or lazy people.
SPEAKER_01Okay, last one. What was your last impulse purchase?
SPEAKER_02Oh man, um which one? The truck. Oh well, I bought a new truck yesterday, actually. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_01But was it that was an impulse, was it?
SPEAKER_02But I did when I retired, I bought an electric F-150. Um, because I was so sick of paying gas bills, yes, gas. And I though I really liked the truck, it was not for me, and um I lost a fortune on it when I sold it. So that was the worst impulse buy I've ever had. I would not do that again because I would I thought I was almost bought a Tesla truck too, because I'm like, they're bulletproof, like I could literally be getting shot at, and it's no problem. So I haven't done it in a while, so yeah, that's the worst one.
SPEAKER_01That was that's a big one. Oh my gosh! Well, I I just have one last question, but I'm gonna save mine to the side. Roy, do you have anything else for Tyson before we wrap up?
SPEAKER_05No, not to not to ask Tyson, but uh a lot of people uh viewing this say no, he's a world champion here. Many people don't know you're a three-time world champion Canadian, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Canadian champion, right?
SPEAKER_02And you're the first one to ever do that. That's not Canadian. Yeah, yeah. I did that because I when I moved from Missouri to Washington State, my mentor, we only were at his ranch, it was like maybe 85 to 90 miles from the border, and I could go to all of those rodeos so close, and I wouldn't have to travel like 20 hours here, 50, all of them were within like 10 hours, and so I started going up there. The cattle were good, they actually paid more monies than the American rodeos. So the American rodeos back then, now it's changed. The American rodeos pay more holes back then. Canadians paid two more monies everywhere than the Americans. So I had a mindset was like, let's just go make solid runs, and if I win lower, at least I still get a paycheck. Yeah, you're walking away with something, walking away with something, and that's how I was able to do so well. And and I I spent uh about six years, I went really hard up there. I won the Canadian Championship three times. Uh, my best friend, uh, the best best man in the start is from um Scandia, Alberta. And so I got a lot of great friends from up in Canada and absolutely love it. I hadn't been back in many years since pre COVID, but I I'm hoping I can get back up there this year.
SPEAKER_01All right, so I'm gonna wrap this final level. One of the reasons that Roy and I kind of decided to get together and do this is we have always loved the stories of legendary horsemen, incredible rodeo folks, harness racing champions. And we just kept saying the bottom line is the same. These guys work like crazy, their horsemanship is incredible. They never stop moving forward and they're and they're progressive mentally. They always want to make their sport and their game better. Um have you ever had the opportunity to sit behind a harness horse? No.
SPEAKER_02No, never had the opportunity. No, ma'am. No. Okay. The crazy thing about me, I like up until a couple probably like five years ago, I never did anything else. Like anything. Like I couldn't swim until I was like 26, 27 years old. I didn't do anything other than rope and ride horses.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh I'm now getting to that stage where I'm doing other things and finding joy and other things. So I would love the opportunity one of these days to do that.
SPEAKER_01All right. So if we get you up here and and get you a couple training sets, you're ready to go. Well, make sure you got a helmet on so your insurance doesn't get upset.
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't need to race. Heck, I could just jump on and go for a spin.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, we'll go slow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01We'll go slow training sets. We're we're in a we're between Roy and Timmy, you're safe.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I got the best in the business. So perfect. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, Tyson, your time means so much to us. We want to send you off to 2026 with a big good luck. Stay safe. And thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
SPEAKER_02You guys are so very welcome. I hope I can inspire somebody to go out and chase their dreams because it worked out for me, and I know it can work out for everybody else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Well, thanks again from the bottom of our hearts. Good luck, and you stay safe.
SPEAKER_02Thank you all. Take care.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_00That was another episode of Under the Lights with Ash and Roy. Thank you to the sponsors and Cowpuncher Coffee for this episode. Whether you're headed home from the arena or just getting your day started, we're glad you spent some time with us. Around here, it's all about the stories behind the grind. We want you to be part of the story too. So comment, connect, and follow right here on this platform. And don't miss a hook. Wherever life's got you writing, stay tough, stay true. And we'll meet you right back here next time, Under the Lights, with Action Raw.