Riding the dream

Every little boy dreams about being a cowboy, and the Gray brothers were no different – except they never grew out of it.

Now one of them is near the pinnacle of the sport.

Ryan Gray, 22, the middle of the three Cheney brothers who were born a year apart, has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo. Gray, along with friend and rival Rowdy Buechner of Sandpoint, will go for the championship in bareback riding when the 10-day NFR begins in Las Vegas on Friday night.

“I started riding rodeo when I was like 5,” Gray said. “I was riding Uncle Jeff and Uncle Tim around the living room when I was 4. It’s been a goal of mine for a long time. It really doesn’t seem real yet.”

Ryan wasn’t the only one to wrap a bull rope around an uncle when he was a toddler in Wyoming. Corey, 23, and Kayle, 21, did the same thing.

They also rode the arm of the couch, stick horses and the spring-loaded “bull” they wore out.

“Anything they could pretend was a rodeo animal, they rode,” big sister Audrey, 26, recalled.

“They had on Wranglers from Day One,” said their mother, Deb Gray Humphrey. “That’s just how we raised them. We would record the NFR and they would watch it over and over and over again until the tape wore out.”

That passion paid off well before Ryan’s big season that has him sitting fourth in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association standings entering the Finals. Besides winning a host of junior and high school rodeos, all three are attending college in Texas on rodeo scholarships.

Corey has been battling injuries throughout college and recently shattered a knee cap while competing for Texas Tech. Ryan won the College National Finals Rodeo bareback championship in 2004 for Odessa Junior College. Kayle, who is at Odessa, won the Columbia River Circuit saddle bronc title for 2004.

“It’s a dream we’ve always had like every little kid,” Corey said. “They always want to be a cowboy at one time in their life.”

“Since the day I can remember, or the day they can remember, there has never been anything else,” Kevin Gray, their father, said. “It’s a passion – the family heritage.”

One great grandfather produced rodeos, one grandfather had race horses and the other rodeoed. Deb and Kevin also competed.

“Everybody, in one shape or form, has had something to do with horses or rodeo,” Kevin said. “It’s just our lifestyle.”

From the start at youth rodeos in Wyoming the boys were never intimidated by bucking animals.

“Maybe when I was little it was a little scary before you got on,” Kayle said. “But once you got off you want to get on another one.”

“There was an element with the three of them, even before they started rodeoing – they played real rough,” Deb said. “My brothers played rough with them. They learned how to suck it up at an early age.”

The boys were naturals, winning buckles at an early age. When the family moved to the Spokane Valley in 1994 after Kevin took a job with Burlington Northern Railroad, they signed up for the Drover’s Junior Rodeo team.

“The first time I even met them they were at the Spokane Arena,” said Lynn McEachran, whose late husband, D.J., started Drover’s. “They were maybe 8, 9 and 10. They all had on black cowboy hats, Wrangler jeans, Western shirts and boots. They were introduced as, ‘These are the Gray brothers, and they’re cowboys.’ I looked at them and said, ‘Yes they are.’ “

The family bought land on the edge of Cheney in 1994 and built an arena.

“Kevin and the boys built a bucking chute,” Deb said. “That was probably our biggest mistake, getting that in before the roping chute.”

Later, while listing Corey’s injuries, she amended that.

“I hate this sport, it’s going to make them old before their time,” she said. “We should have bought them golf clubs, but how many people in their lifetime get to live their dream?”

The boys remained more interested in rough stock riding events than timed events as they moved on to high school rodeo. Corey won the state bull riding championship as a sophomore, and Kayle won the saddle bronc title as a senior, but all three made more than one appearance at the National High School Rodeo Finals.

Along the way they competed against an impressive circle of friends that includes Buechner, Mt. Spokane graduate and Montana Circuit bareback leader Andy Bolich, and the Mulrony brothers from Pomeroy, Wash.

“To me, what made all of them different from the average kid, or even the very good kid, is they had passion,” McEachran said. “They would watch the horses. They were talking and learning, not (chasing) little Susie the barrel racer. They were all business. They practiced. They kept themselves in shape. They love it. That’s what their life is.”

“We were fortunate to grow up with a lot of tough riders,” Corey said. “When you’re riding against that caliber of guys at that young age, it only makes you step up. If you don’t step up you’re going to stay right where you’re at and never go anywhere. Steel sharpens steel.”

Though their feats were recognized at Cheney High School, it was only because someone else passed on the information.

“Everybody knew how good they were, but you would never get that out of them,” Drew Oswald, Ryan’s classmate, said. “They’re very humble. They wouldn’t say one word about how good they were. That’s just how they are.”

They were also accomplished lightweight wrestlers, a sport they began competing in while living in the Valley. Corey was seventh in state as a senior, and Ryan and Kayle finished second as seniors.

“Wrestling is an awesome sport for building character,” Deb said. “I got more excited about their wrestling matches.”

Kevin credits wrestling with helping make the boys mentally tough for the one-on-one aspect of rodeo.

“Those guys don’t know anything other than how to win,” said Dustin Mulrony, who also went to college at Odessa and is planning to rodeo full time next year after finishing fourth in the CRC. “That’s what will make them successful in anything they do.”

The Gray brothers wrestled, rodeoed or worked to make money so they could rodeo. They didn’t have much time for anything else. Corey was the only one who went to a prom.

“In high school they were just as much cowboy as they are now,” Oswald said. “Everybody always knew they were for real. They were some of the littlest guys, but they were tough guys. One of the biggest kids in school that everybody was afraid of, Ryan ended up getting in a fight with him.

“And he kicked his (butt). They were tough.”

Audrey, who works in the Seattle area, didn’t develop a passion for rodeo, but she doesn’t blame the experience of babysitting her “ornery” brothers.

“I was a cowgirl for a little while,” she said. “I liked it, but I didn’t love it as much as they did. It requires a lot of time, dedication and money, and I didn’t love it enough. I love being around it, and I support my brothers.”

Ryan strove the hardest.

As a senior he barely made the state wrestling tournament because he was exhausted from traveling to rodeos. He actually suggested he quit school to rodeo full time, but his mother squashed that idea.

He did work out a schedule that allowed him to miss Fridays and/or Mondays if he were rodeoing.

“The bottom line was this was a kid that had exceptional circumstances,” said then-principal Jerry Knott. “As long as we could stay within the rules of the school district and also make sure he met his graduation requirements, we were going to work with that kid. He wasn’t the only kid we worked with.”

Ryan has continued that disciplined life in college.

He kept up his school work during the winter but went to winter rodeos and made enough money to be among the bareback leaders all year.

“He’s real dedicated to school,” Kayle said. “A lot of guys aren’t dedicated to do that, when they hit a good lick like that they just quit school.

“I went to pretty much all the winter rodeos, too. I didn’t draw real good horses or I wasn’t riding real good at the time. Your cards kind of have to fall right, you have to be drawing good horses and riding good. Ryan did that and it really paid off.”