Firth freshman Ryder Wallace looks to professional career

FIRTH – It’s a cold, frosty afternoon at the Wallace home in Firth as Ryder leads Daz, the family wrestling horse.

It’s photo shoot time and Daz’s pen mates, a goat and another horse, wander around to check if there are snacks planned.

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

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

Firth High School freshman Ryder Wallace 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 gets a little agitated, but the photos are finished.

“There’s really no way to describe it,” Ryder said of the excitement of competing saddle and bareback, 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 about it, you just have to do it. Once you understand it, it’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.

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

But Ryder’s success and passion for rodeo could have been predicted much earlier.

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

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

“It’s a fifth-generation family ranch, so there’s a lot of opportunity to do that kind of thing, and being involved in ranching, rodeo and the Western lifestyle is the main force behind it all,” Katie said, pointing out that there was a fine line between wanting kids to participate in a 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 bad as anyone else because they have to put in the time,” she added. “We can carry them around and continue to set up practices and get training and schools, but if they don’t want to do it, they’re not going to put in the effort.”

Alongside Ryder, her 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. The families and friends she and Wade competed against back then now have children of their own competing, and the groups end up traveling in rodeo circles.

Winter is usually a downtime for rodeo, so Ryder trains on a spur board in the garage or on a mechanical crosscut machine that Wade restored. He also has a few bucking horses he can practice on once the season starts again.

Although he grew up playing traditional sports, from soccer to basketball and soccer, Ryder said he was involved in rodeo. He has been playing the sport long enough to set his sights on becoming a professional and earning a fairly good living in what has become his passion.

He also learned, like any rough-hewn cowboy, that it won’t be easy.

Ryder ended up in the emergency room after getting sideways on a horse and hitting his head during a summer competition. He suffered a concussion and had to leave rodeo for about six weeks.

“I was injured pretty badly and while I was recovering I was getting depressed thinking I wanted to quit,” Ryder said. “But I held on and I’m glad I did. It made me grow as a person and allowed me to overcome failures. It took a lot of reflection and reassurance to find hope and get back into it.

So what’s next?

The high school rodeo season begins later this year and Ryder will compete at a new level that he knows will be a challenge.

“You just have to work harder to get there,” he said.

Ryder got into wrestling and is currently on the Firth JV team. It’s another challenge that he hopes will prepare him for the future.

“It’s pretty much the same discipline (as rodeo),” he said. “You have to have the right mindset to get into a wrestling match or ride a horse. If you think right off the bat that this kid is going to pin me or I’m going to get rid of this horse, it’s going to happen. You have to have a good mentality to think you can win.

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

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

As Ryder noted, a strong mental approach is required for both as well.

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

Ryder said he wants to train and eventually compete in steer wrestling, and that’s where Daz comes in.

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