𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐓 | 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝟎𝟗

𝘞𝘺𝘢𝘵𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘴, 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨

Wyatt Fields has only been steer wrestling since he was 20 years old.

Which is kind of wild considering his dad made the NFR five times.

You might assume that growing up with that kind of rodeo résumé in the family meant Wyatt was destined to follow his dad into the arena. But his dad never saw it that way.

He never pushed Wyatt toward rodeo. If his son wanted to bulldog, he figured Wyatt would eventually find his own way there.

And for a while, he didn't.

Wyatt chose baseball.

He played for a year in college before something shifted. Within the span of about a week, baseball was out and the idea of trying steer wrestling was in.

Then things escalated quickly.

HIS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

When Wyatt finally told his dad he wanted to give bulldogging a shot, his dad laughed.

Then he sat him down.

If Wyatt was going to do this, they were going to do it right. No half-assing it. His dad had been to the NFR five times. He knew what the sport demanded, and if Wyatt was serious about learning, he would take him as far as he possibly could.

It was tough love from the beginning, but Wyatt couldn't have asked for a much better mentor.

A month later, he had a horse. Three months later, he was asked to join the college rodeo team. Suddenly, the kid who had been playing college baseball was a bulldogger.

Minor adjustment.

BASEBALL TO BULLDOGGING

The transition came with a pretty significant culture shock.

Baseball gave Wyatt practices, games and a schedule. Rodeo handed him the reins and essentially said, figure it out.

He had to learn where to enter, where to go, when to compete and how to build a season for himself. At the same time, he was learning the mechanics of a sport that asks a cowboy to leave the back of a running horse, catch a sprinting steer and bring it to the ground as quickly as possible.

Steer wrestlers have a reputation for being some of the biggest guys in rodeo. Think less stereotypical cowboy and a little more NFL lineman.

But size alone isn't going to get the job done.

For Wyatt, so much of bulldogging comes down to timing.

There’s horsepower, positioning and core strength, but there is also a moment that is much harder to explain from the grandstands. Wyatt has to feel what the steer is doing before he ever hits the ground.

There are a whole lot of variables packed into a run that lasts only a few seconds.

And when it goes wrong?

Well, Wyatt summed up the physical aftermath pretty efficiently:

Anything that moves on his body is sore.

IT TAKES AN ARMY

For an event with only one cowboy's name next to the time, steer wrestling is surprisingly dependent on everybody else.

A bulldogger needs a good horse underneath him and a hazer running alongside the steer to keep it moving straight. There are guys working the box and helping push cattle. Calf ropers, team ropers, pickup men and other cowboys can step in when somebody needs a hand.

Then comes one of Wyatt's favorite parts of rodeo.

The cowboy helping you might be the same cowboy trying to beat you five minutes later.

They'll help one another get the best possible run, then climb on their own horses and try to put a faster time on the board.

It is competitive and cooperative all at once.

That brotherhood is part of what hooked Wyatt.

THE STEADY CLIMB

The last few years haven't been one straight shot upward.

There have been good runs and bad ones. Hard stretches and great ones. Wyatt has had to learn how to take both and keep moving.

Because he'll tell you bulldogging is 100 percent mental.

Wyatt lives, eats and breathes this stuff now. He isn't afraid to fail simply because somebody tells him he isn't good enough. In a sport with this many variables, failure comes with the territory.

You have to be willing to get back on the horse and try again.

And slowly, the arenas started getting bigger.

San Antonio.

St. Paul.

Then Rodeo Houston.

RODEO HOUSTON WAS A TURNING POINT

Houston gave Wyatt something he hadn't necessarily had before.

Validation.

There he was, competing in the same arena as some of the best steer wrestlers in the world.

Only a few years earlier, he hadn't been a steer wrestler at all.

For Wyatt, RodeoHouston was proof that this thing he decided to try at 20 wasn't just something he enjoyed doing.

Maybe he could actually go somewhere with it.

Maybe he already was.

NEVER HURTS TO HAVE A LITTLE LUCK

Skill, horsepower, timing and a strong mental game will get you pretty far.

But Wyatt isn't above accepting a little help from the universe.

There are rules.

A cowboy hat on the bed? Absolutely not.

A $50 bill? Bad luck. If he gets one at a gas station, he's breaking it immediately.

A $2 bill? That one stays.

Then there's the gas station order: peanut M&M's, Red Bull and Gatorade.

And you'd better hope the M&M's have plenty of green ones. Those are lucky.

When you're voluntarily jumping from a running horse onto a steer, you probably don't turn down whatever additional help you can get.

THE FIRST PHONE CALL

For all the independence Wyatt values, there is still one person who usually gets the first phone call after a good run.

Dad

Wyatt calls him with the news, and his dad generally takes it from there, spreading the word to the rest of the family.

Wyatt? He's perfectly content with a little peace and quiet.

There is something fitting about it.

His dad was the one who refused to push him into rodeo in the first place. Then, when Wyatt finally chose it for himself, he became the person helping him navigate it.

And now Wyatt is getting ready to enter an arena that connects their careers in a new way.

TWO SADDLES

Wyatt has qualified for his first Texas Circuit Finals.

That accomplishment would mean plenty on its own.

But his dad won it back in his day.

He still has the saddle.

Wyatt thinks it would be pretty cool to win one himself someday and put his saddle next to his dad's on the mantle.

Two saddles. Two careers. Two different paths into the same sport.

There are bigger goals beyond that, of course.

Wyatt wants to qualify for the NFR. He wants to chase being number one in the world. And looking further ahead, he can see himself starting a business training horses specifically for bulldogging.

For somebody who didn't start until he was 20, he's making up for lost time pretty quickly.

But maybe “lost time” isn't really the right way to look at it.

Wyatt found steer wrestling when he was ready to find it.

His dad could have pushed him toward the arena years earlier. He didn't. He let his son play baseball. He let him choose his own direction. He trusted that if Wyatt really wanted to rodeo, he'd eventually gravitate toward it himself.

And when Wyatt finally did, Dad was there.

Not to make the decision for him.

To show him how far he could take it.

Maybe Wyatt started late.

Maybe he simply started when he was supposed to.

Either way, somewhere between college baseball, a horse bought a month later, a call to Dad after a good run and the hope of someday putting two Texas Circuit saddles side by side, one thing has become pretty clear.

Maybe bulldogging was in his blood all along.

YOU'RE WELCOME TO TAKE A SEAT.

Take A Seat is an ongoing portrait and editorial series by Corrigan Content Creations, LLC, documenting the competitors, characters and people behind rodeo.

Because everyone deserves a good picture of themselves.

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