Tough Draw Tuesday: Colton Byram Trusts the Process
- Brad Hughes
- Jun 16
- 5 min read
Some athlete stories are built over years.
For Tough Draw, one of the earliest memories of Colton Byram came during a podcast recording with fellow Tough Draw Sports athlete Trey Holston. While Holston was on the mic, Byram spent time with Brad and Lindsay Hughes’ boys, Easton and Landon, playing Mario Kart on a Nintendo Switch, laughing, and making himself right at home.
At the time, he was another young bull rider chasing a dream.
Today, he is putting together one of the strongest seasons of his career and making a serious push toward his first trip to the National Finals Rodeo.
This past weekend, Byram added more than $12,000 to his season earnings with an 86-point ride for second place at the Sisters Rodeo in Oregon and an 88-point ride for third place at the Ridgeview Pro Rodeo in Idaho. The strong weekend moved the Mound City, Kansas, bull rider back inside the Top 10 of the PRCA World Standings.
Currently ranked No. 9 in the world with $77,495 in 2026 season earnings, Byram is squarely in the conversation as the summer run continues.
For some fans, the recent momentum may feel sudden.
For those who know Byram, it has been years in the making.
Built Through the Ups and Downs
In rodeo, people often see the highlights first.
They see the wins, standings, rankings, and big rides that make their way across social media. What they do not always see are the difficult stretches that come before them: the injuries, the missed checks, the long drives, the mental resets, and the seasons that test whether an athlete is willing to keep showing up.
That is part of what makes Byram’s 2026 season meaningful.
A year ago, Byram finished 39th in the world standings with $62,415 in season earnings. Over the course of his career, he has earned more than $237,000 and built a résumé that includes wins at the Spokane Interstate Rodeo, the California Rodeo Salinas “Big Week Bull Riding” Xtreme Bulls, the Florida Gateway Pro Rodeo, the Arizona State Fair Xtreme Bulls, the CINCH World’s Toughest Rodeo in Indianapolis, and several other PRCA events across the country.
This season, that foundation has started to turn into something bigger.
Byram climbed to the No. 1 position in the PRCA World Standings earlier in 2026 following a major win at Fort Worth TX Bulls Night Out Xtreme Bulls. He has recorded more than 10 Top 5 finishes throughout the year and currently sits among the leaders in the PRCA Rank 45 Xtreme Bulls series standings.
The results are impressive on their own. The full story is even better.
"I’ve learned that you have to go through the bad days sometimes to get to the good,” Byram shared. “But the main thing is you got to love what you’re doing, and I sure love riding bulls.”
At one point earlier this season, Byram sat atop the world standings before a difficult stretch pushed him outside the Top 15. For many athletes, that kind of swing can be hard to absorb. Byram kept competing, stayed patient, and found his way back into the Top 10.
That has become a theme throughout his career.
Toughness That Shows Up
Like many rodeo athletes, Byram’s path has included injuries, adversity, and moments that tested his resolve.
One of the clearest examples came during the 2025 Salinas Xtreme Bulls. After dislocating his shoulder during the long round, Byram could have called it a night.
Instead, he climbed back on.
With his arm taped tightly against his body, Byram returned for the championship round and delivered a 91-point ride to win the event.
The score made headlines, but the toughness behind it said just as much.
Moments like that do not always show up in a standings report. They reveal something deeper about an athlete: resilience, belief, and the willingness to keep moving forward when the easier choice would be to stop.
Those qualities are showing up in every part of Byram’s season.
More Than the Standings
One of the things the Tough Draw team has always appreciated most about Byram is not found in a stat sheet.
It is his character.
The same young bull rider who spent an afternoon playing Mario Kart with Easton and Landon is the same person Tough Draw has watched mature into one of the sport’s most respected competitors. Through the highs and lows, he has remained approachable, genuine, and grounded.
“We’ve known Colton for a long time, and what has always stood out is who he is when nobody is watching,” Brad Hughes said. “The talent has always been there, but seeing the maturity, toughness, and consistency come together this season has been really rewarding.”
That same steady approach extends to the people and partners around him. Byram is supported by sponsors who have continued to back his career through the highs and lows, including CINCH Jeans and Next Generation Ag Services.
This season, one of the most rewarding parts of that growth has been seeing him share his love of rodeo with family, including having his younger brother, Trevor, with him on the road.
“Family is everything to me, and being able to share my love of bull riding with my brother has been a lot of fun,” Byram explained. “From him pulling my rope to just traveling from rodeo to rodeo experiencing late night drives I think he enjoys the process just as much as I do!”
For Tough Draw Sports, Byram’s journey is a reminder that success in rodeo is rarely a straight line.
Athletes grow. People grow. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come after the hardest seasons.
Looking Ahead
That is why this season feels different.
Byram’s success is not only about standings, earnings, or the world title race. It is about watching an athlete continue to believe in himself, continue putting in the work, and continue chasing something that has taken years to build.
With the summer run underway and momentum building again, Byram is right in the middle of the world title conversation and in position to chase his first qualification to the National Finals Rodeo.
If the first half of the season has shown anything, it is that the path does not have to be perfect for the progress to be real.
For Byram, trusting the process has never meant waiting around.
It has meant continuing to show up, ride through the hard parts, and believe that the work will eventually meet the opportunity.