About: Ted

Kaycee Feild has reaped life-changing rewards from big-paying rodeo Four years ago, Resistol cowboy Kaycee Feild was going through a rough patch in his life. “There was a time there that I wasn’t winning,” said Feild, who, at the time, was a four-time world champion bareback rider from Genola, Utah. “At home, I lost my father and was starting a business, and there were things that distracted me; it made it really hard going down the road.” As one of the elite cowboys in all of ProRodeo, the downturn was unexpected. He didn’t compete at the National Finals Rodeo in 2016 or ’17, and he was relegated to trying to earn his big cash through a series of qualifying events for The American. It was unique for the second-generation champion, but he took to it because of the big carrot dangling at the end of The American’s hook. In 2018, he was one of a handful of qualifiers to advance out of The American semifinals and join the 10 cowboys that had been invited based on their finish in the 2017 PRCA world standings. The event pays its winners $100,000 in each discipline, but there’s a caveat: Those that had come through the qualifying regimen are part of the $1 million side pot. Even though he owned more gold buckles than any other bareback rider at the 2018 event at AT&T Stadium, he was eligible for that money. When he won the title, he was one of three qualifiers to do so in their respective events, so they all split the side pot while also pocketing the $100,000 first-place prize. “The $456,000 I won at The American that year changed my life,” Field said. “What I’m able to do now with that amount of money was a true blessing. It helped me become a better bareback rider and get back to my winning ways.” Since then, he has added two more world titles and another win inside “Jerry World” in Arlington, Texas. It was a financial boon, but that’s the reality of The American, which is expected to pay out $3 million on its final day, Sunday, March 3. Because no qualifiers won in 2021, the side pot rolled over and is $2 million this year. “It’s the icing on the cake and at the end is life-changing money,” he said. “It’s a no-brainer. Go jump through the hoops and get the big bucks.” The top 10 from the 2021 world standings are invited to compete at The American. In bareback riding, that will include four other Resistol cowboys: JESS POPE, 23, Waverly, Kansas: Pope finished second in the 2019 Resistol Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year race, then earned his first trip to the NFR in 2020; he promptly won the aggregate title and finished third in the world standings. He returned to the NFR this past December and won the average title again. He finished just behind Feild for the gold buckle. GARRETT SHADBOLT, 25, Merriman, Nebraska: Shadbolt had a terrific run at his first NFR in December. He finished fifth in the world standings and proved why he earned the 2019 Resistol Rookie of the Year title. That year, he earned his spot in the 16-man field at The American by coming through the qualifier. While he didn’t advance beyond that point, he gained solid experience. “The American is awesome, and it’s gong to be really fun,” Shadbolt said. “You know everybody is going to be riding their best out there. You can see it when you watch it.” COLE REINER, 23, Kaycee, Wyoming: Reiner was presented the 2020 Resistol Rookie of the Year award at his first NFR in Arlington, Texas. He won two rounds and finished fifth in the world standings. By doing so, he earned The American invitation and finished fourth overall. Reiner returned to the NFR in 2021 and finished seventh the world standings. CLAYTON BIGLOW, 26, Clements, California: The year 2016 was pretty big for Biglow. He won the Resistol Rookie of the Year award, then parlayed that into his first qualification to the NFR. That year, he won two go-rounds in Las Vegas. He has returned to the NFR five more times and, in 2019, set records in winning the world championship. Biglow has finished among the top five in the world standings three times. In 2020, he finished second at The American, worth $25,000.

