¶ Rodeo Rider Pushes Through Injury
Seth Hart , how are you ? I'm doing alright , man Doing alright 24 years old , so when was your birthday ?
July 21st .
Okay , so just recent . Alright , You're a saddle-bronk rider and of course I gotta give her a shout out . Elaine sponsors you . That's why you're on .
Yes , sir .
She goes up the bat for you guys , man . She just talks you guys up , like , hey , you need to get this person on , you need to get this person . She's like you need to get Seth . He's up and coming , saddle-bronk , you gotta put him on . I'm like , alright , well , I'll reach out , thank you , thank you .
Thank you , you know , and just had Aaron on and , yeah , elaine Kimball Shout out to her man , she's a great person . So Saddle-bronk rider from Oregon and you ride for the MPRA . And then you said you recently got your PRCA card .
Yes , sir , yeah . So a little bit after the beginning of the season this year I've been riding pretty good and winning rodeos and getting some money , so I decided it was time to get my permit PRCA and give that a go .
Yeah , well , you got to be doing something right to get that . I mean , they don't just give it to everybody , right ? Yeah , I mean I've interviewed some people and they're like they're waiting .
Anybody can go .
What's that ?
Yeah , no , you , anybody can go and buy it , your permit anyhow . To get your actual card , you actually have to win a thousand dollars or more and then you'll get your actual pro card .
Okay , but still , not too many people can do that though . Yeah , yeah , okay , all right . So what I'm saying ? I'm giving you a props man , I'm giving you a praise that hey , you're on the up and up , yeah working on it . Yeah , good , good . So , speaking of up and up man I saw on Instagram .
This is how I find , thank goodness , everything's at the tip of your fingertips . You can find anything on social media and it's all there . You can see everybody's ride if you guys share it or YouTube , if somebody sees it or basically gets the content they put on YouTube for you guys . So I noticed something in Instagram .
Man , up and up right , we're on that subject . July 6th you were in a boot because you broke your foot , but just the other day you were full tilt competing saddle brunt .
Yeah yeah , I got my PRCA permit and I made it to three pro rodeos and busted my foot at my third one .
Okay , and so my question to you is when you broke your foot , how long did the doctor give you it to rest ?
Uh . So I went to the emergency room and they made it sound like it was a real big deal and I was going to need surgery and this and that and uh . So I made an appointment with a specialist and went in and he looked at it . He said no boot , no crutches , no surgery , just no running or jumping .
Gave me two weeks before I could get back on to Okay About the same man because , hey , if you broke your foot , uh , come on man , how , how are you back in it ? Less than four weeks .
What was it ?
It's not feeling great , but Got you , get a second opinion man . So what man you , you , you guys , man you boys and gals in the rodeo business man , you guys are tough .
Yeah .
Uh , what , what ? Why keep performing when something is not right , when things are broken ?
Um , you know , really probably shouldn't be , should be letting it heal and take the time to get it get ready and get back into it . But uh , I was sitting fourth in the standings and I missed a few rodeos . And that kick , just some few rodeos kicked me up all the way back down to eighth .
So I was like , yeah , well , I'm going to take the minimum time off , I can jump back into it .
All right , so do you think you're going to get a second second opinion ?
Uh , I do . I do have a appointment August 14th . I have to go back in and have another X-ray and make sure everything's still sitting in the same place .
Okay , and when's your next performance or your event ?
I got one tomorrow night in core of Alice and Friday night in Redmond .
Man , that's God in , you're going to perform .
Yes , sir .
Man , that's crazy . I don't know how you guys do it , man .
Oh my goodness , you guys are in a lot of tape , oh my God , because , hey , saddle broken , you're on a horse it's much higher than a damn bull , as I say all the time , man and falling off one of those , or even , like you know , if you land on your feet , your story , yeah , your two feet , you're still going to hurt no matter what .
But you're here , you are a broken foot . Hey , I'm going to go at it Full tilt , balls to the wall . You know , you're still young , that's that . We'll just say that then . So , yeah , sounds good , all right . When did this all start , man ? When do you start ? You know the whole rodeo scene ?
When do you know you wanted to saddle rock and get into the game ?
Um , so I've always been around rodeo . When I was younger I rode cheves and calves , did the whole mutton busting deal , rodeo horses every day , and then that kind of slowly went away .
And then I think it was my 20th birthday I decided I wanted to start riding saddle broncs and found a school and drove all the way out to Idaho and went and got on there and it's just been what I wanted to do since then .
Yeah , and only saddle bronc , not bear .
Yeah , no , I got a younger brother that rides bear back .
No OK .
