story by Lindsay Humphrey
If ever someone was destined to be a cowboy, it was Lane Johnson. He was raised near inner-city Bakersfield, California, by Ray and Veronica Johnson. His dad, a PRCA bull and bareback rider, introduced Lane to rodeo early and often. It wasn’t long before Lane was surrounded by cowboys on a regular basis. “I realized real quick that I didn’t want to ride bulls after all; I wanted to go cowboy,” said the ranch bronc rider from Smith Valley, Nevada. “There weren’t many practice pens around Bakersfield, so it seemed like every cowboy within 100 miles of one would end up there when it was time to buck some.” These cowboys took 12-year-old Lane under their wing and taught him the literal and figurative ropes of being a cowboy.
“I started palin’ around with some of them on ranches and I fell in love with it [cowboying] right away. I was willing to do anything as long as I could hang out with the cowboys.” Lane got his hands dirty doing everything from weaning and branding to feeding and doctoring. After working a summer for Russel Bias and later for Jug Perez, Lane realized he wanted to work on a big-name outfit somewhere outside of his home state. “Russell and Jug gave me my first real jobs horseback. I learned a lot in a short amount of time spending time with cowboys after I stopped riding steers.” It was a lot of baptisms by fire, but perhaps that method is what’s made Lane into the cowboy he is today.
“All the guys that I looked up to always rode the nicest horses, roped really well and could ride broncs. Those were things I tried to strive for and still do today.” At just 16 years old, Lane quit school and left for Arizona to cowboy with for some of the largest outfits in the Grand Canyon State. First it was Babbitt Ranches then the Diamond A and finally Yolo Ranch. Since leaving California, Lane’s worked in multiple states for various ranches of different sizes. Today, he’s working mostly for himself. He splits his time between day working and shoeing horses when he’s not headed down the rodeo trail. He married Kaylee in 2014, and the couple has their own herd of cattle at home and along two boys – Wacey, 4, and Audie, 5 months – to keep them busy.
In his younger cowboy days, competing in ranch rodeo was just part of the job. It didn’t make sense to essentially practice for the events and then not compete. In 2015, Lane started taking ranch rodeo a little more seriously and it’s been paying dividends for him recently. This past winter, Lane won the world and average titles at the WSRRA finals. It was an incredible way to finish out the year but made even more so because of a shoulder injury from the summer run. “I had to take some time off before the finals and then just muscled through the injury. I was in the best shape of my life before the finals because I knew that’s what would get me through it.” Being in great shape helped the rest of Lane’s body make up for what his shoulder was lacking in strength and a brace protected it from further injury during those rides.
“Before I left California, I got on some saddle bronc horses, but when I moved away I was never around any practice pens to continue with that. Ranch bronc riding was my way back into rodeo later in life.” After finding success in the ranch broncs, Lane cracked back out with the saddlebronc this past summer. Just a few months into practicing, he injured his shoulder in the ranch bronc riding. After rehabbing his shoulder this winter, he’s determined to get behind the chutes again this spring in preparation for the summer rodeos. His ultimate goal? Buying his PRCA permit and finding out what he can do alongside the top saddlebronc riders competing today. Until then, he’s going to continue competing in the WSRRA. He’s proud of what the association’s done for the event and said he only expects it to continue growing in the future. “There’s also a lot of events that are still around because of western states. They’ve done a lot as far as sponsorships. I’d like to sincerely thank the association for what they’ve done for the event, but also thank my sponsors for helping get me down the road: DMax Store, Kryptonite Products, and JBarD Canvas.”
