story by Kyle Eustice
Garden City, Kan. native Nick Becker wakes up at 7 a.m. to farm the 3500 acres of corn, alfalfa, wheat, and milo he owns with his 60-year-old father, Scott Becker. “I’m one of those people that wake up in the morning, work my butt off, go to rodeos in the afternoon, drive home at night, get up the next morning, and do it all over again,” says Nick. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Growing up with his mother Jill, father and older sister, Holly, farming and rodeo went hand-in-hand.
“We’ve been doing rodeo forever,” says Nick. “My dad used to rodeo and we went from there. We went to high school rodeos, amateur rodeos, college rodeos, and some pro rodeos, as well.”
Nick would leave his hometown of 27,000 people every day for Scott City, Kan. to attended Scott Community High School. He started his college career at Garden City Community College, where he studied agronomy. For his sophomore and junior year, he studied at Dodge City Community College (DCCC) and eventually finished at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales with a Bachelor’s Degree in animal science.
While in school at DCCC, he was exposed to the CPRA rodeos, where he mainly participated in the team roping events. Throughout his time at school, his father remained a huge influence on him.
“I just wanted to rodeo,” says Nick. “I didn’t care how it happened. My father has taught me to team rope since I was a little kid. He would haul me to rodeos all the time. We did all the events together. He always pushed us to go. In fact, he’s still the main person I practice with now.”
In 2011, he was the KPRA year-end all around champion and the team roping year end reserve champion, one of his many accomplishments. Currently, he’s trying to get new horses going so he’s attending several amateur rodeos to train them. He’s also getting ready for the USTRC regional finals in Mulvane, Kan., where he will run one of his best horses, Snip.
“He’s my favorite,” says Nick. “He’s reliable. To get ready for the events, I try to practice a little less so my horses will be fresh and working a little bit better.”
At 30-years-old, he’s been married to his wife Kyla for three years and still lives on the family farm in Garden City. In his spare time, he loves coyote hunting, which he’s done for the past 15 years and often does with Kyla. He has two healers, Cubby and Pistol, who love running around the farm. Although they don’t have children yet, it’s something he plans on doing in the future. “I’d love to see them get into rodeo one day.”
Nick’s life philosophy is “never give up,” something he’s illustrated time and time again after injuries have sidelined him on a couple of occasions. One of his worst injuries happened while he was roping calves, which resulted in a torn ACL in his left knee. He had to have his whole ACL replaced, leaving him unable to get on a horse for six weeks. It’s made him more appreciative for the ability to work hard.