I won't get on them . I like to get off when I want to . I have to try to rip my hand out , yeah .
OK , I was going to ask you so what keeps you from doing it ? So that explains it . But here you are riding saddle with the broken foot . So it's like what gives man For real ?
Yeah , you got me there . Yeah right .
Exactly . Yeah , man , all right . So it's 20 years old Now . Is that in saddle bronc years ? Because I know bull riders and other people especially bull fighters . If they get it over a certain age , let's say they start at 1920 . That's a little . They call it a little late or late .
Now if they start at 16 , before 17 or around there , they they're like OK , that's just right . So when you started at 20 , is that considered late in your sport or just right ?
I don't know , I don't really know if there is a just right time and too late of a time to start . I mean , I haven't had anybody tell me I started too late . I've seen people start a lot later than I did and yeah they're , they're riding good and doing good .
Well , well , they don't , it's not the people that say , it's their , their inner thought , like they wish , and then they wish they started earlier .
But then when I noticed , when people start at the age of 19 or older , they they state it's a little late , you know , and it's almost frowned upon , and so that's that's been the topic lately , because some people that I've had on lately they're like yeah , I'm a little late , bloomer , you know , started at 19 .
Like , but still , you're , you're OK , that's considered late , ok , yeah , so we've just been getting into that kind of conversation . So that's all where it comes from . So who or what influenced you to do saddle bronc ?
You know , just watching NFR and rodeos on TV and watching the Wright brothers and Austin Hay and lefty home and watching , watching all those guys ride , and I've got to know Dawson , hay and lefty home and pretty well . I've been to a few of their schools and get to hang out with them and they've helped me a lot .
OK , OK . What does the the rodeo life lifestyle bring to you , man ? So just keep doing what you're doing , you know with the broken foot . What does it bring to you , man ? Why not kind of follow doctor's orders but just continue to compete and go and go and go , no break ?
You know I mean , I have a full time job in construction and I would rather rodeo for a living than have to work . I'd rather have fun and love what I'm doing . And have that as my , as my dream job is just to rodeo .
Gotcha , gotcha . Yeah , and that's a possibility . The route that you're going , the the success that you're having , that that is feasible , correct .
Yes , sir , yeah , if I can continue doing what I'm doing .
¶ Rodeo Dreams and Personal Goals
When ? When's downtime for you ?
I'm going to be at home During the week when I have to go to work .
But that's not downtime , you're working . What ? 10 hours a day ? Come on , man , on your feet too .
Yeah , yeah , it's go to work . Get off work , go to rodeos .
That's about it . When are you done with rodeos ? When's ?
your last month of rodeos . So September is the finals for MPRA , and so that'll be my last sanctioned rodeo , Unless I can do some PRCA rodeos then . But other than that they just have a . They got like winter series and whatnot that are pretty close to me that I can go right throughout the winter at .
Okay , all right . So hopefully by from now , especially the August 14th , and then whenever break you have , especially from construction , you're going to need to heal that , that foot man , man man , I mean just recently .
Go ahead , we'll get there some point .
All right , I mean , it's just , it's amazing .
All right , so we'll get there some point .
Yeah , it's just amazing . Dawson Branson broke his wrist or his arm and he's out there , you know , winning events , what else ? Briggs Madsen broke his foot . He took some time off , but he's out there conquering whatever he does , you know , with the bulls in the team and everything else , and it's just like man . You guys are bad . You guys are bad man .
So , dealing with your daily routine , don't know how you do it , but you do , especially tomorrow and throughout the weekends , what , what pumps you up , man , to continue to do what you do day in , day out ? Well , I don't know .
The only reason I get up , go to work is so I can pay for my rodeos and get to them , and that's that's really don't . Rodeos are just what I want to do , Like anything I can do to help me in rodeo and afford it . I'm going to do it .
Okay , got you . But grind man , you're grinding , you're hungry , you're grinding , I get it , I get it . So when you're at an event , let's say you put everything behind you , you know your your day job , the grinds , and you're actually having fun doing what you love rodeo , right . What hypes you up before an event ? Like how do you get hyped ?
What do you get in the zone ? Do you do you , you know , pump up some music and just you know , another slide goes in your head and just says you know what , this is the life , let's do it . It's almost like a persona kind of thing , like how do you go about it ? Before an event ?
I mean I , I get there , I get all my gear out , I have , I have a Bluetooth headphones , I turn music on , take pre-workout and sit there and stretch and just think . Once I find out my horse . I just sitting , sit there and think about my ride and what I'm going to do .
What's your pre-workout man ? Well , what's the ? What's the title of it ?
You there , ah , c4 .
