Ryan Roberts stands with some of the prizes he has won. Lauren Sicking
OKMULGEE, OK — Before champion bull rider Ryan Roberts, 29, ever set foot in a rodeo arena, his fate, his destiny, his legacy were already written in the red dirt on which he competes. Even after broken ribs, a broken leg and skull, and most recently a broken arm that has him out for the year, he continues to compete. For Ryan, the love of rodeo and the legacy he is a part of fuels him to ride on.
“I'll keep doing it until they say I can't no more, and I guess I'll keep going after that,” Ryan said, “because they told me a few times to stop, and I've just kept on going.”
Though Ryan has been bull riding for 13 years, his story starts with his great-grandfather, Caney Roberts. Caney, a cowboy who calf roped, sparked the legacy of rodeo with Ryan’s grandfather, Roy Roberts.
Roy Roberts stands in the arena that he built. Lauren Sicking
Because of his father, Roy, 79, was surrounded by horses and cattle and became a roper, both calf-roping and team-roping. Commissioned by the first elected chief of the Muscogee Nation, Claude Cox, Roy, a citizen of the Muscogee Nation, along with a team of welders he trained, built the tribe’s Bob Arrington Rodeo Arena in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, over a period of two years.
The Bob Arrington Arena has provided the background and spawning ground for the Roberts rodeo legacy for Roy himself, his sons, and grandsons, including Ryan. In 2022, at the Muscogee Nation Festival in the All-Indian Rodeo at the arena, he won the bull riding championship. Many years prior, Roy won in team roping as a heeler (the person who ropes the hooves of a calf) and in breakaway calf roping. Rodeo is more than just a pastime for Roy.
The Roberts family gathers at Roy Roberts’ property. Lauren Sicking
“It means a lot to me because I looked up to my dad for being a cowboy like he was … I just like seeing my kids keep doing it, he said. “[Rodeo] is a family deal.”
Roy no longer competes, though he “loves rodeoing” and wishes he could do it again. He now takes great pleasure in watching his children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren compete in rodeo.
“I like to watch them, even if they don't win or they're out there competing and doing what they want to do,” Roy said. “With Ryan, the bull rider, we've traveled all the way to Las Vegas to watch him, to Montana to watch him, Arizona, Wyoming … We're kind of proud of him. If the rest of them would do that, we'd go to watch them, too.”
Bodie Roberts stand in the Bob Arrington Arena. Lauren Sicking
Bodie Roberts, 49, Ryan’s father, continued the legacy. Bodie was never a fan of bull riding like his son, but instead rode bucking horses and would break horses for his father, Roy. Roy bought and sold quarter horses and when it was time, Bodie would break the horses, then his father would train them.
To Bodie, rodeo doesn’t mean only winning buckles or saddles; it also has a much deeper meaning.
Several of the Roberts patriarchs stand in the Bob Arrington arena. Lauren Sicking
“Rodeo to me means my life, my family. My family’s always been in it, [all the way back] to my grandpa,” Bodie said. “My daddy built this arena right here. Claude Cox got Bob Arrington and Bob Arrington found the best builder he could find. That was my daddy. We hired a group, and they built this arena out here. And that’s been our legacy ever since, we rodeo.”
Like a family recipe that is passed down from parent to child to that child’s child, the legacy of rodeo has seeped into every member of the Roberts’ family’s bones.
“My little brother Boog ... we always rope together. Ryan came along [and now] we got nieces and nephews, we got cousins. We all rodeo … That’s all our grandpa ever wanted us to do, was rodeo. So that’s what we’ve been driving for this whole time.”
According to Bodie, Ryan had something in him that set him apart.
“I just kept on driving him. There’s times when he probably wanted to hit me with his helmet, putting him on what I did, but he always loved it,” Bodie said. “[Ryan] has something in him that nobody else really has, you know, you could see there ever so often. He could ride [and] he had real good balance.”
Now, however, Bodie wonders if he should’ve pushed Ryan so hard, because of what happened in January of this year to Ryan at a rodeo in Tulsa.
Ryan was at the Ford Expo Center in Tulsa riding bulls in the ACRA finals when he received a life-changing injury. As he was about to come out of the chute on his second bull, Dirty Worm,“whipped [him] down” and as he tried to catch himself, hooked him with his horn twice in the back of the bicep.
“I got up and went to go reach for the gate and my arm wasn’t working,” Ryan said. “I was like, ‘You know, something’s wrong here.’And [I] got back there [then] they laid me down and started checking my arm and [it] turns out that it was broke.”
The doctors told Ryan that he would be out for five months, but he plans to take off the rest of the year.
“They said I might not get all of my feeling back [in my arm] , so we’ll just kind of play it by ear … and see,” Ryan said.
Despite this injury and all of the others before, Ryan says he’s not done yet and he plans to “keep going.” The passion for the rodeo and perhaps the stubbornness that all cowboys possess, keep Ryan in the arena.
“You know, it’s my safe place, even though it is dangerous. It’s kind of as they say, ‘A rodeo arena is the place to go to forget your problems.’ It’s hard to imagine life without it,” Ryan said.
Ryan is not Roy’s only grandson who is carrying the Roberts legacy on. Kane Roberts, 25, Ryan’s brother, has been rodeoing since he was a child as well. Along with his brother Darryl Jones, he travels and team ropes.
Kane Roberts stands in the Bob Arrington arena. Lauren Sicking
“[Darryl’s] my header and I’m a heeler,” Kane said. For Kane and the rest of the Roberts, rodeo is a family affair. With the Roberts brothers, Ryan and Kane, though both cowboys, there is no brotherly rivalry between the two. And with any family and with brothers, there is the tapestry of support and loyalty.
“We go with each other. [Ryan’s] got bull riding and I’ll go over there and pull his rope,” Kane said. “Darryl will hold him in position when he’s on the bulls. If we [were] team roping, [Ryan] would come down there and watch us team rope … let the steers out of the chute. We all sit there, taking care of each other.”
Whether Ryan ultimately decides to hang up his hat or keep going, his own legacy will not end with him. Ryan’s son, Taiten Roberts, will continue it.
Taiten Roberts stands in front of bucking bulls Lauren Sicking
Taiten has all the typical interests of an 8-year-old boy. He loves playing baseball, video games, playing with his dogs and spending time with his family. He loves his horse, Strawberry, whom he describes as “precious.”
Unlike a lot of 8-year-olds, Taiten has spent his life in the stands of rodeo arenas watching his father compete, which in turn sprouted a desire for rodeo in him.
“He’s definitely a little cowboy … He’s always been to rodeos, ever since he was in diapers and bottle fed,” Ryan said.
Taiten’s favorite part of the rodeo is watching his father ride. “I want to see how good he is and learn it,” Taiten said. His favorite part of his dad being a cowboy is all of the cool things he wins, from a bull skull to the buckles.
Even at 8, Taiten is stewarding the Roberts legacy. He has done mutton busting (riding sheep until the rider falls off) and now has started to ride miniature bulls. It is too soon to say whether he will follow in his father’s footsteps, but one thing is certain: the love, loyalty, and lasting bonds of the Roberts family will steward the legacy of rodeo for many years and generations to come.
Ryan doesn’t feel like he is done yet though. “I've kind of been on the fence about maybe now is the time to hang it up, but I'm too hard headed to go through with that, because the passion for it is just a little bit more stronger than that,” Ryan said.
“I've always wanted to be a world champion. The older I've got, [however] I've realized it's more about the middle than the end. [It’s] the people I've met, places I've [gone], just the journey,” Ryan said.
