“The way to ride a bull is different than the way to hang on to a bull,” said 3x Linderman recipient, and 3x WNFR qualifier, Josh Frost. “You’ve got to be 100% committed to make the whistle, but sometimes it’s better to accept that the bull beat you and know that there will be another ride.” The 27-year-old wrestled growing up. “We rodeoed from March to November; when it got cold, we were in the wrestling room.”
Shane and Lisa Frost have four children. Joe, Josh, Jate, and little sister, Jacelyn. Josh’s rodeo roots run deep as he grew up in a rodeo family – three generations. His cousin is the legendary Lane Frost. “All of my family rodeos and it’s something that we have always done.” Joe Frost (grandpa), and his dad, Shane, were PRCA members. His great-uncle, Clyde Frost, competed at the first NFR in 1959 in the bareback riding and went on to qualify in 1960 and 1962-64 in the saddle bronc riding. His older brother, Joe, was on the cover of the Rodeo News June 15, 2012. The five-time WNFR qualifier for bull riding now lives on the family ranch with his wife, Kylee (Cahoy) … , and their two children, Luella and Lanae. Joe quit riding bulls in 2019, after breaking his leg and developing a blood clot. Luckily he’d had a very successful career, and is raising kids, ranching and training dogs (border collies) and bull riders.
Josh started competing on sheep and went from there to junior high and high school rodeo. He went to OPSU and graduated with a degree in Ag Education. He is living a goal he set for himself more than 8 years ago when he was featured as a meet the member for Rocky Mountain Pro Rodeo Association. “I want to rodeo for a while and then maybe begin teaching later,” he was quoted as saying. “I’ve always wanted to make a career out of rodeo, so that’s what I’m doing now.” The road to success did not come easy for Josh. He won the Utah High School Rodeo Finals in bull riding in 2013 and went on to college rodeo for Oklahoma Panhandle State University. He qualified for the college finals in 2015-2017, winning third twice and fifth in his senior year. 2015 was his Rookie year and he didn’t qualify for the Finals for four years. “I couldn’t crack the top 15 – then in Reno over the fourth I got hurt.” He had a shot to make it a couple more times, but got hurt every year. “I started realizing that health was a priority; I worked out more and I got hung up less. I also switched to a Brazilian rope in 2018. I started not hanging off the side of bulls – that was a big factor.” In 2019, he finally made the finals.
“I bucked off all ten bulls the first NFR, then won the average the next year,” he said. “I worked more on the mental game and then the consistency. I had to figure out how come I’d ride good one year and not the rest.” He worked on his process and getting into his zone to perform at the elite level he needed to be. “Then I figured out how to repeat my successes.”
Besides his teaching certificate, the best thing that happened for Josh in college was meeting and marrying Erika Chartrand. Traveling south from Canada, Erika was college rodeoing for Panhandle State . She remembers her father warning her not to fall in love with an American cowboy. “I liked her, but I was focused on bull riding – I was hardheaded for the first six months. I wasn’t supposed to have a girlfriend.” It was meant to be, though, and the more time he spent with her, the more he felt she was the one. “She was the first one I met that I had those feeling for.” Within the first year, he had taken her home to meet the family. See Erika’s story on RMPRA page 90. They married on October 2, 2021, and went to Hawaii for their honeymoon.
Then they set about accomplishing their goals. Hers was to make the NFR in the breakaway and win the coveted Resistol Rookie of the Year. His was to make the PBR and NFR finals. “She’s gone more than me – it’s been fun – we’ve been balancing it up pretty good.” They are able to do that because of the team they have behind them. His parents are holding down the ranch while they chase their dreams. “I come home from rodeoing and dad still kicks my butt working around the ranch,” said Josh. “Dad’s primary focus is ranching. Joe and I run a lot of cattle within the same herd.” When the cattle move off to summer pasture, Josh moves on down the rodeo road.
