In the latest episode of the North State Rocks podcast, host Perry Thompson catches up with Bailey Small, a Fall River High School graduate and current PRCA professional saddle bronc rider in his second year on the national circuit. What starts as a conversation about Northeastern California athletics quickly becomes a story about perseverance, goal-setting, and what it looks like when a small community decides to get behind one of its own.
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The North State Kid Who Played Everything
Bailey didn't arrive at rodeo through a single-sport path. He played football, basketball, baseball, and track at Fall River High School, and wrestled and competed in high school rodeo on top of that. On some evenings, he left basketball practice early, ran across town to the fairgrounds to wrestle for an hour, then jogged down to where his mom kept horses and calves and rode until nearly 11 o'clock at night.
“I went to elementary school in Burney for two years, and then I got transferred up here to Fall River,” Bailey said. “The community, from the time I was a little kid playing sports all the way through high school, there have been so many businesses and people in my corner.”
Perry pointed out something often overlooked about small schools: coaches didn't have 100 athletes to choose from, so they found ways to make multi-sport athletes work. That flexibility shaped Bailey in ways a specialized program never could have.
“Being willing to let student athletes go from one to another in the same season was huge for me,” Bailey said. “It really benefited me going into where I am now as a professional athlete.”
A Hall of Fame Coach and a Path to Oklahoma
By his freshman year of high school, Bailey already knew he wanted to pursue saddle bronc riding seriously. He told his parents he needed better training if he was going to have a future in it. They found a school in Goodwell, Oklahoma, run by Robert Atbower (a Hall of Fame saddle bronc rider and multi-time world champion), and Bailey attended for four consecutive years before enrolling there on scholarship.
“After I went the first time, I said, I'm going to school for that guy,” Bailey said. “He's one of the greatest of all time. Why would I not put myself in a position to become what he is under his supervision?”
That decision led him to Panhandle State for his bachelor's degree in agricultural consumer science, followed by a master's program at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, under coach Mark Aiken. His team won the national college finals both years he was there, and he competed individually at the national college finals three times. The Low Point Nobody Talks About Bailey was candid about something that doesn't always make it into the highlight reel. His freshman year of college was rough. The living conditions weren't what he expected. He was spending more than he was making. He called his mom and told her he was done.
His mom told him to stick it out for two years, and then they'd reassess. He did. By his sophomore year, a car accident claimed two of his close friends. A surviving buddy was struggling, and Bailey drove a trailer to his house, moved him in, and the two of them made a pact.
“We're both kind of down here on the bottom,” Bailey said. “Let's grind it out and let's make a statement. We can both make it to the NFR one day.”
From that point, the two held each other accountable the same way their high school teammates once had. They wrote down goals, checked them off one by one, and both finished their master's degrees with a 4.0 GPA.
“Next thing I know, I get to my master's degree, and I said, I bet I can do better than you,” Bailey said. “It was almost a little bit competitive. We both graduated with a master's degree at a 4.0.”
Perry called that moment one of the most important things anyone had shared on the podcast, and noted that the people who appear to have had nothing but wins are usually the ones who've been knocked down the hardest.
After finishing his master's, Bailey bought his PRCA card and competed in his rookie year. He was sitting inside the top 30 in the world standings last August (somewhere around 28th, needing another $40,000 to crack the top 15) when he drew a strong horse in Pueblo, Colorado. He made a good ride, decided to jump off, and blew out his knee the moment he hit the ground.
He flew from Denver to Texas, had surgery on September 10th, and spent months in physical therapy. The day he recorded this episode, he had just been cleared to return to competition. His first rodeo back is scheduled for March 15th in Arcadia, Florida, a 10,000-added event, for which he earned a preferred entry day based on his standings.
How a Pro Prepares for 100 Rodeos a Year
The PRCA limits saddle bronc riders to 100 rodeos per season, which means strategy matters as much as ability. Bailey explained that he doesn't chase every available entry. He picks his spots based on stock contractor reputation, payout size, and where he can compete to win — not just to stay busy.
“Have a purpose,” Bailey said. “Write down your goals, mark those goals off one at a time. And if you make it to the top 15 at the end of the year, you do. If you don't, you know what? You're setting yourself up for the next year.”
To get back into competition shape after the injury, Bailey has been using a spur board (two pieces of plywood rigged to simulate a stationary horse) to work on body position and muscle memory. He planned to get on practice horses in Weatherford and Stephenville, Texas, before heading to Florida, so he could be sharp rather than rusty when the competition started. His traveling partner holds him accountable on the road. Their routine before a ride includes stretching, a short Bible study, and then Bailey's personal ritual before every go: closing his eyes and visualizing the perfect ride.
“I close my eyes, I picture it as perfect as it could possibly be," Bailey said. “I open my eyes, get on, and I go do what I just envisioned, because the last thing that's in my mind is perfect.”
Perry recognized it immediately as the same positive visualization technique Olympic athletes use, and Bailey put it plainly: “If you put yourself in a negative mindset, you're beating yourself before you even start.”
Bailey closed the conversation the same way he lives his career, by pointing back to the people around him.
“I dang sure want to say thank you to everybody that does stand behind me and continues to push me, whether it's a community member or a family member or a sponsor or somebody that's helped me in the past like a coach,” Bailey said. “The amount of people that have allowed me to stand in my corner has been incredible.”
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