Meet Clayton Price | Professional Horseman

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clayton Price and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clayton, how do you think about risk?
Risk became a part of me early in life. Like my arms and legs risk moves me forward and sets me up to do the next thing.

I climbed over the chute and onto the back of my first steer when I was eight. Truthfully, my passion and determination over road any thought of risk in that moment. Focusing on following the instructions of the seasoned cowboys helping me get out filled any remaining space in my psyche. It wasn’t until a near fatal accident six years later at Junior Rodeo Finals that the opportunity to make risk a choice would begin to present itself.

Despite, or rather due to, having spent two weeks in the hospital, partial paralysis of the left side of my face, and an emphatic ban on any future bull riding from my previously tentatively supportive parents, I knew I had to get on again. I knew I could not allow fear or risk to control me now or it would forever.

I recall being in class and hearing kids talk about the accident. Comments like “That’s so dangerous” “He looks like he does because of a bull” and “It’s so dangerous he shouldn’t have been doing that” wafted through the suburban classroom like a bad smell. By contrast my closest friends, some of whom had actually witnessed the bloody accident, encouraged and supported me to do what I felt I needed to do. What a contrast. Mind the company you keep. Risk takers are the minority.

Fast forward a year of my getting on bulls entirely unbeknownst to my parents, and I was back, standing over the bull chute in my white and green fringed chaps pulling my tattered buttery soft glove on and staring down at the heaving broad hairy table top that I was about to lower myself onto. Every time a thought of risk whispered I redirected the thought to what I needed to do next. The established chute procedures became the sole focus; climb down onto the bull, rosin the bull rope, put my gloved hand in the bull rope, position my rope hand on the bulls back, ask my chute helper to further tighten the rope, take the final bull rope wrap, slide up to my rope hand, and nod for the gate man. ‘Follow the fundamentals’ rolled through my mind on repeat. The fundamentals anchored me. Staying focused on the task at hand kept my mind and determination steady. Kept me steady.

I focused, got in the zone. From atop that massive bovine dragon I nodded my head to the gate man and the big metal gate swung open. The bull exploded out of the chute like a fire breathing mountain of muscle. A thousand pounds of living breathing rocket spun and bucked unpredictably beneath me. He bucked and I countered, he spun and I countered. Bull riding is one of the fastest chess meets meat-nado games out there. The only predictable factor was the fundamentals and I had a white knuckle grip on them that paralleled my grip on that bull rope. The whistle blew, the bull fighters jumped in to distract the bull and I ejected at the first best opportunity. They kept him distracted while I speed hustled toward the safety of the fence.

In that defining moment my confidence in the face of risk grew by literal leaps and bucks. I remember feeling like I could jump the moon. From that day forward risk would shape but not dictate my future. Period. No bull. I went on to qualify for high school state finals and won my district in bull riding that year. That buckle checked a box for me and I never rode bulls again, by choice, opting instead to make a career on saddle broncs.

My desire to be a rodeo athlete over road my fear, and, along with it the risk. To this day as a horseman, I manage risk by applying basic fundamentals and recognizing what I can control and perhaps most importantly what I cannot. Life and work can be reliably unpredictable. When a person sticks to the fundamentals and recognizes that risk is an opportunity it becomes a set up and not a set back.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I worked as a professional rodeo cowboy in saddle bronc and team roping for 18 years. Those skills proved valuable in the picture business both in front of and behind the camera. Working as a rodeo coach at Cal Poly honed my teaching skills and deepened my understanding of how people process risk in a competitive setting. I had the good fortune to spend six years as the horse handler for EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning) which opened my eyes to the incredible impact the human horse connection could have on less physical, more emotional risk. All of my work with horses regardless of the specific discipline continues to teach me the value of patience and the rewards of putting in the time. A lifetime of horsemanship has kept me hungry for more. More knowledge, more experiences, more life!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
No trip to Ft. Worth would be complete without a visit to the Stock Yards and Joe T’s but there are so many amazing restaurants in Dallas as well. A trip to Nick & Sam’s is a must. The classics like a show at the Bass Performance Hall and a walk through the Amon Carter Museum of course. Sundance Square and the Ol’South Pancake House. A little shopping in Highland Park and the Beretta Gallery (always something for everyone). The Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens if the season is right. A cutting horse or reined cow horse event at the Will Rogers would round things off nicely followed by dinner at Hard Eight. A night cap under the big tree on the patio at the Mansion on Turtle Creek is a hard to beat romantic spot.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to thank my Aunt Melba and Uncle Ken for unwittingly delivering me to the qualifying high school rodeo and then accepting my decision to get back on. And God for putting me in their car and care for the day.

Instagram: @pricehorsemanship

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Pricehorsemanship

Youtube: @pricehorsemanship3963

Image Credits
Elise Price (3,4,5,6th photos)

Sandy Wares (picture of saddle bronc leaping straight up) Sandy is deceased.

The last photo, team roping, is also a Sandy Wares photo.

The old photos were taken by friends or family members.

NOTE: the black and white photo of Clayton on a bull (2nd photo) is the second bull in the story. His first one back.