Two-time World Champion Team Roper Patrick Smith grew up in town always wanting to have a horse. It was when Smith’s family moved in with his grandparents in the country and his new neighbors advertised riding lessons that Smith hit the jackpot.
“I was 16 years old and I’d never been on a horse. I started taking riding lessons, fell in love with it, I didn’t know anything about team roping,” Smith said.
Smith says once he got going, it was addictive and he fell in love with heeling. He even got a job at Chili’s to keep it all going.
“So I started heeling and competing and winning. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire, I fell in love with that even more,” he said.
Smith bought a horse instead of a truck and that same horse would carry him to his first World Title in 2005. He would win the World again in 2010 and today, he is a $2 million team roper.