Age: 25
Hometown: Clovis, New Mexico
Career Earnings: $1,773,520
Major Rodeos: Calgary Stampede, San Angelo, Fort Worth, Cheyenne, San Antonio, Reno, Sioux Falls, Walla Walla, Austin, Bremerton, Vernal, Puyallup, Rapid City, Redmond, The American Rodeo, San Angelo Roping Fiesta, Stephenville.
NFR Qualifications: 7 (2019-25)
World Titles: 2 (TD 2020, AA 2024)
NFR Average Titles: 0
Star Horsepower: Lollipop, (Figure To Fly,) Tootsie Pop, (Popular Snow Resort,) Rampage, (Big Cats Monkey)
Calf roping produces some of the largest personalities in ProRodeo, and Shad Mayfield is no exception, with swagger that makes him one of the most recognizable cowboys in modern calf roping history.
Alongside his ProRodeo resume, he’s built an all-star social media presence and an enviable team of horsepower.
In 2024, he even stopped the clock in 6.1 seconds inside the Thomas & Mack—the fastest calf roping run ever made in the building—but when the calf got up before the 6 second limit was reached, the run didn’t go in the record books. Instead, his peer Haven Meged remains the official arena record-holder with his 6.4-second run made the same night.
For Mayfield, though, the near-miss is just part of a bigger story. He currently boasts two World Championships, has more than $1.7 million in ProRodeo earnings, and a 2025 season that started with a bang.
2025: Riding the Sugar High
2024 PRCA All-Around World Championship in hand, Mayfield reminded the calf roping field exactly who he is at the start of the 2025 season—winning the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo and San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo.
In Fort Worth, he dominated for the second consecutive year, cashing a $20,000 check with a 7.6-second run in the final round on February 8. Earlier in the week, he’d already tied the FWSSR arena record with a 7.2-second run in the opening bracket.
“This feels great,” Mayfield told Calfroping.com following his FWSSR win. “Fort Worth is a pretty dang prestigious rodeo. My dad won it a long time ago, so this is special. Fort Worth is one of the most legendary rodeos there is, so it’s even more special to get a win back-to-back.”
The win came on Figure To Fly—Lollipop—the 15-year-old mare who was named the 2024 AQHA Tie-Down Horse of the Year.
He did it all while riding through pain. In 2024, Mayfield tore the labrums in both hips and has been managing femoral impingement with stem cell therapy instead of surgery.
“I rope better in pain,” Mayfield said. “It makes me try harder. When God tells me the time is right for surgery, I’ll do it. Until then, I’m just going to keep going.”
Later in the season, Mayfield threw another big punch north of the border.
At the 2025 Calgary Stampede, Mayfield won his first Calgary bronze aboard Daddys Shiner Cat—Peso—earning $58,875 and taking over the No. 1 spot in the PRCA world standings exactly 40 years after his dad, Sylvester, won the same rodeo.
“That’s where I’ve been trying to get to,” Mayfield said following his win. “I’ve been fighting to keep up with Riley [Webb] all year. He wins, then I win. We’ve been going back and forth, but this was the win I needed to finally take over the top spot.”
The win didn’t come easy. He struggled through the preliminary rounds and made a crucial horse change at the right time, stepping off Lollipop and Tootsie Pop and swinging a leg over Peso for the final two rounds.
“It felt like I was just standing on the ground roping the dummy,” Mayfield said. “That horse is so fast, so easy… He just makes it feel smooth and fast.”
It was a full-circle moment for the Mayfield name in Calgary.
“My dad was pumped,” Mayfield said. “He was the one who told me to get on Peso… It meant a lot to him to see me win the same rodeo he did.”
Clovis Kid
Long before the World Championships and Calgary bronze, Mayfield was just the kid from Clovis, New Mexico, roping his way around the practice pen his dad built.
