story by Siri Stevens
Wyatt Rindlisbacher spends his days riding horses, roping the dummy, and working on his family’s mink ranch. “Mostly I scatter feed, fix pens, or whatever needs to be done,” said the 13 year old. “Its fun – I like being with my family and I’m learning a good work ethic.” Wyatt is the middle child and likes that role. “I have a younger brother (Rylan, 8) that looks up to me and I have an older sister (Jade) I look up to her; she has won a lot in her career. Jade has really helped me the last couple years with my horsemanship. Now I feel like I’m a pretty good horseman, but my dad still teaches me.”
Wyatt competes in ribbon roping, tie down roping, team roping, and goat tying. He belongs to both Utah Junior High and National Little Britches. He made the National Junior High Finals both years. “It was a really good experience. I didn’t do any good, but I met a lot of cool neat friends. I learned that the kids that excel are the kids that work really hard and go to bed early. They do what they need to do. I try to be one of those kids.” He likes team roping and calf roping, and really likes the team roping. “When it works it’s really fun,” said the heeler. He has nine horses on the place, three are his. He tie down ropes and team ropes off the same horse. He’s got his dad’s old horse as a backup and has a young one coming along. “My dad (Jason)is a #8 heeler, when my dad was going a lot he said if there was a roping within 6 hours he was there. He doesn’t rope as much now as he used to. He works and keeps track of us. He taught me how to rope, tie, and ride a horse.” Wyatt ropes with a Fast Back Redline soft, 31. “My dad is sponsored by Fast Back so it works good.”
He practices every day with Willy Reid and his sister. “Sometimes other people come, and my mom (Natalie) opens the chute – she videos us too – every run. We watch the videos that night or in the morning depending on when we get done. I try to stop the video and break it down to find anything I do wrong. If I miss, then I see why.” Wyatt wants to be a mink rancher when he grows up and rodeo for a living. “I’m trying to figure out how to be gone and rodeo – if I make the Finals while my dad is still here, he can take care of the ranch. He won’t do any of this until he serves an LDS mission for two years. He leaves for that in five years. He starts school in about two weeks. “I like school – I like to hang out with my friends and I like math the best. Science isn’t my strongest, but I like learning new stuff I can use in my daily life.”
Wyatt started roping when he was four. “I started roping steers and trying to learn.” The thing he likes about rodeo is hanging out with his friends. “The thing about rodeo that’s different from other sports is that if you don’t do good, you don’t get paid.” He plays football with his friends and plays basketball with his Youth church group. “Work hard and let your dreams come true. Thanks to Willie Reid for turning me hundreds of steers-he’s my adopted grandpa, and my parents for supporting me.