Young tie-down roper says the right mental approach his is key to success Kincade Henry is the youngest of three children born to Chad and Melody Henry of Mount Pleasant, Texas. He and his siblings are close and always have been. Just a year and a half apart, it’s just the natural progression of their relationship. Jace is the oldest, having just turned 23. Kincade is 20, and their sister, Keely, is 21. Following in the footsteps of their parents, the Henrys were horseback as toddlers and itching to compete shortly thereafter. When a heart condition forced Keely to stop competing, her brothers joined her on the sidelines. “Me and my older brother said we’d quit rodeo because she couldn’t go,” said Kincade Henry, a third-year PRCA tie-down roper. “We wouldn’t go without her being able to compete, so I started playing baseball and really got into it.” He was just 8 at the time, and he made the conscious decision to move on with life. He transitioned his passion from swinging a rope to swinging a bat. He and his teams found success, but there was always something deep in the crevices of his own mind that just needed a bit of a spark. When doctors cleared Keely to return to rodeo a few years later, the fire was lit. “Before she got cleared again, we’d always go to the clinics at the Josey Ranch,” he said. “My dad learned to rope there, and he’s an instructor there now. We would just rope that one time a year when we went there. “When my sister got cleared, we just went back to rodeoing again.” Kincade Henry hasn’t stopped. When he became eligible to compete in PRCA rodeo, he did at age 18, but it wasn’t all biscuits and gravy; just weeks after he became a ProRodeo rookie, COVID shut down the world and rodeo along with it. The virus-shortened season – one he’d hoped would end with a National Finals Rodeo qualification – forced his hand and led him back home 31st on the money list. “I think I was so young and stupid, I didn’t care at all,” Henry said of his rookie campaign. “I thought I was still going to make it to the NFR. I was optimistically ignorant. When I got out there on the road, it hit me pretty hard that I wasn’t prepared for it and that I didn’t have the horsepower for this. That was rough. I took that harder than anything.” Each missed opportunity was a lesson learned. From the rodeo trail, he returned to east Texas and transitioned to college life as a student at Panola College in Carthage, Texas. He is still taking classes and is part of the men’s rodeo team, which finished second at the 2021 College National Finals Rodeo. In fact, it’s there that he’s gaining a new edge to his competitive nature. Panola, which won the men’s team title in 2019, is coached by Jeffrey Collins, the 2000 bareback riding world champion. While riding bucking horses and roping calves are part of rodeo, they are vastly different concepts and competitions. “I was planning on going to McNeese State, but a friend told me to come check out Panola,” Henry said. “I fell in love with the coach, Jeff Collins. It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made. He’s really helped me with my mental game most of all. “Jeff doesn’t know a lick about calf roping, but he’s had his back against the wall and had to ride out of it. He’s been in pressure situations. He’s already faced every factor I see myself in with my future when it comes to competition.” Henry has already seen some adversity. After realizing that the horse he rode in 2020 wasn’t going to work, he invested into horsepower to kick start the 2021 campaign, but that, too, didn’t go as well as he expected. “I rode that horse all winter, but by the time February came, I realized it wasn’t going to work out, so I was back on my little bay that I rode in 2020,” he said. “I went into the Fourth of July sitting eighth in the world.  I figure that I’m set up; I just have to finish. “But I didn’t do it. I still didn’t have the horsepower. Guys let me mount out. I had opportunity after opportunity to make a move, but it was the little things that happened. I roped a back leg to win a couple thousand here, or I broke a barrier to win a couple thousand there. Looking back, there were so many ‘couple thousands’ that I missed out on from the middle of July to the end of September that kept me out of (the National Finals Rodeo).” The NFR features only the top 15 contestants on the money list at the end of the regular season; Henry was 18th. He had crisscrossed the country, ridden other people’s horses and came within a few thousand dollars of earning his first bid to ProRodeo’s grand championship. “I took it hard, but I didn’t take it as hard as I did the first year,” Henry said. “You get that mindset that you can compete with the best guys in the world. When you realize it’s all over, you step out of that mindset a little bit. I called Jeff and Tuf (Cooper), and they helped me realize that I was 19 years old, and I finished 18th in the world; I’m OK.” Yes, he is, and early in the 2022 season, Henry is proving it. As of Feb. 7, he was eighth in the world standings. He has a long way to go, but he’s in the game at this point and has adjusted his approach as necessary. He leans on the words of motivational coach Tim Grover: “No emotion; just energy.” “I feel like if I have any emotion in my head when it’s time to compete,  Continue Reading »

