Tilden Hooper Grew Up With His Nose In A Book

Reading spurred his desire to be a cowboy.

By Susan Kanode

Growing up in Carthage, Texas, Tilden Hooper learned a sense of community and a desire to be the best from the start, but his start in rodeo came from books. 

He had been reading a lot of Louis L’Amour novels and was inspired by the heroes in those Western books. His family didn’t have horses, but there were people in the community that did. He rode occasionally, but it didn’t take the junior-high student long to figure out that having a horse wasn’t in the cards. 

About the same time, he started looking at rodeo competition. One of his friends was Spence Barney who competed in the timed events. Tilden’s interest in rodeo was growing along with his friendship. He also started hanging around Clayton Williams, whose father, Terry Williams, went to high school with Tilden’s father. Terry was a legendary stock contractor in the PBR and Clayton was just starting to ride bulls. Tilden thought he’d go that route, but his mother quickly put a stop to that idea. Tilden’s father had been a bareback rider and when he looked at pictures of his dad riding bucking horses, he thought he could do that. 

“I thought that riding one thing bucking is just like riding another thing bucking, and I would do whatever I could to get involved,” he said. “I hatched this scheme to talk my mom into letting me ride bucking horses because horses are nice and bulls are mean. I thought I could sell that and I did. Then I thought I’d eventually start riding bulls.”

His negotiating power also convinced her that if he could get to the point that he could stay on, he could probably get a scholarship and further his education. That sealed the deal. His dad built him a spur board and he and his father got to work.

“I was very fortunate,” Tilden added. “Even though my dad only competed locally, he knew how to do it correctly. The basics that he taught me are the basics that I would use to teach a kid if he showed up here today.” 

Those fundamentals led to a career riding bucking horses that now spans two decades and includes 10 qualifications to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR). Tilden spent hours practicing and preparing before he ever got on a bucking horse. He wasn’t a natural born thrill seeker and was “mediocre” at other athletic pursuits. There was a lot of doubt among the people that knew him. 

When the day came that he could test his skills against a real horse, they put a flank on a team roping horse, Tilden settled down in the chute using his dad’s old bareback rigging and was concentrating on what he was supposed to do. The chute gate opened, the horse ran and bucked across the arena and Tilden came off. 

“I was just hoping I didn’t die,” he said. “But I was hooked. I thought, ‘This is the way I can become a cowboy.’ I remember I wasn’t very good.” 

“I had my hand in the rigging and was just about to the point where I was going to nod. The gate swung open and here we go … Later on, I told Spence the more I thought about it, I didn’t know if I actually nodded. Spence started laughing. He’s like ‘man, I was just worried that you were going to chicken out and you looked ready, so we just opened the gate.’” 

They had been talking about Tilden getting on bucking horses all week at school. Spence really wanted him to do it, so he never gave him a chance to say no. Tilden learned quickly that he needed to nod his head and that with each step towards success, there was a lot of failure along the way. 

“Looking back, I can see God’s hand in everything,” he said. “It was his plan for me to do this.”

Things started clicking when Tilden was a senior in high school. He went to the Thanksgiving Rodeo School that was hosted by bareback riding greats Will Lowe, Wes Stevenson, Tom McFarland and Royce Ford, aka the Wolf Pack, where he “got on a pile of horses.” 

“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” Wes said. “He was terrible. But as a kid, he had more try and determination than anybody else. After the school, I told my mom, ‘That Tilden kid, he’s going to make it.’”

Tilden earned a saddle before he ever got a buckle and both of those were in high school. He’d been putting in the work, and was learning with every step. As soon as the switch flipped and things started happening, it happened quickly. 

After high school, he attended Panola College in his hometown, qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo and won the title as a freshman. He had joined the PRCA the same year and finished 28^th in the world standings and was the 2007 Resistol Rookie of the Year in the bareback riding. 

The next year he made his first appearance in a nail biter of a situation. Tilden was in 16^th place, Australian Dave Worsfold was in 15^th. However, after an audit by the PRCA, Tilden was able to move into 15^th spot and qualify for the NFR. He made his first trip to Las Vegas where he won the 10^th round on Classic Pro Rodeo’s great bucking horse named Scarlet’s Web. Ten years later, he won the same round on the same horse. 

Last year’s NFR qualification held some of the same drama as his first. Tilden finished just $110 ahead of R.C. Landingham to get the final spot. Again he was waiting for the audit to make sure he would be nodding his head in the yellow bucking chutes. 

The NFR didn’t go like he had hoped for. In spite of riding nine out of 10 horses and having scores over 80 on eight of them, he didn’t win a dime. He and his wife, Melissa, made the trip back to Weatherford, Texas, where they now make their home with their three children. Tilden was back at getting his game together soon and in February, he won the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo for the second time. He also won it in 2020. 

“That win will always be very special to me,” Tilden said. “It was the last time that Bob Tallman, who has become a great friend to me, announced that rodeo. Any time you win a big rodeo, it’s special. There are so many things that have to go right for you to win. When it happens like it did at Fort Worth and I could walk around and high five my kids afterwards, that’s about making memories.” 

Tilden came home from the NFR and went to work outside of the arena. He got his real estate license and while another trip to Las Vegas in December is a real possibility, he is pursuing other opportunities.  

“I’ve realized over the past few years what a blessing it is to be able to rodeo and have time to spend with my family,” he said. “Especially at the age they’re at and they’re not in school. There’s just a lot of memories we’ve gotten to make because of rodeo. What I thought was going to take me away from this has been the biggest driving factor to keep me motivated enough to continue to put in the work to be able to compete at this level.” 

Tilden has had numerous traveling partners including the GOAT, six-time world champion Kaycee Feild. He has surrounded himself with people that strive to make him better and while he doesn’t assume that he is going to win, he expects it. He has always been willing to put in the work so he could ride against the best in the business. He’s had major injuries and big comebacks. Throughout his journey, he has learned to trust in the process, be dedicated, not worry about the things that are out of his control and take care of the things that are.