The Wrangler Horse and Rodeo News

18 The WRANGLER, Horse and Rodeo News • May 5-19, 2021 On March 14 at the 2021 BFI, Clay Tryan regained his status as the highest-earning roper in the history of the Bob Feist Invita onal. During the latest BFI, at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, Tryan and Jake Long roped a leg on their fourth steer. In the fi h round, they knew a smooth run would get them back to the short round, where all 15 teams earn at least $8,000. But Long went off in the switch to give them a 5-second run, go-round money, and put them squarely back in the hunt for big money. "I didn't really know he was going to do that, but that was the best steer we had all day," said Tryan. "Making the short go is the same as winning a go-round, in money, but winning a go-round at the BFI is so hard; I think it might be the hardest thing to do for us all year long. S ll, we wanted to try to get back in there for a chance at a big check." They managed to inch from fourth callback to third in the six-head aggregate for $39,000 apiece, which pushed Tryan past Rich Skelton as the BFI's all- me earnings leader with $256,111. Tryan's latest six-head me without the leg would have won him his record fourth BFI. Nobody has won four. But he was content. "Any me you have a leg and make that much money, you're happy," he said. "Third's fine!" For headers, the total keeps him ahead of Luke Brown and J.D. Yates. Way back in 2005, Tryan had roped his six steers less than a second faster with Patrick Smith (not coun ng the leg penalty Cee How Ni y "Johnson" works every me for Tryan. BFI Photo by Olie's Images, LLC. Billings native becomes BFI earnings leader in 2021), but that was over a shorter score and riding Thumper – also named that year's PRCA/ AQHA Head Horse of the Year. This me, he did it on Cee How Ni y ("Johnson"), the sorrel gelding he bought from Trey Johnson. That horse was actually second for PRCA/AQHA Head Horse of the Year in 2019 (Tryan's horse Dew won the award in 2015). Johnson is by a grandson of a grandson of San Peppy, with no other notable bloodlines except a bit of Grey Badger II and Three Bars way back. "Johnson worked good," said Tryan. "He scores and runs hard and gets ahold of a steer's head quick. Plus, I can pull on him a li le if I need to. He's a li le ghter and quicker than he was when I first got him, but he's always been easy to get along with and easy to rope on. I've ridden faster and probably be er horses, but he's a solid, nice horse. I've ridden him as much as I ever rode Thumper." Tryan said he prepared more for the 2021 "Feist" than usual, including scoring some slow steers further than 20 feet and running them down. And he did something else a bit different in the Lazy E this year – packed his rope a li le further. "The BFI is like Salinas; you just head toward the steer and ride a while," said Tryan. "I've actually been watching old tapes to see what I used to do. You can get to swinging so much over a long score that some mes you swing 25 mes before you get there. So this year I took maybe four or five swings or, if it worked out right, just three swings. I just rode. I tried to be a jockey and a header all in the same run." The BFI is known for its extra-long scoreline, but regardless of what the steer does or how close to the string you were at the start, one thing ma ers. "You've s ll got to be able to catch," Tryan said. "My dad always said you should never miss when you run one that far. Heading is not that hard. You get out and turn them." Statements like that make one of team roping's GOATs easy to hate, much like Tom Brady. But when a guy has outworked everyone his whole life, it probably does feel easy. "Today, it's much different than when I won the BFI over 15 years ago," Tryan con nued. "We didn't have nearly as many jackpots then. Now, we're so jackpot-ready when we get there that it feels easy. The BFI is enter-once with a long score, so it's a slower pace. It feels easier." Except, that is, for the wai ng. Ask the winningest BFI team roper in history what factor most commonly prevents BFI ropers from winning, and he says it's not the hard-running steers or the scoreline that give people fits – it's staying focused for 12 hours. "The BFI is not hard," he said. "It's just hard to get through. It's the longest day of the en re year. I woke up at 4 a.m., or it felt like it, because it was the first day of Daylight Savings Time, so I felt like I didn't sleep at all, and I didn't stay in Guthrie, so I drove an hour to get there. You run a steer every two hours, so there is no groove to get into. That's the thing that makes the BFI so hard to win." How does Tryan stay focused? No big secret – he doesn't watch the roping. During the first round, he will watch the score for about the first 50 teams. A er that, he rides into the building about 15 teams before he's up. In between runs, he waters Johnson and es him to the trailer and hangs out. Then he does it again. Key, he said, is parking in the lot closest to the building. "Some mes you need to get away," he said. "At that roping, you don't need to watch the steers because you kind of know what you have when you nod. There's not much to it." Simple. The way Tryan likes it. Maybe that's how he makes mastering the BFI look so easy.

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