story by Ruth Nicolaus
The husband/wife duo of Clayton and Rylee Hansen are members of the Idaho Cowboys Association.
Clayton competes in the team roping and tie-down roping, while Rylee is a breakaway roper.
Having married in 2020, they live in Weiser, Idaho.
Rylee joined the ICA in 2012, one year after graduating from Weiser High School. She attended Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon, graduating with a degree in human sciences.
She is in her sixth year as the women’s rodeo coach at TVCC and in her off time, she helps on the family ranch.
Rylee enjoys coaching the college kids. “I love being around the kids,” she said. “I love being there to help people. I enjoy watching them succeed.” The TVCC kids have seen success: in 2021, both the men’s and women’s teams won the Northwest region, and at the College National Finals, three of the TVCC student athletes made the short round.
For the breakaway, Rylee rides an eighteen-year-old palomino named Nacho who her granddad raised. Nacho is good at her job. “We know each other to a T. She stops super hard, and she’s very easy going to travel with and be around. I just feel like she does her job very well.”
Rylee’s college coach was Clayton’s dad, Sonny Hansen.
Clayton attended Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore., majoring in “fun,” he jokes. While in college, he won the reserve all-around title three times and the team roping and tie-down roping in the region in 2014. He qualified for the College Finals three times in the steer wrestling and twice in the tie-down roping.
He is a residential insurance adjuster, which requires a lot of travel, up to a month at a time away from home. While he’s on the road, he and his coworkers are working from 6 am to 10 pm every day.
The job pays very well but being gone has its disadvantages, too. “I make a lot of sacrifices,” he said. This year was his first birthday home in five years, and in the spring and fall, when Rylee is busy with college rodeo, they don’t see much of each other.
For fun, he loves to hunt elk, deer and cougars with his buddies in Oregon. He often spends the month of November hunting. “I try to take the whole month off. I throw my phone away and I go a long, long, long ways from cell phone service and stay there a month. I go under the radar, nobody can call me, and I don’t have to put up with any homeowners.”
Clayton likes to golf, but he’s a fanatic about his yard.
“I’m a big yard guy,” he said. “I love a really clean, pretty yard with rocks and bushes.” He mows frequently, weed whacks, and plants flowers, along with Rylee’s help. “We kill $500 worth of flowers every year,” he jokes. “We usually kill the first batch then we go back and replace them. My wife does a good job with them.”
His inspiration for a well-kept yard comes in part from his job. His insurance adjusting work is mostly for USAA, so he meets a lot of military veterans, who have a tendency to have neat, tidy yards. “I was blown away by their yards. I spend a lot of time trying to keep it luscious and green.”
The couple also competes in other associations; Clayton is a PRCA team roper and Rylee is a World Series team roper.
