It’s all about the rodeo lifestyle as Firth freshman Ryder Wallace sets sights on a pro career

FIRTH – It’s a cold, icy afternoon at the Wallace household in Firth as Ryder leads over Daz, the family’s steer wrestling horse.

It’s time for a photo op and Daz’s pen mates, a goat and another horse, ramble over to check if snacks are happening.

No snacks, just photos of a boy and his horse.

It’s early January so the life of a rodeo cowboy typically slows down for a spell, but not for too long.

Ryder Wallace, a freshman at Firth High School, talks about his recent accomplishments at the Junior Roughstock World Finals in Las Vegas, where he finished third in saddle bronc and eighth in bareback.

Daz fidgets a bit, but the photos are finished.

“There’s really no way to describe it,” Ryder said of the excitement of competing in saddle bronc and bareback riding, especially under the bright lights of Las Vegas. “There’s a lot of adrenaline, there’s muscle-memory, it takes a lot of preparation. You can’t think through it, you just have to do it. Once you get it, it’s one of best feelings I’ve ever experienced.”

Not bad for someone who started competing in rodeo just three years ago.

But Ryder’s success and passion for rodeo might have been foretold much earlier.

He’s the family’s fifth generation of rodeo competitors, and like plenty of ranchers and cowboys and cowgirls in the area, the generational influence for rodeo is strong.

Parents Wade and Katie competed in rodeo, as did grandparents and others.

“It’s a fifth-generation family ranch so there’s a lot of opportunity to do a lot of that kind of thing, and being involved in ranching and rodeo and the Western lifestyle is the leading force behind everything,” Katie said, noting there was a thin line between wanting the children to compete in rodeo and pushing too hard.

“Between you wanting them to do it, and them wanting to do it … They want to have to do it as badly as anybody because they have to put in the time,” she added. “We can haul them and keep laying out practices and get training and schools, but if they don’t want to do it they’re not going to put in the effort.”

Along with Ryder, his sister Kinsley, a seventh grader, also competed in Las Vegas and finished 17th out of 60 girls in pole bending.

With both siblings immersed in the sport, Katie said the community aspect has come full circle. Families and friends that she and Wade competed against back in the day now have their own children competing, and the groups end up traveling in rodeo circles.

Winter is typically a downtime for rodeo, so Ryder practices on a spur board in the garage or a mechanical bucking machine that Wade restored. He also has a couple of bucking horses he can practice on once the season starts back up.

While he grew up playing traditional sports from soccer to basketball and football, Ryder said he’s committed to rodeo. He’s been around the sport long enough that he’s set goals of becoming a professional and making a pretty good living at something that has become his passion.

He’s also learned, like any cowboy in roughstock, that it won’t be easy.

Ryder ended up in the emergency room after he got sideways on a horse and hit his head during a summer competition. He suffered a concussion and was out of rodeo for about six weeks.

“I got hurt pretty bad and while I was recovering I was getting down on myself thinking that I wanted to quit,” Ryder said. “But I stuck with it, and I’m glad I did. It made me grow as a person and overcome setbacks. It took a lot of reflection and reassurance to get my hopes up and get back into it.”

So what’s next?

The high school rodeo season starts later this year, and Ryder will compete at a new level he knows will be challenging.

“You just have to work harder for it,” he said.

Ryder has taken up wrestling and is currently on the Firth JV team. It’s another challenge he hopes prepares him for the future.

“It’s about the same discipline (as rodeo),” he said. “You have to have the right mindset going into a wrestling match or getting on a bucking horse. If you’re thinking right off the bat this kid’s going to pin me or I’m going to buck off this horse, it’s going to happen. You have to have a good mentality to think that you can win it.”

The physical aspects of the two sports also overlap, according to Ryder’s father.

“He uses the same core muscles he also uses in wrestling,” Wade said. “It’s a lot of core strength and arm strength.”

As Ryder noted, there’s also a strong mental approach required for both.

But for now, snow and ice take over the landscape as rodeo waits for another day.

Ryder said he wants to practice and eventually compete in steer wrestling, which is where Daz comes in.

On this day in mid-January, Daz and Ryder are relaxed and ready for the future.

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