Evan Jayne grew up in a small town in Southern France on the French Riviera as the son of trick riders. When his parents started working with an Italian rodeo company, Evan was instantly hooked.
He grew up dreaming of making it to the NFR and begging his parents to let him go to Texas to learn to be a cowboy. At the age of 16, he got his wish and moved to the Lone Star State as a foreign exchange student. Jayne immediately joined high school rodeo and the following year became the state bareback riding champion, which earned him a full ride to Sam Houston State. He rodeoed in college for years and got his degree in business science. “And after that it was just kind of moving up to the pro ranks and living the American dream,” he says.
At the age of 30, Jayne finally made it to his first National FInals.
Qualifying for the NFR was I mean just the thing — all I could see when I was 16 years old was yellow bucking chutes,” he says. “It’s still surreal to me that 15 years later I was able to nod my head in that arena. There’s no feeling like it.”
Jayne retired from rodeo when he broke his pelvis (although he did enter a few in 2019) and he admits he would still get that third qualification. “Who knows, maybe I convince my wife to go back for another year?” he says with a chuckle, quickly adding, “I don’t know. I enjoy being healthy.”
Now Jayne lives in Glenrose, Texas, where he lives with his wife and two girls running Sky Box Cabins, golfing and rock climbing in his off time.
Sky Box Cabins consists of five luxury treehouses that Jayne and his wife built on a hilly 50 acres in Glenrose as places for people to unplug and unwind. Each uniquely designed with romance and modern amenities, the cabins book out months in advance and have even being featured in publications such as Southern Living and D Magazine.
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