From an elbow injury that almost ended his career to becoming a world ranked Professional Bareback Rider, the Caldwell Rodeos' Jacob Lees shows tenacity.
Every summer, thousands of rodeo fans across North America watch cowboys and cowgirls put their skills to the test in sports like barrel racing, steer wrestling, tie-down roping and the most rugged of them all — bareback bronco and bull riding.
“It's more of like a cage fight in the rodeo game,” said Jacob Lees, a Caldwell, Idaho native ranked second in the world for bareback horse riding.
It's one of the most physically grueling events in the rodeo circuit and is so difficult, that the gold standard is to last less than ten seconds, what feels like forever when trying to stay on a thousand pound animal that does not want you there.
“It's like bidding in a car crash for eight seconds every time you get on,” said Tracy Renk, from The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the leading competitive rodeo organization in the world.
Muscles are stretched to the limit as the animal jerks them around.
“It's a violent event because of like your neck and all the muscles and everything you have to use.”
Riders hold onto a leather handle strapped near the horse’s shoulder blade, called a riggin.
“A rider clenches close against the rigging handhold, tries to keep his legs flailing in time with the broncs’ jumps.”
Competitors have to keep one hand in the air and use all their strength to stay on.
“Their feet are straight out, and they just go, they go basically in motion with the horse, and their body stays parallel to, like, their body stays on top of the horse.”
The earliest bareback riding competitions date back to the beginning of the 1900s in Wyoming and Colorado. Cowboys would “break a bronc” by training untamed horses for farm work.
Today, ranch rodeos feature working cowgirls and boys competing in things like ranch skills like trailer loading, team branding and wild cow milking. But bareback riding is in a professional league of its own.
“That's something that was kind of invented through the rodeo realm years ago, but it doesn't have any actual ties with Workday Ranch duties.”
Professional riders compete against each other for prize money and the top athletes can bring home tens of thousands of dollars. Money aside, Renk says rodeo competitions are different from other cutthroat sports.
“It's truly the Western way of life of guys. Just just a handshake means a lot. And they're just out to help each other, it’s really refreshing.”
That camaraderie might come from cowboys knowing how tough those five to eight second rides can be.
“You're really taking a lot of punches and you a lot of them, you just got to take on the chin and, uh, you just got to keep on rolling with it,” said Lees.
He began his rodeo journey in college, competing in both bull and bareback riding. He chose to focus on bareback, where he developed his riding style, making his way up the rankings.
“One day you're on the you're on the top, you're winning the rodeo, and the next day you get on a different horse and get bucked off.”
Lees broke his arm a few years ago, causing nerve damage. That injury almost ended his career.
Now recovered, he’s grateful he can still compete. And he’s done well.
“The biggest lesson is just to, I guess, be humble.”
Lees says people may romanticize the sport and the cowboy lifestyle, but competing means he’s often away from his family.
“I'll do about a hundred events a year, if not more. So I'm on the road so, so much. And you know, we, we miss a lot to live this life.”
Bareback riding has taught him to not take anything for granted.
“In rodeo nothing comes easy and you just got to keep after it and you're going to, you're going to have a lot of a lot of downs, but they just make the the upsides so much better when they come.”
Lees outlook has gotten him far. In 2024, he won the Indian National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas honoring his Alaskan Native heritage.
“Whatever you tell yourself is what will come to be. So if you, if you have a bad ride or a bad go, you just gotta forget about it, learn from it and move on.”
He hopes to make it to the National Finals Rodeo, known as the “Superbowl of Rodeo” this December. He's already qualified twice and recently finished second at the prestigious Calgary Stampede.