His father, Sylvester Mayfield, is a two-time NFR qualifier who made the Finals in 1985 and 1987 and won the tie-down roping at the Fort Worth Stock Show in 1987. Mayfield and his sister, Shelby, grew up in a rodeo family where horses, calves and practice pens weren’t hobbies—they were the family business.
By his mid-teens, Mayfield was already testing himself against grown men. He won an American qualifier in Clovis in 2017, qualified for the Junior NFR and captured the Cody Ohl Jr. World Championship in Sweetwater, Texas. He even qualified for the long round of The American at AT&T Stadium—youngest tie-down roper in the field—getting a preview of the stadium lights that would define his career. In 2018, he capped his youth career as the National High School Rodeo Association Champion Tie-Down Roper.
When he turned 18, there was no question what came next. He bought his PRCA card and, in 2019, started ProRodeoing hard.
2019–2020: The Fast Track to a Gold Buckle
The rookie didn’t sneak into ProRodeo—he stormed in, advancing to the NFR on his first shot and rounding up $36,654 at the Finals. For a kid just out of high school, the World Champion gold buckle wasn’t intimidating—they was a target.
By 2020, he hit it. Mayfield won his first calf roping world championship with $198,399 in season earnings. He entered the NFR with an $89,000 lead over the field, fueled by wins at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, the San Angelo Cinch Chute-Out and the Turquoise Circuit Finals. He also picked up all-around titles at Cave Creek, Nephi, Mesquite and Deadwood.
The win, however, came under unusual circumstances. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 NFR was moved from Las Vegas to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
And while the world title still shines the same on paper, Mayfield—a roper who grew up dreaming about Vegas—has had a nagging feeling. That’s part of why the Thomas & Mack remains unfinished business. He has the world title, but he still wants one that runs through ten rounds in Las Vegas.
2021–2024: Maturing as a Competitor
The next four seasons turned Mayfield from phenom to continual threat.
In 2021, he finished No. 7 in the world with $195,910, winning two go-rounds at the NFR and stacking victories at Rapid City, Redmond, Gladewater, Greeley and Caldwell. He was learning how to manage a full ProRodeo schedule, different setups and the mental swing of good weeks and bad.
By 2022, his numbers started to explode. Mayfield finished No. 2 in the world with a career-high $269,936, making his fourth straight NFR and placing in three go-rounds. In Round 6, he tied the arena-round record with a 6.5-second run, showing the kind of reach and speed that would later produce that oh-so-close 6.1-second run in 2024.
In 2022, he won everywhere: Austin, Lubbock, Tatum, Liberty Hill, North Platte, Greeley, Molalla, Livingston, Vernal, Dalhart, Phillipsburg, Lawton, Canby, Bremerton, Lewiston and the Cinch Playoffs at Puyallup. The checks weren’t just adding up—they were spreading out across every kind of pen and pen of calves.
2023 pushed it even higher. Mayfield finished No. 3 in the calf roping world standings with a career-best $309,383. At his fifth NFR, he earned money in four rounds, winning Round 4 in 6.9 seconds and Round 10 in 6.7.
By 2024, he wasn’t just chasing titles in one event.
He finished the year with $335,474 in all-around earnings and $397,408 in calf roping, claiming his second PRCA World Championship—this time as the All-Around World Champion—while finishing No. 2 in the calf roping race.
“It means a lot to win the All-Around,” Mayfield told Calfroping.com. “I’ll have more chances at a calf roping gold buckle, but the all-around doesn’t come around very often.”
At the NFR, he placed in four rounds, finished No. 4 in the average with 94.6 seconds on 10 head and earned a personal best of $111,062 in Las Vegas.
“Steer roping is going to be something I’d like to continue to pursue,” Mayfield said. “I’d like to make the steer roping finals some day. I have a steer roping horse that’s really good.”
Horsepower: Lollipop and Tootsie Pop
For all the numbers and buckles, Mayfield insists the wins start in the barn with his horses.
