story by Lily Weinacht
Trae Edoff of Bonesteel, South Dakota, began his rodeo career four years ago. A third generation rodeo competitor, he followed his dad into the roughstock chutes, starting with bull riding, but found his passion riding bareback horses. “With bareback, you need balance and a strong hold, and the attitude to succeed. It’s not a sport for the weak-hearted!” says the 17 year old. “With bulls, there’s more fluent motion and muscle memory, but they don’t move as fast as horses or kick out with as much power, so bareback is more challenging for me.”
His dad, Chato Edoff, competed in college rodeo and encouraged Trae to start competing when he entered high school. “Dad coaches me and comes to as many rodeos as he can. He owns a fencing company that keeps him pretty busy, so I video all my rides and show them to him, and he’ll tell me what to work on,” Trae explains. “There’s a practice pen up in Kadoka I go to whenever I can, and I’ll video my practice rides too so I can see what I’ve changed, and keep getting better every time.” His drive to compete is the desire to keep improving, and help younger competitors do the same. “I like to sit behind the chutes and help the younger kids with their rigging, or help them out in the chutes with the things they want to improve on.”
Trae’s hard work took him to the SDHSRA state finals, followed by the NHSFR for the first time this summer. “Gillette was challenging – there were lots of good horses and good riders from all over the country. I didn’t do so well on my first horse, but I covered my second one, and I’m working to qualify again my senior year.”
His mom, Amy Edoff, helps him drive on longer trips, but Trae hauls to many of his rodeos himself, and uses the money from his job with his dad’s fencing company to pay for entry fees and travel and truck expenses. This July, however, Trae’s family – ten in all – travelled with him to the NHSFR. The second oldest, Trae is one of four brothers and four sisters, and the main member of the family carrying on the rodeo tradition, though several of his siblings enjoy riding and working cattle for neighbors. “I have a 23-year-old horse I need to retire, but he still does the job,” says Trae. “We used to run a few cows, but now we mainly work cattle for other people.”
A senior at South Central High School, Trae is enjoying his British Literature class. “We were reading Beowulf, and now we’re starting into Shakespeare,” he explains. “I’ve also been in band and choir for four years.” He plays percussion in band, and is one of four students from his school chosen to compete at all-state choir in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in late October. “This is my first year going to all-state choir, but anybody can come watch. There’s an orchestra, which accompanies us for several songs, and then we do several songs a cappella.”
This time of year, Trae enjoys hunting, and often works with his dad building fence. “It’s all custom fencing, so we might do barbed wire, steel bar, wood – whatever you want! One of my friends has a small motor shop at his house, and he likes to fix his friends’ motors, so I go help him out,” says Trae. “I’ve talked to Mitchell Tech’s rodeo coach, Jimmy Nicolaus, about college rodeo, and I’m also interested in either welding or powersports technology. For rodeo, there’s always room for improvement, and my goal is to get to Nationals again and do good.”
