Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I was always riding around the ranch, you know, I was doing mutton bustin' or
riding ponies or anything around the ranch but uh
my moms got a picture of me riding a calf when I was 5 years old
and I think that was the year first record
me riding in an actual rodeo.
I think it's interesting people always ask you how you got started
ranching or rodeoing or bull riding.
It's funny for me, I've done it my whole life
I think, you know, when I was still in diapers my dad was puting me on horses
and
when I was 4 or 5 years old, I had three older brothers and they would stick me on
anything around the ranch so it's something I didn't grow up into
I've just always done it.
He started out when he was
you know we've got videos around here when Jet and Cord was like 2 and 3 helping me
gather cattle.
I mean he's been riding horses his whole life.
The first buckle that he ever won was in the 5 and under stick horse race. Actually I've got five kids and and all 5 of 'em rodeo but
not near as long as Jet and Cord. You know the fact that they've been
very successful in pro rodeo
and PBR and so forth, it makes you very
you know makes you very proud. You know, I didn't expect any less.
I never expected not be successful.
We went to our first rodeos when we were 4 & 5 or 5 & 6 and
we've always been on a ranch and then later on as we get into junior rodeos and
high school rodeos and then
eventually professional rodeos, it seemed like there was a
big part of our life that we still ranched and had livestock
and did all of that stuff, but it seemed like rodeo kinda took up
the biggest part of our time. Riding in rodeos was just for fun all the way up till
I was 15 or 16 years old and then I started making a livin' riding bulls.
I got a full ride scholarship to go to Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
After I graduated college, I never did fill out a resume.
I just went straight on in the PBR. Cord and I, we competed in everything that we did,
it didn't matter if we were
cleaning stalls or feeding or riding bulls, we were always
each other's biggest competition and you know I think that really
they really helped he and I to be
competitive. We hauled our biggest competition around with us
and we kind of and I know Cord
was always trying to beat me and I was always trying to beat him and I know if
I could
out ride Cord, I was getting something done.
People always talk about Jet and I on "Amazing Race" and I feel like
you know we had so many experiences before
and now after the "Amazing Race" but you know Jet are I are
one year, one month, and three days apart and we have seriously done
everything together going up. You know if
Jet played baseball I played baseball. I went to a rodeo, he went to a rodeo.
When they told us there is a race around the world that was
a two man team and me and Cord compete together, for a million
dollars
that was pretty much enough said. We really didn't care what the
rest of it was, we just knew were competing for a million dollars.
But it was a neat experience. It was definitely,
if definitely broadend our horizons to be able to go and do that
and to be able to see the world in regardless of
you know whatever else came from the race, just being able to go around
the world twice is not something that everybody gets to do.
Well I gotta blame "Amazing Race" on Jet.
I was leaving Cheyenne Frontier Days and Jet called me up
and I remember it like it was today and Jet was like man
I got a great idea - two man team, race around the world, pays a million dollars
and by the time Jet got done with the phone conversation, you know Jet's kinda a horse
trader anyways,
you know, I was ready to eat whatever or jump off a cliff.
Jet and I work together a lot on the ranch. You know if he's a
you know sorting cattle or pairing up calves
or working yearlings, I'll go help him
and you know vice versa, if I'm bucking bulls here at the house and need some help
or
you know we got cattle out or whatever, you know, I call Jet so we kinda trade back
and forth.
It's a lot of help.
It's good to see you. It's good to see you. I see you've got your horse on. What all is the plan for
today? I see you've got a bunch of calves up.
We've got a bunch of calves we just weaned and
we've got some bulls and steers and heifers - all 3 of them and then there's the
two groups the calves that we're shipping in two different ways so we're gonna sort them a
of couple ways and
get 'em ready to go. I gotcha. Are these calves
that you've been watching over? Yes sir, there are calves that we've raised
here and we'll take these calves and
will have them 30 to 45 days weaned and then we'll
send 'em on from there. Well my horse needs lots of riding so
I'm ready.
This colt's actually, my dad raised him
Just a baby two-year-old and he's been to
to the pasture one time.
He's big and pretty, I know that.
That always helps.
Let's ride.
Do you say let's ride or do I say let's ride?
Well this breed of cattle,
they're Wagyus
it's a Japanese beef breed
and half of these are full blood
Wagyu cattle, and half of them are out of Angus cows
and Wagyu Bulls. So we're kind of the half bloods
We;re sorting the half bloods from the full bloods, yessir. And the importance of a
Wagyu is definitely not their
looks or appearance, it's straight about the beef. It's all about the beef.
These cattle, they've been they've been selectively bred for
however many years they've been breeding them over in Japan for one trait
and that's the quality of the meat.
When did you say lunch was? No doubt. Let's get cutting these things.
Let's go.
Yep!
I grew up on a ranch
in western Iowa with my five sisters.
My Dad and Mom raised cattle horses,
they still do, and my Dad also has a small feed lot there.
With five sisters, you know my dad
definitely didn't show any mercy cuz we are girls, we were
expected to do all comes with a ranching
lifestyle I guess. So anything from working cattle,
pulling sick ones, um baling hay, cleaning stalls, breaking colts,
all that fun stuff.
There are five bulls, six bulls
My youngest brother cord was always
helping out whether is was pushing cattle or riding.
Cord and I are very close. I helped to raise him
when he was a little boy. My older brother my brother
just younger than three years younger than me, Joe Ray, it was just the three of
us for a long time and then my parents had hoped to
to have another girl, another barrel racer in the family.
When I was 10 years old, Cord was born and
he was actually the second attempt. We had Jet and then they really didn't want Jet to
be raised alone so thirteen months later had Cord
and I help take care of both for them. I think if there there's two kids that's
closer alike, it's probably
me and Nikki but she's probably gave me more whippin's than my own
mom has. You know feel like she half raised us
so it's it's it's pretty neat and especially now we're both grown and
just to look back
and laugh at what she did or at what I'd done.