Injuries may have slowed cowboy a little, but he’s building toward his future Injured reserve is no place for a cowboy. Rodeo athletes have no guaranteed contracts. They don’t have million-dollar signing bonuses. Money only comes by winning it, and there’s no chance at winning a paycheck if they’re not in the competition. Bareback rider R.C. Landingham had missed two ProRodeo seasons over the last four years. He was looking at a partial third year in 2021. He’d earned $6,000 from Jan. 1 to June, and finances were tight at home in Hat Creek, a tiny community near the Lassen National Forest in northern California. It’s a home he shares with his wife of two years, Bliss, and their 7-month-old son, Wynn. “I got in the rig in June, and I told my traveling partner, Clayton (Biglow, the 2019 world champion), that I was going to have to make some money in a hurry,” said Landingham, 31. “ ‘If things don’t turn around over the Fourth of July, I’ll have to go home and get a job.’ If you’ve been around Clayton any, you realize that’s not in his mindset. “We made a joke out of it, and things finally turned around. It’s crazy, even for rodeo. For six months, I couldn’t win a dime, then I couldn’t not win. Maybe I picked up on things, fixed some things by just working on it at home that made a big difference. It saved my year. I was about to go home and ended up having a really good year.” Yes, he did. He earned his third National Finals Rodeo qualification, finishing the regular season with a little more than $72,000. That put him in the No. 13 position in the world standings heading into the 10-day championship in Las Vegas, where he placed in seven go-rounds. He shared the Round 4 victory with eventual world champion Kaycee Feild and earned just shy of $109,000 over that special 10 nights. “That was the best finals I’ve ever had,” said Landingham, who also played on the sport’s biggest stage in 2016 and 2017. It was actually during the 2017 season that things started going downhill for the California-born cowboy. He suffered a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder, which is his free arm. He rode through the end of the season and at the NFR, then opted for surgery. There went the 2018 campaign. He hit the rodeo trail again in 2019, but that didn’t last long. He went back under the knife. “I don’t know if I came back too soon or what, but I never really felt 100 percent,” he said. “It got torn apart again, and I had the laterjet surgery.” That procedure was done to restore stability in his left shoulder joint, but that, too, didn’t hold together. “It ended up breaking,” said Landingham, who didn’t ride in 2020 after having surgery in November 2019. “I think I came back too soon, maybe did too much therapy. I broke the bone and the screw in half. They came back in and did another surgery and made sure I took it really easy. It was a slower healing process, but thankfully I came back stronger. “Throughout those three years, I rode hurt the entire time. I had that thought in that back of my head that it was hurt. Now, to be able to get on and not have it cross my mind is a blessing.”   His pain-free approach showed inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. It was a shining moment in a time he needed it, and much has changed in his life and his livelihood since Landingham started competing in ProRodeo 13 seasons ago, and a great deal of that has happened over the last five years. “My rodeo life has completely changed,” he said. “I used to be a kid that rodeoed for the fun of it, the adrenaline side of it. I never took it into perspective that it was my job, that I was doing it for a living. It was how I made my money, but I didn’t take it as serious as I should have back then. “I was with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, when I got hurt the first time. Being hurt and at home and seeing her worry about the future and what life was going to be in store for us … it gave me a perspective on what I was going to make of this career.” It was a flip of the switch. He went from a kid in a candy store to a grown man with a plan to build on what he’d learned and what he could do with a better diet and being in better shape. Bareback riding isn’t for the timid; it’s the most physically challenging event in rodeo. “I finally got my shoulder fixed, but at that point, we still didn’t know what was going to be come of it,” he said. “I knew I was going to have a chance to ride again, but we didn’t know at what level. I wanted to build my body the best I could to ride at a top level. “We’re not just cowboys anymore; we’re a bunch of athletes now. Everybody works really hard at this job. You have to be at the top of your game and in the best possible shape.” His adjustment came when Landingham realized he was riding for more than himself. He now has a wife and son that depend on him, and his purpose shows with his flashy long legs spurring bucking horses. He and Bliss have known each other for several years, dating back to high school. They began seeing each other in earnest in 2015. From losing his mom to cancer to battling through the injuries, she’s weathered the storm by his side. “She’s been through all the ups and downs, between rodeo and family and  Continue Reading »

