WHEATLAND – He’s Army combat arms. He’s a devoted father. He’s a bronc rider who has been a professional rider for 14 years. And he’s looking for a home in Platte County for himself, his family and his dream of running a rodeo school.

Jace Angus. When people tell you to remember his name, it would be prudent to do so. Jace Angus. If ever a man was called to a profession that suited him and saddled with a name that fit his calling, it would be Angus.

“As for the rodeo school we ran it at my place in Colorado,” Angus said. “We did a trial run and it was amazing. We call it ‘Tier One Rodeo Boot Camp.’ We run it a week long just like ‘hell week’ selection for the army. We wake ‘em up with some loud bangs and we just go through everything. So that’s my end goal is to have a school.

His end goal right now has been put on a back burner as he is pursuing a passion he has carried with him all of his life.

Angus is a fifth-generation saddle bronc rider and born to the breed, he eats, sleeps and dreams about rodeo. The Army taught him how to focus. How to never let go and how to turn every dream into a possibility.

At this point, having returned from active duty he has lighted down in Kiowa, Colorado, but has been searching out the possibility of becoming a Platte County Wyomite.

Angus has been a bull rider and accomplished in team and ranch roping, but his passion is riding broncs. He’s paid his dues in that sport with blood sweat and more broken bones than he can count. Angus is not one to let crushing blows discourage him.

Backing up a step to find out how he got to Wyoming begins with his birth in Lakeview, Oregon, but his family moved to Fallon, Nevada.

“That’s where my dad’s family was,” Angus said. “My grandpa had a ranch there and they ran cows up in Paradise Valley. I started there in kindergarten and went all the way through and graduated from Churchill County High School. I wouldn’t say I was a bad student, but I wasn’t a great student. I didn’t like school and I wanted to be outside. I passed but I didn’t really care for it until I went to college. Then things changed.”

While growing up, Angus had several passions other than ranching and rodeo although he’s been riding horses his entire life.

“We junior rodeoed and ranched,” Angus said. “Then my my brother and I got into motorcycles together as we watched a race as kids. For a time, motorcycles and martial arts became a big part of my life. I started out with American freestyle Karate and kickboxing and also grew up wrestling. I did good in competitions, but it took me a couple of years to know that it wasn’t where my heart was.”

Angus and his dad helped out with the ranch when he was young and remained family hands until his grandfather died. Most of his five generations were from either Nevada, California or the Pacific Northwest.

“It was awesome growing up on the ranch,” Angus said. “We eventually went off the ranch, but my best memories were all on the ranch where we’d play cards or go catch and feed the horses. After high school I took two years and went up to Idaho named Bo Jarbo who was a bull rider. His son is with the NFR. They took me in and I kinda amateur rodeoed for a couple of years. Then I got picked up by a coach and a family friend who was at the college. It was Feather River College in Quincy, California.”

Angus began to seriously consider rodeo as a possible profession and all of a sudden he took a serious interest in school. While growing up, his father who was a bronc rider, but Angus said that he never pushed his kids to do anything they didn’t want to do.

That being said, he told his dad that he wanted to be a bronc rider, but his dad told him that he should ride bulls instead. He was fairly successful on the bulls and his dad had his mind made up, but so did his son.

“I thought about it and I finally went to my dad,” Angus said. “I told him that I was going to do this with or without him. He told me right then, ‘now you’re ready.’”

Angus said he has been in some mishaps with bulls but was hurt more times riding saddle broncs. He said that although he’d never broken a bone riding bulls, with a smile he says that on broncs, “I’ve broken my fair share of bones.”

When he made the switch from bulls to broncs, he said it was awesome and he said that immediately he knew that it was what he wanted to do and said that he knew that it was who he was.

“On the first horse, everything that could go wrong went wrong,” he said. “He was supposed to be just a nice little loper out there and maybe jump-kick if he’s feeling good. We get in the saddle and my dad and uncle were there and they were all hyped up.”

The amicable horse, Angus found out had a mind of his own when he came out of the chute backwards.

“After he came out backwards, he spun and jumped straight up in the air and went upside down and landed right on top of me,” Angus said. “It bent my leg so far behind my head that it blew out the crotch of my pants and I tore a hamstring. But there was never any fear with it. It was only, ‘let’s do this again.’”

And Angus said at that point, the fight was on and he was hooked.

“My worst accident was probably a broken face,” he said with a cowboy grin. “Kissed the top rail in Cody, Wyoming. The horse went one way and I went the other way. I broke the eye socket and nose, tore all the Cartlidge in my ribs. That was a pretty bad one. I actually sneezed and the eye socket went back into place so I didn’t have to have any surgery. My eyes were black and my nose was like Silly Putty. I’d wake up and my nose would be over to one side. There must be more than just a few of us that crave the uncomfortability.”

