Failure.
Failure is the biggest thing that I'm scared of.
I feel like I've put in too much work to fail.
But, pain doesn't bother me.
Rodeo's taught me that it's going to bring pain, but you gotta be tough to handle it and I've been tough my whole life.
My name is Shad Mayfield.
Professional tie-down roper, two-time world champion cowboy.
When I was 10 years old, first time I come to Texas, I got my butt whipped.
And I said, oh, I’m a long ways off of being good, you know?
And uh... that only happened one time.
I know I'm more obsessed than the average calf roper because you can see it in the results.
I will tell you, 100%, I'm mentally tougher than the competition, and that’s because of the old-school mentality that my dad taught me.
Like, he wasn't just the easy kind—like, “Good job, son.” It was none of that.
It's “You could do better.”
I was the loner because I'm out here working with my horses roping—roping the dummy.
Doing everything I can to win.
When I turned 18 and bought my PRCA card, I made the NFR my rookie year, and that's something that not very many people do.
And I tell people all the time, there's a difference in being cocky and being confident, and I feel like someone being cocky is someone that can’t back it up.
As I built myself up to where I am, I mean, I'm gonna have the best of everything.
The arena, it's set up a specific way so I can come home and practice the way I need to.
My barn is set up to have everything so that my horses are in the best of shape as well as the best taken care of.
There's horses that are ranch horses, but my horses are athletes.
I'm not going to get my horse out of the stall and go rope a cow in the pasture
that’s sick.
I don't need to go out there and risk hurting them.
That's why I have my Ranger.
It's not a half-assed industry what we do.
It’s the toughest thing you can physically do on yourself, on everything.
Two years ago, they told me I needed to have two hip surgery.
And ain’t no way you can make it very long because things are going to get worse.
The next week, I won the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.
Went another week and won another rodeo.
And I'm thinking, you know, God's telling me, “Don't quit right now.”
I mean, he has me so far ahead in the standings.
Someone’s telling me, “Don't quit.”
Summer of 2025, I started to realize I'm not 100%.
There's a little bit in me that was kinda holding me back.
And that's when I said, OK, I'm ready, let's just knock this out.
So I decided after the NFR that I’m going to have surgery.
