“You grow up in it, so you’ve already lived it,” Tryan said of the family name. “There are advantages, but you still have to work to get it done on your own.”
That part never changed. What did change, violently, was February 28, 2022 — his 16th birthday — at the Patriot Finals in Fort Worth. Roping with Denton Dunning, Tryan reached for a second steer, felt his hand go numb, and looked down to find he’d lost his right thumb. Ten surgeries and a year and a half later, he was still watching from the stands more than he was roping.
“I’d probably say more mental,” Tryan said of the recovery. “I didn’t get to swing a rope, and had 10 major surgeries on my right hand. The hardest part was just sitting there watching the ropings. There was a lot of waiting. It sucked, but waiting for the best possible outcome was the best option for me.”
He bought his PRCA card the day he turned 18 and went to work making up for lost time. By the middle of 2024, he’d taken the lead in the Resistol Rookie Header race and never gave it back, winning it by $39,000. His teacher through all of it has been the same one it always was.
“My dad, by far,” Tryan said of who he leans on most. “He doesn’t say too much. He mostly talks to me about how to keep my horses working good, and helps me with little things like my swing when I’m struggling or which horse to ride where.”
Undefeated: Tyler Tryan Wins 2024 Resistol Rookie of the Year by $39K
Cowboys Famous Guy — Butters, to everyone who knows him — took a longer road to Tryan’s trailer than most horses do. He’d passed through a Canadian heeler’s hands before Kaleb Driggers got him bought and sent him on to Clay, who had his son in mind the whole time. “I bought him for Tyler because he was 17 at the time about to turn 18, and the yellow turned out to be perfect for Tyler,” he has said. The horse isn’t easy — Clay calls him “no fun to ride unless you better be on your game” — but Tyler has made it work.
“That horse has changed my roping forever,” Tryan said. “Since I got him, he’s just been unbelievable. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to win what I win. He’s so fast.”
The Ultimate Head Horse Trade? Kenna Francis & Tyler Tryan Both End Up with Great Ones via Kaleb Driggers
One of the earliest names in Tryan’s corner wasn’t family at all — it was Nicky Northcott, another kid growing up around the same rodeos, son of a world champion in his own right. The two won a USTRC roping together back in 2019, years before either of them could buy a PRCA card. Neither knew it at the time, but they were laying down the first run of a partnership they’d pick back up as pros years later.
That’s exactly what’s playing out now. Tryan opened 2026 with Levi Lord, winnning the Bob Feist Invitational for $160,000 and picking up the Jr. BFI title the same weekend. After that, he and Northcott teamed up in May, and the results came fast — including a $14,734-apiece week in June alone.
Then came the Cheyenne Frontier Days. Tryan and Northcott matched world champions Driggers and Junior Nogueira with a 7.6 in the finals, forcing a tie that took two separate tiebreakers to sort out. The saddles and buckles ultimately went to the kids.
“You don’t really know how tiebreakers are going to go,” the 20-year-old said. “If it was off standings, like I told someone earlier, you’re never going to beat Kaleb and Junior in that. I was just glad we got the win. The money’s good, and we needed it.”
Tyler Tryan, Nicky Northcott Win Cheyenne After Double Tiebreaker
Tryan had watched Driggers walk to the box ahead of him and ask what the plan was. “He was like, ‘I’m just going to go catch him,’” Tryan said. “And I know him — when he tells me that, he’s probably lying to me.” Driggers wasn’t lying. The steer Tryan and Northcott drew didn’t want to work with them — it ducked left out of the box instead of turning toward Tryan’s horse — and he had to handle it without getting hung in the fence.
“I didn’t try to do anything too special,” he said. “I just roped coming in on the gain, and I tried to pull him as much as I could without getting stuck in the fence.”
The win pushed Tryan and Northcott to third in the world, though Tryan isn’t ready to call the season a breakthrough just yet.
“We haven’t roped great,” he admitted after the Cheyenne win. “It’s been both of us overall, and it’s just the honest truth. We haven’t done very good. But wins like this can change everything. It’s going to move us up a little bit — not a lot — but the goal is to make the NFR. We just need to keep winning and keep putting checks on the board. You’ve got to start somewhere, and today was the day.”
For a kid who spent a year and a half watching other people rope from the stands, waiting for the best possible outcome is nothing new. He’s just doing it from third in the world now instead of a hospital.
“We’re not going to let up at all,” Tryan said. “Right now, we’re just trying to win as much as we can to give ourselves a chance to make it.”
They have stuck their word on that statement. Since the Cheyenne victory lap, Tryan and Northcott have put together enough good runs to have pocketed more than $37,000 a man.
Tryan and Northcott’s $37K Tear Sends Them to No. 3 in the 2026 World Standings
