In 2008, Stran Smith won a Gold Buckle as he claimed a PRCA Tie-Down Roping World Championship. Today, he is family man along with a businessman and a rancher with a day to day that includes testing new pieces for STS Ranchwear and keeping the family ranch running smooth.
Smith’s rodeo career was unconventional for a timed event cowboy. He spent more time in a hospital than most when he had a stroke, experimental heart surgery, shoulder surgery, and a few more injuries and surgeries that once cost him a Gold Buckle by just a couple thousand dollars. But in 2008, it was finally his time to take what he had been working for.
“Ended up winning it in 2008 and came down to the last calf and it was all caught on tape whenever (my wife) Jennifer actually told me that I had won it. It was a really cool story for us,” Smith said.
Looking back, Smith says his career was one of perseverance and never giving up on your dreams. Although he always knew rodeo was not a life long career, Smith put his faith in God and his family so that when his time inside the arena came to an end, he would never look back.
“The one thing that I try to live by and I have tried to live by is be content but not satisfied. And I am content with where God has me and I want to stay that way but I’m not satisfied to stay here,” he said. “I want to do better, I want to be better. I want to use whatever He gives me, whatever opportunities to be able to be the best version that He’s created me to be.”