My family was very close. We work together, we play together
and now that we're all grown we've gone
different ways. I lived in Texas for about 10 years and
and then moved back to the southern Oklahoma
area. I'm I'm very happy that they all
live around here pretty close and yeah that's great, I get to see 'em all the time
and do stuff with 'em. You know it was a lot harder for me them leaving then it was
for them them to leave
because I don't have anybody to hang out with anymore now.
My wife used to tell me I was like a little kid waiting on the front porch for them get home
from school so we can go do something.
All of us are tied together pretty close.
You know it's neat, my
Dad lives in mile that way and the hospital I was born is just right down
the road
to the south and all of us
in a you know forty-mile radius a
my folks house.
I was working in Tulsa, Oklahoma after I graduated from college
and the PBR came to town and I'd never really been. I mean we knew it was that
sort of thing
but I guess my family wasn't a big follower of it and
my girlfriend and I decided to go and I called my dad the next day and I told
him that I went to the PBR
and he told me to be sure to tell Cord McCoy "hi." He knew him and
his dad and mom really really well. They did business together and that sort of thing.
This girl come up to me after the bull ridin' and said "hey you know
my dad told me to tell your dad hello" or whatever.
Of course I was like wow "who are you" and
One thing leads to another and next thing I know I'm engaged and
getting married and moving to Oklahoma. I've been chasing her ever since, I guess.
I've been married two and half years. Two and a half of
the best years of my entire life
for sure.
They seem to eat every day
Cord bought this ranch um years ago when he was rodeoing quite a bit.
He never spent a lot of time here cuz he was always on the road and
and then slowly as he would win money
and so forth would just keep buying stock and
improving the ranch and that sort of thing and
the more he starts to slow down riding, the more time we spend here
and just slowly try to make improvements with our with our
horse herd and our bull herd and
just our place, I guess.
You know there's a routine around here. Uou know the bulls
all have to be fed twice every day and feeding the horses so
you know half of your day is already planned before you can get up
and you know the rest of it seems to
seems to roll out pretty easy.
You gotta watch takin' my wife to a horse sale. She likes to
she likes to make purchase. I wasn't even up there but
went to a horse sale the other day and Sara she come back skipping
with a smile on her face said "I just bought another horse" so now I'm like oh boy
I wonder what she got.
She said you know a cutting bred mare,
just solid black. They let her through and said sixty days of riding and I said
they let her through with sixty days of riding.
So uh, I knew something was going on.
I'm riding this mare.
I'm gonna shut the gate.
Where you going? I'm watching.
Get in here so you can ride her. She's so cute.
Well that's not from 60 days of riding.
uh oh, uh oh.
Uh oh. Come on cowboy.
You've gotta stop buying horses.
Don't be looking at me.
She's a bronc.
He's not using that right hand, is he?
Thatta cowboy! She's cute, isn't she?
Good job sister!
Oh yeah, she's sweet. When I left the hitching post, I gave you a head's up I was coming
because I kinda sensed it in her and
I was just going to let her buck as she come around that corner there.
I'm glad I didn't
I'm smarter than. You coulda rode her easy Sara.
Since I rode your mare
you gotta bottle feed the calf.
I do that every day. I kind of acquired a new friend
the other day in the pasture. His mom I guess musta
weaned him off a little earlier, he acted a little sick so we decided to bring him home and
nurse him back to better health and a
the healthier gets, the faster he gets.
This cute little fart is not only a bottle calf but it was also a bucking bull.
The bull you see out there that everybody is scared of with the rope around his horns called Wedding Bells
is
is his daddy so he's genetically
built to be fast and mean but
Sara, she's got him going her way.
Trying to see if we can corral him over here.
Easy.
Easy.
Well that wasn't that bad.
He's getting a little tamer.
We're trying to wean him to some calf feed.
The white calf out there, he's our
heritage calf for next year. He's a full brother to one of
Seven Come On Baby thats in really good Futurity calf for us this year.
He actually broke his leg when we bucked him.
Cord still wanted to go ahead and enter him. We took to a doctor Newcastle
and he cast him up for I don't know how many weeks
we just got back home
It's neat because like in the last couple of years
Sara and I have got to ride some of the best horces and
in the country whether they be barrel horses or cutting horses,
reining horses but still each day we have a use for these horses on the ranch
so you know we're trying to take the performance horse
part of it and you know cross it back with some of our big stout
ranch horses that we've raised so you know it's it's it's a
I guess breeding in progress right now as far as what we're trying and seeing what we like
and cross it back and forth but we're definitely enjoying
the crops of colts that we've had the last couple of years.
We are very blessed to live a life that we do
we we love, what we do we love working with our livestock
we just give God all the glory and
thankful for every day.
He is a a fine example of what a man should be
as far as character and the way that he treats other people.
He's an excellent ambassador for the ranching life
and also for the sport of rodeo. Cord is definitely very passionate about the
Western
lifestyle and the western way of life and being a cowboy
he takes great pride in being a cowboy and I admire that about him.
You know his jokes and says if he can't wear his cowboy boots and his hat then he's
not
he's not going. You know it's just the this is a blessing and a very to have a brother you're that close to
and
and not only to be that close to but also to have the opportunity to do things
that we've done together.
Well he's Cord McCoy, you know that's the way God made him
He's not like anybody else. It feel like the further I go,
the more places I see,
and more people I meet, the more grounded I am
and definitely feel the importance
of the country way of life or of the Western way of life and
you know I I definitely want to share that that that idea and that feeling with
the rest the world.