A torn pectoral sidelined bulldogger, but not before he made a statement Cody Devers walked in to the Thomas & Mack Center in late November, he felt that adrenaline rush that every first-timer experiences when he arrives in Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo. He’d done everything he could to prepare for his moment on ProRodeo’s biggest stage. Truth be told, a lot of NFR veterans feel that rush every time they meander through the yellow Priefert gates and onto the dirt, but there’s nothing quite like that first time. He looked around the arena, taking in all that he could. A cowboy never knows when he might return to this championship, so he may as well take in all the sights, sounds and smells he could. He’d earned the right to be there, and, by God, nothing was going to stop him from making steer wrestling runs inside that legendary building. On opening night, he rode into the arena during the grand entry, tipping his cap along with the others to acknowledge the rambunctious crowd and its support of the cowboys on parade. Twenty-five minutes later, he nodded his head to make his first run at his first NFR. Within seconds, he knew he was in for trouble. “Whenever I dropped in the hole (between his bulldogging horse and the steer), my pec felt tight and when I grabbed the steer’s head, everything was perfect,” said Devers, 26, of Perryton, Texas. “Right as I was about to go forward to the nose, I felt it pop. Even as loud as the Thomas & Mack is, I still think I heard it.” Let’s back up about a month, because that’s when everything went south at the Cooks Days Rodeo in Lubbock, Texas. He partially tore the muscle during a run. He didn’t get to finish the rodeo, and he started his rehab assignment in order to be ready for the NFR. Apparently, there was more to his injury. The pop was his first indication of trouble. The pain was his second. “It was a pretty intense pain,” said Devers, a Cinch endorsee who attended both Garden City (Kansas) Community College and Northwestern Oklahoma State University on rodeo scholarships. “I went into the Justin Sportsmedicine room, and (Dr.) Tandy (Freeman) evaluated it and told me that it was, for sure, a torn pec.” Despite the pain, despite the difficulty mounting his horse, despite the inability to properly lift the rein with his right hand, much less grab a steer’s horn, Devers pressed on. He turned in times in Rounds 2 and 3, then was unable to even throw his steers on Nights 4 and 5. His mind and his heart told him to continue; his body told him to stop. He finished his 2021 season after his fifth-round run at the NFR, one that saw him so limited by measures set to protect him and his damaged chest. The Justin Sportsmedicine team tried to tape his right arm in a way to allow him to compete. Devers still had difficulty making anything work. Dressed in a bright-pink Cinch shirt to honor cancer awareness on Pink Night at the NFR, he tried to lunge for his steer but didn’t have the capacity to even reach for the animal. “I’d worked so hard to get there, and it’s been one of my life’s goals to compete at the NFR,” he said. “I also didn’t want a torn muscle or a torn tendon to hold me back. If I think I could compete, I was going to try. “What made the decision for me was not being able to get the start I needed. The Thomas-&-Mack start is so fast, and it’s hard even if I’m healthy. I couldn’t physically put my hand up enough to cue my horse to get the start we needed. I was behind every run. It’s got to be a perfect go for me to catch a steer, I realized without getting a good start, I wasn’t going to be able to have a perfect go.” Still, he proved to be one of the toughest competitors, if not the toughest, at the 2021 NFR. He couldn’t sleep because of the pain, and he still found his way into the saddle every night knowing full well he was in for a world of hurt when he dismounted a fast-moving horse onto a running steer. He arrived in Las Vegas 11th in the world standings with $67,715, and all he earned at the NFR was the $10,000 every contestant pocketed for qualifying. His dreams of a big Las Vegas jackpot drifted away with his chest, right shoulder and right arm thumping in pain. Devers had surgery Jan. 3, by Dr. Chris Miller of the Kansas Orthopedic Center in Wichita, Kansas. During the process, Miller drilled a hole into bone and attached a suture anchor, which was then sewn to the tendon. He had a checkup nine days after surgery, and all looks to be healing well in the early stages. “We’re shooting for five months after surgery, which would be the first of June before I’d be ready to go,” Devers said. “I’d like to maybe start back at North Platte (Nebraska) or Reno (Nevada). If possible, I’d like to go to Woodward (Oklahoma).” Woodward, which is scheduled for June 9-12, is about 100 miles from his family’s home north of Perryton, so that would be a great place to make his return to the sport he loves and, even in pain, already misses. “It is nice being home a little bit; I just wish I could do more,” he said. “I’m dang sure missing it. I love these winter rodeos. There are quite a few in Texas that aren’t very far from me. I like going down to those, camping out for a couple days, seeing everybody and easing around. “It’s a lot different than the summer when you’re constantly going, running at two rodeos in the same  Continue Reading »

