A dictionary may define the word “journey” as an act of traveling from one place to another, but when applying the word to the career of team roping legend Walt Woodard, there really isn’t anywhere in the wide, roping world that he hasn’t already been. The two-time World Champion has won most major roping competitions, some multiple times, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his eye on another prize. When asked if there is anything left that he dreams of winning, Walt says, “No, but I want to go back to the NFR. That’s the goal. I want to see if a guy 65 years old can make the NFR. Nobody’s ever done that in team roping. That’s my goal this year.”

So how did his journey begin? Walt’s father was a horseman, a hard but fair World War II generation tough guy that Walt simply adored. According to Walt, “When I was about 8 years old, my father got interested in team roping. I loved my dad. I liked being around him. I liked the way he treated me, he was a tremendous horseman. I really loved horses. As a kid, I loved elephants and horses. So, thank God that my father wasn’t a circus guy, I would have ended up on an elephant. I liked big powerful animals; Dad was a horse guy and started roping, so I got involved in it.” Considering that Walt has a brother who broke a buffalo to the saddle, you could almost see Walt twirling his rope over an elephant’s head, couldn’t you?

But seriously, let’s get back to the road that Walt is taking now. Last year, Walt teamed up with Metalab to create the Walt Woodard Roper’s Bit Collection. His goal here was to bring the expertise of his years, over 40 of them now, of competing and teaching roping clinics to riders everywhere.