story by Julie Carter
Dillon Mathis is a big guy with a big easy smile that sparks with orneriness and kindness, both of which serve him well in and out of the arena, on and off the ranch.
The Amistad/Hayden, NM cowboy will soon be off to Howard College in Big Spring, Texas and a future he believes will always involve rodeo along with some welding and business skills. Until then, he’s living his best life finishing out his senior year of high school rodeo working three events and hoping to make Nationals one more time.
He was about 6 years old when he first started roping and soon after was competing in the High Plains Association events, gradually building his events to include steer dobbing, mugging, breakaway, then on to tie down, team roping and chute dogging. In the 8th grade he qualified for the Junior High National Finals in Tie Down, Chute Dogging and Team Roping.
His freshman year in high school was in Covid rodeo lockdown, but he qualified for Nationals as a sophomore in Steer Wrestling after locking in 3rd place in the state. His junior year he qualified for Nationals in two events. He was the NM State Champion in Tie Down Roping and Reserve Champion in Steer Wrestling.
For Dillon, that was his most memorable rodeo to date. “It was really a lot of fun,” he said. “I won a championship saddle that I’m actually using, and a group of my friends, we all signed each others back numbers. It just made it special.”
What he won’t tell you is that securing the state championship came down to catching his calf in the short go. His mother Erin recalls, “He was pressuring up and struggling with knowing what this one run would mean. His hands were shaking when he tied his calf.”
Dillon said, “I had to run it a little ways down the arena. I was slower than I could have been, but it was a run to make count.” He used his head. A defining moment under pressure. Today he’ll agree that it was a confidence builder for him and a competition turning point.
His favorite of his three events is Tie Down. “I really like the Steer Wrestling to, but I’m better at roping calves.” Dillon’s dad Marty taught him to rope. A neighbor, Chance Pope, started him first Chute Dogging and later jumping from a horse for Steer Wrestling. “My dad never dogged steers and he had to learn how to haze for me. There’s some stories there,” he said with a laugh. Currently, his competition mounts are Ginny, Sweet Pea and Squirrel.
Off season fun for the Mathis family is snow and water skiing – Ute Lake for the water sport and Angel Fire for the snow. Because of the remote location of their home ranch, Dillon and his younger brother Dawson have been homeschooled. Whenever they studied something or someplace, the next family vacation would be to see it in person. Summer of 2021, Dillon and Erin went on a Mission trip with his youth group to El Salvador, sparking in him a passion for the mission field. Recently the family went to Belize as a half mission, half senior trip for Dillon. There Dillon found a new skill to pursue, scuba diving.
Dillon is his own toughest critic when it comes to working his events. He is meticulous about paying attention to details, but has the hardest time if things unravel in the middle of run. “I do have to have everything just right,” he said. Erin agrees. “He has such high expectations for himself, it sometimes works against him.”
Dillon’s kindness shows up in many ways, “I am always willing to help anybody in any way that I can,” he said. That includes helping the younger competitors at the rodeos. Erin says it makes her the proudest when other parents tell her how much they appreciate Dillon’s willingness to help.
Rodeo was always a choice, not an expectation for Dillon. The family circle of rodeo is much better off for the choice that Dillon made.