C ah man , all right . What's your number one song on your playlist , man ?
Oh man , that's a hard one I got . There's so many of them . I think the one I've been listening to most before I ride lately has been a stiff upper lip by ACDC .
Okay .
Classic rock guy .
Okay , that's awesome and that's your . Your go to right before a ride .
Yeah , okay , lately , anyways , it changes .
Okay , when you're behind a shoot right before your ride , you're like maybe two , three behind the guy that's actually riding right now , or in the shoot . What goes through your mind ?
Not much really . Once I'm back there and I'm about up , it's I can't hear . I can't hear the music playing , I can't hear the announcer people talking to me , Just silent and in the zone .
Yeah Huh , like tunnel vision .
Yeah , yeah , okay , I see the horse , and that's about it .
If you weren't saddle bronking , where would ? What would you be doing ? Man In the rodeo world ?
Oh well , if I didn't start saddle bronking , I'd probably be sticking my hand in the rigging and bear back .
Well , I wonder if your brother knows how much he'd like to .
Last choice .
How's your brother man ?
He's 22 .
22 . Okay , he's pretty good too , or no ?
Yeah , yeah , he's sitting first in the standings in the novice bear back right now . He's been doing super good this year .
Nice , okay , okay , all right , I got you , but you , just , you're just throwing him some shit , just you know , because you can huh yeah .
Yeah , yeah , pretty much every chance I get .
All right , good , good , all right . So my did you listen to any of the podcasts prior to this interview ?
I listened to yours in the lanes .
Oh , okay , all right . So you know of the staple question that I have to ask , man , I have to ask Are you a ?
are you a big fan of ?
peanut butter jelly . Heck , yeah , now Do you eat peanut butter jelly sandwiches , man .
Yes , I do .
All right , do you eat cheese sandwich ?
Not on the road . I'm not really much of a sandwich guy , unless , that's all there is . Okay . Cheese sandwiches , hasby grilled cheese .
Grilled . Okay , now my question to you and I've been getting in deep with this question now the cheese sandwich . Do you know of any rodeo athletes just eat cheese sandwiches ? Because it is a thing .
Honestly , I have not seen that yet .
It's a regional thing . It has to be . I think I pinpoint it's a regional thing , it's a Midwestern thing . Man , it's a Midwestern thing . It's Oklahoma and Texas thing . Dude , I found it . I found it . It's a regional thing , oh yeah .
So yeah , it's not over here .
Yeah , yeah , For real , it's not . So I finally pinpointed it and , yep , it's Oklahoma , Texas and Midwest . So how do you build a PBJ sandwich ?
You know , usually I just use one piece of bread . I'm always in a hurry , so I just slap it , layer it on one piece , fold it up like a taco and go .
Man , okay , see , that's the first I've heard , and a lot of yeah okay . So you just is that feeling enough ? Is it good enough for you ?
Sometimes . I don't usually eat before a ride or anything . It's usually late at night when I do finally eat at a rodeo . So usually a restaurant , applebee's something .
Yeah , you're drinking age , so I can ask this question what's your celebratory drink ?
I'll be Coors Banquet .
All right , yellow Belly , okay yeah , or Yellow Jacket . Which one do you call it , man , yellow Belly or Yellow Jacket ?
I usually just say Coors and people know what I'm talking about .
Hey , the guys down southeast man , they're like Yellow Jacket or Yellow Belly . I'm like , all right , okay , I didn't know , they called it Yellow Jacket . So , man , the more you know , right ? So , hey , what's your ?
Yeah , I only found about that when I was watching Yellowstone .
Oh , okay , All right . Yeah , that's fun . I don't even . I haven't even watched that man , I just . I haven't watched it . I need to , though , but I just .
I've watched it over and over .
Is it good ?
Oh , it's super good .
Okay , it's just , I can't get over the whole politics thing , man , it's just , I don't know . Maybe I'll watch it . I'll probably watch it , since I did interview Melvin Ash . Yeah , I'll probably do it just for him , what ? I know you're tired , man , I know you're tired , so you know we'll make it quick , but what's your ultimate goal ? You said it earlier .
You said you wish you could just rodeo , get you know , get paid enough money just to rodeo . But what's your ultimate goal besides that ?
I know ultimate goal Every , every cowboy wants to make it to the NFR Mm-hmm . And that's one of my biggest goals right now is be good enough to rodeo full time , make enough money , get in the standings and be able to go to the finals .
Mm-hmm Personal life .
Personal life . Yeah , ultimate goal man , family , family , I mean ultimate goal . I raised my daughter right . That'd be my ultimate goal right now .
