BILLINGS — What's scary about the 2024 PRCA rookie header of the year in professional rodeo is that Tyler Tryan was far from his best.
“I missed a lot of steers to be honest. I didn’t really rope that great but, I guess good enough to win it,” Tryan recently told MTN Sports while in Billings competing at the Wrangler Team Roping Championships at First Interstate Arena.
And he did it without the tip of his right thumb, which he severed while roping a couple years ago.
“Kind of life changing, a little bit. It’s a weird feeling … you don’t want it to happen to anyone,” Tryan said.
Tryan is the eldest son of three-time PRCA world champion header Clay Tryan, who’s always called Billings home but raises his family in Texas where team roping weather is more friendly. That's where Tyler honed his skills, though he doesn't necessarily recall the first time he climbed aboard a horse and threw a rope.
"I don’t remember, but I’m going to assume it was really young. Probably about six, seven years old,” he said.
The 2024 rookie of the year race was seemingly never in doubt for this 18-year-old who closed with a little over $78,000 — more than double the runner-up. The high point of Tryan's season was actually just down the interstate from Billings.
“Probably winning Livingston, to be honest. It’s a tough rodeo to win, we had a good steer and we won it,” he said.
That win paid over $4,000.
Of course, the end goal for most PRCA competitors is reaching December's big party at the National Finals Rodeo. Tryan would likely be there if not for a slow start to the season.
“I was too far back (in the money standings) to start the summer. I could’ve made it if I had roped better, but my main goal was to get into (rodeos in) Houston and San Antonio — get in the top 30 in the world,” he said.
And he nailed it. Tyran finished No. 25, meaning he’ll likely hit those high-paying stops shortly after the new year.
That said, Tryan has been to several National Finals watching his dad win world titles. He smiled at a cell phone picture taken several years ago at the champions reception in Las Vegas, while he and his younger brother flanked their father, one on each leg.
“Oh yeah, I remember it was a fun night for him. I probably had a better night than he did but, yeah, I was probably around (age) 10 in 2013 or 2014,” he said.
The photo was indeed snapped in 2013 after Clay Tryan earned his second world title.
Now grown up and blazing his own trail, it’s safe to say Tyler Tryan is eager to take a fresh picture at that NFR champions dinner.