When he bought Figure To Fly—Lollipop—in April 2023, he did it out of necessity, not love. Rampage was battling EHV-1, Platinum had torn a tendon at the 2022 NFR and he simply needed a horse for the California run.
Lollipop, a mare that had already finished second in the 2021 Horse of the Year voting with Andrew Burks, wasn’t exactly at her peak.
“When Blane Cox called and told me Lollipop was for sale, I said, ‘Have you not seen the way she’s been lately?’” Mayfield joked.
She worked well enough when he tried her, so he took the chance. Then came the rough patch—Lovedale, Red Bluff, Guymon, jackpots that didn’t pay. At one point, he was actively trying to sell her for what he had in her.
“She just didn’t love her job anymore,” Mayfield said.
Instead of cutting ties, he went home and went to work. He slowed down, took her to jackpots and focused on making her love roping calves again.
“She has taught me a lot about horses, mares specifically, and they must love their job,” Mayfield said. “It just took time, patience and working on the little things to bring back her love for calf roping.”
What came next changed his career. Almost all of the $286,000-plus he won en route to his sixth NFR qualification in 2024 was on Lollipop. Of the $180,000 he earned just from rodeos he won, roughly $150,000 came with her. Then she was named 2024 AQHA Tie-Down Horse of the Year.
“When I got the call that Lollipop got Horse of the Year, that meant more to me than anything,” Mayfield said. “Honestly, I didn’t grow up riding the best horses… I never thought I’d have the chance to own the Horse of the Year.”
Just when it seemed like his horsepower couldn’t get any deeper, another mare stepped into the picture.
After the passing of breeder Marty Miller, his wife Felicia reached out and told Mayfield there was a mare he needed to try. Bred by Miller and sired by Popular Resortfigure—the same sire as Lollipop—Popular Snow Resort had spent most of her life as a solid circuit horse for owner Trey Hall.
Mayfield hauled her home from Amarillo, legged her up and tied one calf down. He renamed her Tootsie Pop to fit the sugar theme and started seasoning her.
What sets Tootsie Pop apart, he says, is how she handles calves at the end of the rope.
“What I think she does better than Lollipop is hold the calves’ heads,” Mayfield said. “She leaves them right there for me to flank and tie, and that helps my hips. She doesn’t pull on their heads or make them kick. She was a game changer.”
Now, Mayfield finds himself in a problem most ropers would gladly have—choosing between two number-one horses.
Tootsie Pop, he says, shines in the summertime, on bigger cattle and longer scores. Lollipop is lights-out in places like Calgary and indoor setups like Fort Worth and Vegas. Between them, Mayfield has the horsepower to match any arena.
“Coming up, I had horses that just got me by,” Mayfield said. “The horsepower I have now is unmatched… I’ve never had two number ones at the same time.”
He’s not just hauling for himself, either. In 2025, he’s helping rookie Tyler Calhoun.
“I like helping the younger guys,” Mayfield said. “It fuels me too… Being around someone who’s hungry like that fires me up again.”
More to come
From Clovis kid to two-time World Champion, from roping on whatever he could climb on to hauling Lollipop, Tootsie Pop and a steer-roping horse, Mayfield’s story looks a lot like a finished product on paper.
But the way he sees it, he’s still chasing.
He checks the standings daily, compares year-over-year earnings, and tries to beat the version of himself from the year before. He has a calf roping gold buckle from Arlington and an all-around buckle from Vegas, but he’s still eyeing that Vegas calf roping world title—and maybe a steer roping finals qualification down the road.
He’s already carried the Mayfield name back into the winner’s circle at Fort Worth and Calgary, 40 years after his dad did it. And he’s doing it with a social-media-fueled spotlight, a pair of mares everyone in the sport is watching and a competitive fire that hasn’t dimmed through pain, pressure or expectations.
Every story has a beginning, middle and end. For now, it feels like Mayfield is still somewhere in the middle—with plenty of runs, records and gold buckles left ahead of him.