Yeah , I have three of them . They change your world . And the more power to you , man . I respect that . That's good , awesome , yeah , and the next five to 12 months right , what do you expect ? What are you expecting , man ? Are you expecting to go full time PRCA ? Are you going to stay in the association here ? Now , you're going to do both . What ?
Oh , what's planned ?
Um , planned right now so my daughter She'll be born in December , so still going to have to be working and rodeo and be able to be making the money . Um , I'll probably do MPRA full time again next summer and hit as many PRCA rodeos as I can throughout the summer . Yeah , and just kind of work my way up to right Cause it's going to .
It'd be hard just to drop off work and go out full time , especially going to have a new , a new baby and all that .
What , what day in December , man Do you know yet .
December 7th .
All right , I'm okay , I was 21st , so that's why I asked man and congrats , you got a Christmas baby on your hands , man , thank you . Thank you . Tell mama that I said congrats too , yeah we'll do that . That's awesome man . So how long do you plan to rodeo for man , until you're old and gray ? Do you have a timeline ?
Are you just going to go roll with it ?
I think I'm just going to roll with it and get on as long as I can still move .
Okay , I understand that . I got you All right . Man , when's your next , when's your next event ? You said Thursday .
Tomorrow .
Tomorrow , okay , and are you going to be in Kepner or Goldendale , I think , later on ?
this , I'll be , I'll be uh , yeah , I'll be uh doing Thai Valley and Goldendale and I'm going to try to get squeezing Centralia .
Okay , let me ask you this , man , before we go I might catch in Goldendale , by the way . So , uh , mark my words , I'm going to , I'm going to catch in Goldendale . I'm going to go because I think it's going to be a lot bigger than Hempner .
Hempner is just a small little town and I just got done watching uh , uh and Milton , free water and man , it was small , small , but I think Goldendale brings it a little more because it's more country .
So um , yeah , definitely , Uh , yeah , I haven't . I haven't been to Hempner once , but my whole time rodeo and I skip it every year .
Okay . So it says a lot Okay , all right . So I know what I'm talking about .
Now .
I talked to Aaron yesterday , right , and she mentioned and we talked about we briefly talked about how you guys can travel on the same day and still and perform multiple events . Now , how are you able to do that ? How is one person allowed to do that or able to do it ?
Um , so if they're , usually they're pretty good about splitting you up between days . Uh , if for some reason you do get entered up the same day , the only only way they will do that is if they have like a one o'clock show and a seven o'clock show .
Okay , all right , yeah , because I was in a .
Yeah , they split you up though that way . Oh , so they split you up that way , Like cause some of them they'll even run whatever event for whatever event first and then that way they can get those guys out of there quicker to get to the next rodeo .
Okay , yeah , because I was . I was hoping to run into Hayes and Hoffman , uh uh , Milton free water , and he was like yeah , man , I got three rodeos on this day and I'm going to be , you know , in Milton free water on Sunday . I'm like are you kidding me ? How do you do three in one day ? That's insane .
That's a lot of driving , that's a lot of C four , huh yeah .
Yeah , it's crazy , all right .
So gold , golden delve , for sure I'm going to do my best to do it . I'm going to bring my kids and man in the meantime , dude hill and still slay , man for real , Slay those rides , kill those rides and just you know what , take care of yourself , man , and that girl that soon to be girl , that you're going to have dude . You should be excited .
I think you are . You're just too tired to say .
Yeah , I'm very , I'm very excited .
Good , good man , and I look forward to seeing you and look forward to seeing you grow in the sport . And you know , kill the competition and uh , dude , hard work pays off , you know , and keep , keep doing what you're doing , man . It's going to pay off , dude , just you got to have patience .
Yeah , yeah , a lot of patience .
Right , so
¶ Discussion About Various Topics and Farewell
all right . Do you want to say anything ? Did I leave anything out ?
No , I think we , I think we touched pretty much about everything .
Yeah , I'm glad I got that peanut butter jelly sandwich question out of the way . You're the first one to say , hey , just do one slice and just put it all together like a taco . So , hey , out of 170 , god , almost 80 episodes , you're the first that said that . So believe it or not Believe it or not , yeah , yeah .
Oh , that's surprising , yeah , it is surprising . So I was like , okay , yeah , when you're in a pinch man , you do what you got to do . But , um , yeah , man , keep in touch , I'll look for you around and continue to be your fan man , yeah .
Thank you Appreciate it .
Yeah , now get some rest , man . No more C4 . Yeah .
Yeah , I'm staying off that yeah .
Have fun tomorrow , man , be safe and take care of yourself , dude .
Yeah , you too , thank you .