In his rehab, his dad and coach made him watch a lot of videotape and he practiced on the old buck and barrel and saddle horses jumping over double hay bales. He developed a way with horses at a young age and when asked if he was a whisperer he said that occasionally he gets loud.

“Horses are like my best friends,” Angus said. “There’s a connection that they have given me with peace. Everything good in my life has happened with a horse. The challenge of bucking horses is awesome. The best bronc riders from day one are pretty much all horsemen. You’ve got to respect your opponent.”

Growing up in Fallon, it was the home of Top Gun and along with his love for ranching and rodeo, another passion crept in and stole his heart and that was being in the military. There was always a SEAL team there and he was convinced that he wanted to become a Navy SEAL. After seeing the movie “Navy SEALs” he said he was hooked right there. He had it in the back of his mind from that young age that everything he would do from that point on would have to prepare him to be a SEAL.

Preparedness is one thing. Persistence is another. Patience, when it runs it’s course brings the virtue of destiny and purpose. After trying to get into the SEAL program on two separate occasions and not getting a slot, he kept looking for the window of opportunity.

“When one door closes, listen for a new one to open,” he said.

After the two denials, Angus happened upon a friend who was a Cavalry Scout and a 19 Delta in the Army and after going in to shoot with him. According to CavHooah.com,  “A Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 19D “Nineteen Delta” is a Cavalry Scout  to be the commander's eyes and ears of the battlefield. To do this requires a unique soldier. He must be flexible, intelligent, resourceful, courageous, and crave danger to do the unique job of Scouting.”

“He went through some things,” Angus said. “He was blown up, lost one of his best friends, and he really pushed me as to why I really wanted to do this. I started contract work with him. It was all stateside stuff. Protection of people and transport high value people and basically a monkey on the gun. Just doing what you’re told. It was a high purpose when you were able to protect somebody and it makes you feel pretty good.”

Angus left his aspirations of being a SEAL and settled in as an Army Mountain Infantryman. He figured if the Navy wouldn’t take him, he wanted to do the same thing in the Army – going into special ops. When he got the runaround there, he decided to enlist with the Colorado National Guard.

“We started with 10th Mountain,” he said. “And then we transitioned to 86 ICBT which is the infantry combat team. My goals were special operations. I started off as a rifleman and a grenadier and then I was going to be on the sniper team but we got transitioned to something else and I was on a machine gun for a while. We were trained to do any job they needed. I was stationed in Colorado and then we were deployed to the Horn of Africa (also known as the Somali Peninsula for a year.”

Although regulations do not allow information concerning his time there, he did say that they were in a combat zone and that “it was a horrible place. Things that got me through it were pictures of my son and thinking about rodeo and watching the rodeo channel. That’s what kept me going. I also made up my mind right there that I wanted to go home and go NFR.”

Angus blew out his knee while in Africa and ended up having to be medevacked to Germany where they said there was significant damage and they decided to send him back stateside to have the knee reconstructed.

Coming back to have knee surgery was the least of his problems as his transition back to the United States and his journey from that point on would be alone as he got back and found that his wife had moved on. He credits his friends who surrounded him at that point to “saving his life.”

At 35 years of age, he says that he’s lived several lifetimes with several more to go and wants to be riding broncs as long as he can.

“As long as you stay fit and in good shape, and stay smart about things, you can have a longer career,” Angus said. “I work with weights, do martial arts, eat healthy and work. It is a good possibility to move here permanently. If the right things happen, I’d be up here.”

Angus is looking to rodeo full time and from those who have seen him ride, they are confident that he can be very successful as a saddle bronc rider.

“I know I can make it,” he said. “I’ve never been so confident of anything in my life. Financially, I need to pull together a team that can get that cushion to entering again and get to going full time. We are now working on sponsorships to see who wants to be involved in that.”

He has a passion, the experience, the life experiences and a greater purpose for just the love of riding.

“This year I’m also not just riding for myself,” Angus said. “I’m riding for the guys that didn’t make it home. And the guys who came home in the situation like mine and just show them there’s one more thing you can do. I’m going to give it all I’ve got and show you that you can keep on going.”

Though it’s a rough career, Angus said that even though at times you complain about it, all of a sudden you are craving it.

“It’s where the good stories are,” he said. “It’s just a fun, free way of life.”

To contact Jace Angus or to get on the ground floor with a proven winner who has his heart set to ride to change lives, you can email him at jaceangus@yahoo.com.