Kaycee Feild – Training with A Purpose

Becoming the G.O.A.T. of bareback riders was no accident for Kaycee Feild. It came with years of planning, preparation and perseverance through injuries, bad luck and struggles.

His career was history in the making and created memories for those that were lucky enough to watch. I’m one of those and have been a fan since the first time I watched him nod his head at the College National Finals Rodeo in 2008. He won the championship. He also placed 10^th in the nation in team roping then. 

Kaycee was competing for Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley State University) where his father, the late Lewis Feild, was the coach. Kaycee grew up in the rodeo arena. His father won his third all-around championship in 1987, the year Kaycee was born. 

Lewis always wanted to be known as a cowboy and when he quit competing, he put those cowboy and horsemanship skills to use as a pickup man. He was chosen for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 2004. Three years later, his youngest son joined the PRCA. In 2008, after earning the college championship, he qualified for the NFR the first of 13 times. 

Rodeo truly was a family affair for the Feilds which included Lewis, his wife Veronica and their children – Shad, Maclee and Kaycee. And while Lewis served as a mentor, father and friend, Veronica brought a positivity to their lives and was the glue that bonded them. 

Veronica’s love for the sport and the Western lifestyle came naturally. Her mother, Brenda Allen was the first woman photographer to shoot the NFR. 

“My mom taught us a lot about believing in ourselves,” Kaycee said. “She is the most positive upbeat person that you could ever be around. The one thing that she did tell us from day one was ‘You can’t say can’t.’” 

So, life in the Feild household was and still is about what you can do. That led to Kaycee’s success in the arena, but it took more than just that belief. When he was 13 years old, he set a goal to become the best bareback rider in the world and that goal went far beyond just winning a gold buckle. 

In 2010, he made his first visit with troops in Afghanistan over Memorial Day as part of the Wrangler Patriot Tour. Shortly after returning, and getting back to competing, he broke his arm and had to go home. What he didn’t realize at the time was that it was the best thing that could possibly happen. 

“What I learned in 2010, from going to the Middle East, seeing war first-hand and seeing what those guys are up against each and every day, then coming home and breaking my arm really caused me to evaluate things,” Kaycee said. “I wasn’t understanding God’s plan.

“At that point, I made a very strong statement to myself that injuries happen for a reason, and they are going to make you better. I kept telling myself I needed to be home. I needed to be working on my mental game. I needed to be working on my craft and perfecting it.” 

And the work began. While Kaycee was in Afghanistan, he watched how disciplined and intentional the troops were. After breaking his arm, he went home and had some really in-depth conversations with his dad that were directed at his discipline, what he was working on and studying.

“I studied other sports, industries and professionals and watched how they dealt with what they were up against.” Kaycee said. “And those soldiers. They have a purpose when they train. Instead of just getting up and doing pushups, squats, pullups and doing 50 or 100 just like when I was 13 and I wrote my goals down, I put a purpose with what I did. There was a road map in front of me. I didn’t have that mentality until that time in my life.” 

Those changes worked so well for Kaycee that he won four consecutive world titles from 2011 through 2014. After winning his first gold buckle along with the “Top Gun” award for the highest earnings of all of the contestants, his quest for excellence continued. 

Kaycee spent hours in the swimming pool doing laps. He would visualize every possible scenario that a bareback rider could be in while he was working on his body. He would get his heart rate up and use the silence to visualize different rodeo scenarios. 

“I don’t care how good you are or experienced you are, in the bareback riding the first three or four jumps, you don’t see anything,” he said. “So, getting in the pool, swimming laps and going over the mental game of competition was a great way for me to prepare. From the horses, to the arenas, to the stock contractors and my friends. I would dream about it all. 

And, it wasn’t just in the pool. “I’d be on the spur board and close my eyes and dream of being in Las Vegas in the yellow bucking chutes. I had a purpose with my training. I had a purpose with my thoughts. And when I learned to train with a purpose, not just physically but also mentally, it completely flip-flopped my career.” 

As Kaycee got farther down the road map towards his goals, he used his mind’s eye to look back at the past and learn from experiences. He put himself mentally and physically as close as he could to a rodeo, then paid attention to the details and wrote down what he was feeling. 

“When you close your eyes and dream of those situations, you dream of the pressure, the smell and the feel. You dream of the noises of the bucking horses in the chutes,” he said. “When you get to those situations, it’s a lot easier if you’ve been there in your mind.” 

From the beginning of Kaycee’s NFR qualifications, his family always had the same seats, close to the bucking chutes. The first year he was there with traveling partners Tilden Hooper and Jessy Davis. 

“We’d get Jessy to go ask Louie what his advice was for the night. And it was the same thing for 10 nights. ‘Get over there, mark them out and have fun.’ It got to be pretty comical. Looking back on those memories makes it easy to have fun.” 

“And being at a rodeo was like a vacation for me. I would leave the house, leave work, leave studying and training to go be with my friends and show off my talent. You have to keep it simple because there are a lot of things in rodeo that are out of your control.” 

Training with a purpose may have been a game changer for his bareback riding, but it also set a path for him outside of the arena that we will be talking about next time.