After high school I bought my PRCA permit and started making the rounds at professional rodeos. The step up from high school and youth associations to PRCA arenas was no small jump, but I was ready to test myself against better bulls and tougher competition.
Those early years brought plenty of challenges. Not long after graduating, I broke my femur in a wreck that left me with rods and pins in my leg. I even snapped one of those pins trying to get back on too soon at a practice pen. Injuries, missed opportunities, and a few hard lifestyle choices cost me chances I wish I’d handled differently — but I also won jackpots, rode at big events, and qualified for finals in youth and professional associations.
I rode bulls across Texas and beyond, and even had the chance to compete in Brazil and Australia. Along the way I collected wins, made the papers, signed autographs, earned and retained sponsors and learned that pro rodeo was about more than just the scores — it was a business but it was also about grit, persistence, and putting yourself on the line every time you nodded your head.
These photos and videos capture that chapter of my life: the big rides, the wrecks, the comebacks, and the lessons learned in and out of the arena.
Note: some of these images are screen shots from videos so the quality isn’t very good. Michael has video footage of some rides and no still pictures and has some still pictures of others with no video. There are well over 3/4 of his career rides he doesn’t have pictures or video of and unfortunately this usually happened during his bigger events that you would want both for.
