A professional cowboy displayed true American spirit on Wednesday when the clock was counting down on his way to Rodeo Houston in Texas.
Professional cowboy Marty Yates of Stephenville, Texas, got caught in heavy traffic with his family as they tried to make it to the competition at NRG Stadium, Cowgirl Magazine reported on Thursday.
His wife, Loni Kay Yates, explained that her husband was driving while she and their baby were in the back seat, adding, “He told me if this traffic doesn’t get any better he was going to get out and saddle his mare and ride up there by 6:30.”
As time was getting away, the cowboy decided to take action.
“My dad helped stop traffic to unload Marty’s mare on the side load and off he went! My mom videoed him riding away, it’s her Snapchat video!” Loni Kay Yates recalled.
The video shows the cowboy riding through traffic along the median as cars sit bumper to bumper on the roadway:
“Marty Yates does what it takes to get to the Houston Short Round! We gotta provide for that baby. Finals bound in Houston!! He and our mare Cyndy Won his semi finals set tonight, but barely made it due to Houston traffic,” his wife wrote in the video’s caption.
Once the family got to the contestant area, Yates and his horse had made it to the grand entry in the nick of time, his wife said.
“It was over a mile from where Marty took off on Cyndy because in the video you can see him riding past Pappadeaux’s on the right, which is 0.7 from NRG. Then it’s even further where they have contestants park. We were at a standstill and stopped way past that restaurant just barely inching forward,” she added.
According to his social media page, Marty Yates is a professional tie-down roper who first appeared in the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 2014.
Video footage from January shows the young man doing what he does best at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo:
His tie-down roping during that event was recorded at 7.7.