After 2023 Heartbreak, Roping Duo Ready to Finish Regular Season Strong Ahead of NFR

While Clay Smith competed in Las Vegas last December, Coleby Payne was forced to stay home. A year later, they faced a similar situation late in the season, but found a way to lock up their spot at NFR together.

Team ropers Clay Smith (header) and Coleby Payne (heeler) have worked hard to avoid a repeat of 2023 when Smith advanced to NFR while Payne was left home. The duo have risen into the top 10 of their respective standings over the last few weeks, likely securing a place in Las Vegas this December. / Gini Roberge/@photography_by_gini_

Coleby Payne rode the "rollercoaster" of emotions last fall. It is a ride he refused to take again, even as the feeling of déjà vu loomed. 

In 2023, the Stephenville, Texas, native spent a lot of time refreshing the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association website during the final weeks of the regular season. Every time earnings were updated in the world standings, he had to know. Payne was seeking his first appearance at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and hovering on the cutline. 

A year later, the scenario was eerily similar as the schedule wound down, only this time it was for his partner, Broken Bow, Okla., product Clay Smith. 

“We started off at the top and kind of slipped down there for a little bit, but I never was worried or panicked,” Payne said about the 2024 season. “It almost was like I kept my mind elsewhere, because if you get to watching them standings and thinking of all the what-ifs, it’ll kind of consume you and it takes away from what your main focus needs to be.”

Over the month of September, the second-year partnership tuned out distractions and found a way to amass significant earnings, including more than $11,000 last weekend, vaulting themselves into the top 10 of their respective header and heeler standings to all but secure their spot in Las Vegas this December.  

It’s a sigh of relief after what was previously a massive letdown. 

On November 20, 2023, the PRCA’s Grievance Committee voted to allow Payne to count an extra rodeo above the 75-event limit, which gave him enough earnings to join Smith at NFR. Seven days later, the committee reversed that decision, bumping Payne out of the top 15 and denying his first NFR qualification. Smith, a two-time World Champion and nine-time qualifier for ProRodeo’s showcase event, ultimately partnered with Paden Bray to compete last year.

“It was tough because you want to rope at NFR with the partner you made it with, but for me there were so many ups and downs, I didn't know who I was going to rope with, I didn’t know who I was going to practice with,” Smith said. “I practiced with two different partners before the NFR because I didn’t know who I was going to rope with. That’s how weird it was. It was just a crazy thing that it came to all that. It was hard on me, but I could only imagine how hard it was on him.”

A year later, the duo came into the final month of the 2024 regular season facing a similar scenario. Payne had competed at RodeoHouston without Smith back in the winter, earning $10,000. That discrepancy in their earnings led to Payne sitting between 10th-14th in the heeler standings, while Smith was anywhere from 14th-18th in the header rankings.

Slowly but surely, the pair kept roping their way to earnings. The big surge came over the September 20-22 weekend when they nabbed more than $8,000 for a fourth-place finish at the North Dakota Roughrider Cup in Mandan. Coupled with a combined $3,000 from the Pasadena (Texas) Livestock Show and Rodeo the Omaha (Neb.) River City Rodeo, the pair vaulted into the top 10 of their respective standings, all but assuring themselves a place in Las Vegas. 

“We had kind of battled back, no big licks and we got to a spot in my mind where I’m thinking now we’re one good week away from having it knocked out, which I’ve kind of felt that way for a month and a half now but then obviously it’s taken more than it’s ever taken to make it,” Payne said. “We just had to keep our heads down and keep after them. After last week, we did good at Mandan and good at Omaha, it kind of gave us a little cushion.”

With one weekend to go before the regular season concludes, the duo are hitting the road to make sure their spot is secure.

While they didn’t qualify for the CINCH Playoff Series in Sioux Falls, S.D., there’s still plenty of action taking place in other places, giving the ropers an opportunity to keep earning and maintaining momentum.  Smith comes into the weekend with a little more than $109,000 in prize money for the year, placing him ninth in the header race. Payne is exactly $10,000 better at about $119,000, putting him eighth among heelers.

After an uncertain finish to last year, Payne and Smith are leaving nothing to chance. An NFR appearance together is within their grasp and they refuse to let it slip away. 

“We’ve got five rodeos from now until Sunday,” Smith said. “We talked about maybe not going to California and stuff, but we’ve got horses and a rig sent, so we’re going to fly out there and go to two or three out there and then finish in Stephenville on Sunday and call it a wrap. We’re not slowing down yet.”