Lifetime of lessons helped build team roper into a world champ Pressure makes a steam engine work; as the pressure builds, the engine goes in motion and creates a force that drives the machine’s purpose. Over 13 years, the pressure continued to build in team roping header Kaleb Driggers. From his first run in 2009 through his nine qualifications to the National Finals Rodeo to his four runner-up finishes to the world championship, his head of steam kept arching toward that red line. The pressure has often built ever so close to the relief valve, that Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. Time and time again he was on the verge of a reprieve, only to watch it fade away in someone else’s arms. In 2021, he walked away from the NFR with the wearable rodeo trophy. “It’s a little nerve-wracking when you come so close and don’t quite get over the camel’s back,” said Driggers, 32, of Hoboken, Georgia, now living in Stephenville, Texas. “To finally get that done, it was definitely a little pressure relief.” He first finished as the runner-up in 2012, his second season to advance to Las Vegas. He followed that up with second-place finishes in 2016-’18 – three straight years of being just behind the titlist. In 2016, he watched his heeling partner, Junior Nogueira, become the first Brazilian world champion in ProRodeo history when Nogueira won the all-around gold buckle. This past season, though, the longtime partners were able to snag gold together. “It means everything,” said Driggers, a Cinch endorsee. “A guy is always happy when he wins the world no matter what, but I feel bad for the guys that have split titles because you’ve spent all year roping with your partner and don’t get to enjoy it together. It’s so much sweeter when you can do it together. We’ve been close four or five times, and to finally pull it off is incredible.” What’s it like being a world champion? “I don’t know if it ever really sinks in,” he said. “There are times that it hits me and kind of brings a tear to my eye, but it’s a lot of pride.” He’s not puffing out his chest in any regard. He earned that world title. He and Nogueira entered the NFR second in the world standings, then pocketed $143,896 over 10 December nights in the Nevada desert. They placed in six rounds, including the fourth-round title, and placed third in the average. Driggers finished the campaign with $263,227 and well ahead of his runner-up, Erich Rogers. “In order to win rounds out there, a guy has to take a little bit of a high-risk shot,” Driggers said. “I was trying to stay away from that; I was trying to take a higher percentage of shots. When you have the best 15 guys going at them, you know you have to stay in your comfort zone but still take a calculated risk when you can.” He’s learned that through a lifetime of swinging a rope. Driggers was raised around the sport, the son of a horse trainer who roped. Driggers’ uncles and cousins roped, and there were arenas within a mile of his family’s house that allowed plenty of practicing opportunities “I’d say my dad is the one that probably shaped me, along with my mom,” he said. “They’ve always been there for me. When my dad had to do shiftwork and couldn’t go to the rodeos, my mom made sure I got there. Their support was a huge deal for me growing up. “Brad Culpepper introduced me to ProRodeo. I was a rookie, and I made dumb, rookie mistakes, and he was the guy that helped me with that stuff. Every partner I’ve had has added a piece to me. There’s not just one person that’s stuck out the most. I try to take a little bit from everyone’s opinions and figure out what works on my own. “Speed Williams has helped me with my horsemanship. He’s given me tips on how to use my hands and legs better. There have been a lot of people that have impacted my career, even to the people that allow us to stay at their places while we’re out rodeoing and give us a place to practice throughout the year. They’re all important.” That includes his wife, Nicole, who trains and runs barrel horses. She understands the work it takes and the hours spent practicing and all the other little things that come with competing at a high level. Along the way, each person has made an impact on who and what Kaleb Driggers is today. Just in ProRodeo, he’s teamed with some of the greatest in the game, from Culpepper to Jade Corkill to Travis Graves to Patrick Smith and now with Nogueira. Each run he’s made with each man has taught Driggers something about himself, about being a cowboy and about being a teammate. In essence, he’s a reflection of them in some capacity. “There is no substitute for experience,” he said. “Everything you can think of, good or bad, it feels like we’ve done it. We know what works and what doesn’t, and we learn from that. We know in situations you get in that you have to overcome it a little bit. From the first time I made the NFR to now, I’d like to think I’ve learned a little bit.” That’s what makes this gold buckle special. Every experience he’s had played a role in finally winning the war. It’s nice to win battles, because this is how he makes a living, but the world championship is the prize for which they all strive. “The No. 1 key to me winning the gold buckle was my partner,” Driggers said of Nogueira. “He didn’t make one mistake. He was 100 percent, and that definitely helped us. He helped me keep a level head and treat each steer for what it was and rope each steer from that. I  Continue Reading »