“We support them in everything they want to do and have fun,” explained Lisa. “Their dad spends hours out there helping them.” They also enjoy watching the babies being born, looking to see if they will be the next great bucking bull. “It’s been a great lifestyle and it’s helped the kids in everything they do.” All four are huge goal makers. “When I met Shane, he had his goals written every year; we had the kids do that every year.” Lisa gets up every day and writes down what she’s grateful for; many times, that list includes the ranch and the life they live. Located between Vernal and Roosevelt, Utah, the cattle operation works around Mother Nature, having received 200% of normal snowfall of a foot a year by April. The family lives in the same house that Shane grew up in. “I didn’t come from a rodeo family, I married into it. That and ranching,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. How can you not support your kids’ dreams and goals? I’m going to support it with anything I have and teach them how to do it to be the best they can at it – it’s been a blessing.” It just happened that all her kids had a passion for rodeo. The ranch is located 30 minutes from Vernal, and 27 minutes from Roosevelt. “You go by our house to go to Pelican Lake. We go there once a year for Easter and that’s our tradition.” They simply don’t have time to go more often. “When the boys were rodeoing during high school, Shane or I had to stay home. It was better for Shane to put them on bulls than me, and I stayed home and calved.”
The other passion her boys shared was wrestling. They were in the wrestling room from November until March, then back to the arena. “Wrestling is one of the toughest sports,” Josh explains. “It’s about how hard you work out and making weight; you have to do all that before you step on the mat. It teaches you work ethic, and how to love the process.”
Under the guidance of Shane, Josh has become the only man to make both PBR Finals and the NFR the same year, and he’s on track to do that again this year. “It’s hard,” he admits. “The PRCA is still number one to win the gold buckle.” It was exciting – that was one of my goals and it’s always exciting to get a goal done … it came with a $50,000 bonus – that’s always nice. He just won the Velocity Tour and is headed to the PBR finals. While his focus is on riding bulls, Josh has also won the prestigious Linderman Award three years in a row. His brother, Joe, won the award in 2014. The award recognizes the man who wins at least $1,000 in three events, and those events must include at least one rough stock and one timed event. “It’s cool – it’s a very cowboy award and I take a lot of pride in it.”
For Shane, entering multiple events meant more chances to win. “You couldn’t win if you didn’t enter. I rode bareback, bulls, steer wrestled and roped calves We didn’t team rope a lot, but when the kids started, we rode calves, and roped; we did the events I knew how to coach them in. We pretty much roped every day, and we’d buck calves and steers in the arena in our front yard,” explains Shane. “We’d move sprinklers, then we’d swing by and push the snow out of the arena to dry out quicker.” Shane said that even in February there is decent weather to get out and practice. He is quick to clarify that the ranch is not raising bucking bulls. “I was raising bull riders, so I raised rider-friendly bulls to teach my kids how to ride.” Because of Shane’s background in multiple events, he taught his kids how to rope as well. “At one time there were a lot of guys that did multiple events, but now there aren’t and there’s very few that can do both ends of the arena.”
When the youngest went off to college, Lisa and Shane filled their time on the ranch and followed them all on their journeys. “We barely turned the cows out, and I flew down to Texas (Frank Phillips college in Border, Texas) to drive Jacelyn home with her three horses.” With 13 years between the oldest and youngest, Lisa and Shane have spent 30 years raising their children. There are six years between Josh and Jate, Joe is 31, Josh 27, Jate, 22, and Jacelyn is 18. “I’ve been a mom for a long time, and when the last one went to college it makes you feel like ‘what do you do now?’. It’s been great. Joe has 2 kids and Jate has one, so we are grandparents now. Mainly we just do the same thing – helping the kids and watching rodeos. When they are gone, we work at the ranch. We are truly blessed that we get to do what we love to do. We do all our favorite things – working with cattle, ranching, rodeoing and being a family.” They have been able to raise bulls that they trust their sons to learn on. “Shane is the bull fighter, so we don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“If you want something, it takes hard work,” said Lisa. “The biggest challenge they had was they couldn’t rope until they moved sprinklers or hauled hay; they wanted to practice so they worked hard to make time to practice.” All the kids learned by watching the example set before them in their parents.
“They are hardworking driven boys,” said Shane Frost of his sons. “I get up at five and come in at nine. They’ve been following me their whole life.” For Josh, his rodeo goals include a PRCA gold buckle and a PBR gold buckle. Then he plans to slow down a bit and quality for the calf roping and bull riding I the same year. The only one to accomplish that is Phil Lyne – and he won the average in both events (1972 NFR). He admits he is living his dream right now.
“I have my Ag Ed degree; I taught for three months, and I really enjoyed that. I see myself doing that – but I want to be my dad when I grow up – here at the ranch with my wife and kids.”
