12/18/2025
Wishing Shad Mayfield the best today.
Thank you to Kendra Santos!
(Updated after surgery) Today’s the day Shad Mayfield has dreaded for two years. The 2020 world champion tie-down roper and 2024 world champion all-around cowboy was just wheeled into surgery in Nashville, where Dr. JW Thomas Byrd will go to work on his left hip.
Shad just roped at his seventh-straight NFR, where he and his mighty bay mare Lollipop jumped out and won Round 1 on opening night with a 6.8-second smoke show. They struck again in 7.8 in Round 2 for a three-way split for first with Dylan Hancock and Marty Yates, then followed that up with fourth in Round 3 and second in Round 4.
It was all going according to plan. But only a few of us knew the mixed bag of emotions brewing under the brim of that black cowboy hat on Shad’s head. He knew this day was coming five days after Round 10 before he roped in Round 1. He let me in on his not-so-little secret on the steps of the Thomas & Mack on the eve of opening night. The plan was pretty simple: Leave it all on that arena floor gunning at another gold buckle, then close cowboy shop for the six months it’ll take to recover from the major surgical setback that starts today.
We all watched Shad do Money Mayfield things night after night. Then came a colossal cowboy curveball in Round 5 that sucked all the air out of his sails. Shad was 8.2 after taking two tight wraps on that fifth one. His calf got up anyway. In one unbelievable blink, the charge of the average front-runner came to a screeching halt.
Knowing this day and lengthy injury timeout were right around the corner, I was extra sad for Shad. But I was also proud of how this 25-year-old young man spent the rest of his night. On the heels of disastrous, deep disappointment, he signed autographs for young fans while they ran the extras after the rodeo, then made the familiar trip to the South Point to stand on stage with his friend John Douch and celebrate his Round 5 win. It isn’t easy to be a good sport when you’re playing with so much pain and just had your heart broken.
“I had the greatest start I’ve ever had or even dreamed of those first four rounds,” Shad said. “When that fifth calf got up, things went downhill. That really took it out of me, and the feeling that I had a shot at winning a world championship left the building. Riley’s (Webb) on top of his game right now and has proven his greatness, especially in the Thomas & Mack. Unforced errors are not going to fly against a force like that.”
Shad rebounded with a 7.5-second run and another check the next night, in Round 6. But his run at the 2025 gold buckle—and giving Riley a run for his money on that threepeat—was over. Congratulations to Riley on a $555,544 year, and for rewriting his own annual tie-down roping earnings record.
To add to Shad’s list of worries and woes, he had to get off of Lollipop and onto his sorrel second-stringer, Tootsie Pop, in the last two rounds, because the gritty four-legged Lolli had an ankle issue that would not allow her to complete the course with her cowboy.
I wish I wasn’t so well-versed on what this day will look like for Shad, or the worry momma JoEllen Mayfield is feeling this morning as she watches her baby boy be rolled into surgery scared of the unknown and just exactly what’s ahead. But I’ve just been through this miserable drill with my own son Taylor—in Dr. Byrd’s waiting room for surgery on one hip, then the other, with a knee-surgery kicker after that. When our kids hurt, our hearts hurt.
Taylor and I were treated to the same statements of facts that Shad was yesterday on this particular hip injury, so I’ll share it with all of you as background. A percentage of the population is predisposed to this condition—femoroacetabular impingement, which goes by FAI for short. The way these young athletes’ bone structure inside their hip joints are by birth, coupled with the repetitive stress of certain sports, is a recipe for hips that look on the inside like they belong to someone much older.
According to Dr. Byrd, who is world-renowned for his handiwork on the repairs of this condition, hockey players, baseball players and professional rodeo cowboys—heavy on the calf ropers, ba****ck riders and saddle bronc riders—have it the hardest because of the way their bodies have to work in order to do world-class cowboy things. Dr. Byrd also did work on NFR ba****ck rider Leighton Berry earlier this year.
“The way my hips are made, and with that inner rotation needed for calf roping, there’s not enough bone space for the head of my femur to move around inside the socket,” Shad explained, after Dr. Byrd talked him through it. “So it grinds and grinds in there. And it’s torn the labrums in both of my hips.”
Living legend Fred Whitfield first spotted some limited range of motion in Shad when the two of them went and tied to the post together after the 2023 NFR. Fred asked about it then, but Shad just figured he was a little tight and needed to suck it up. The pain got worse, and the flexibility he’d taken for granted all his life was no longer there.
Shad went to see Dr. Tandy Freeman of Justin Sportsmedicine Team fame in Dallas in January of 2024 just to get checked out. X-rays and an MRI told Tandy all he needed to know, and he broke the news to Shad then that surgery would be the only fix here. Then Shad went on a Money Mayfield heater, and won Fort Worth and San Antonio. He took a monster lead in the world standings, and the tentative plan was to have the surgery after Houston (in 2024). But he didn’t want to slow his roll, and felt like he could tough it out. So he forged on.
The new plan was to have surgery after the 2024 NFR, a year ago. There were times between then and now that Shad turned out of rodeos for a week or two at a time, and disappeared to Tijuana for stem-cell, PRP (platelet-rich plasma) and ozone-therapy treatments.
Shad first saw Dr. Byrd at the Nashville Hip Institute in January of 2025, almost a year ago. He’d just won the ultimate cowboy crown with that coveted all-around championship. And there was a glimmer of good news. When Dr. Byrd compared that first MRI Tandy had taken a year before to the then-new one, there wasn’t enough change to call for immediate emergency surgery.
“Dr. Byrd told me I needed surgery, ‘but not today,’” Shad said. “He said, ‘Your hips will tell you when it’s time.’ So I decided to rodeo this year.”
How’d that go for him? Pretty darn great, starting with back-to-back wins in Fort Worth and San Antonio. The Money Mayfield Mania Tour was out in force in 2025, with W’s from Odessa to Caldwell, Lawton to Vernal, Pleasant Grove to Weatherford. Oh, and there was that $58,875 victory lap at the Calgary Stampede up in Canada last summer. Maybe Money was unstoppable.
Shad could have a bobble and still win first, because he always kept moving—forward motion was his mantra. But make no mistake, he’s been hard at work closing in on $2 million in career earnings the hard way. And both hips have been impacted here, though the “when and if” on surgical repairs to his right hip are yet to be determined. He won’t know the verdict on that until he returns from fixing this left one first.
“It was a pain issue at first,” he said. “Then it became a performance issue. It got to where I’d have to stop and go to Mexico for treatments, or I couldn’t keep going. But I was determined to finish this season.”
That he did, and it’d be hard for most to complain about being reserve champ of the world, and banking $388,931 on the year after a $132,621 NFR. But Money’s got more than a little Ricky Bobby “if you ain’t first, you’re last” blood in him.
He’s played with pain without complaint. That left hip’s past that point now.
“The left one takes the hit when I step off and hit the ground,” Shad said. “My right hip will have to be fixed, too, but I’m hoping that can come later. This left one just couldn’t take it anymore. There’ve been days here lately when I step across to tie a calf, and it’s like a knife sticks through my hip. It’s like stepping on a rock with every step.
“If I’d quit roping, my hips would be OK for everyday life. If I don’t rope, I’m not sore, though if I sit down for two minutes my left hip aches until it gets loosened back up. When I’m roping and riding, the inflammation is all there. But not roping is not an option for me.”
When will Money Mayfield return to action?
He’s hoping hard to be back by June, in time for Reno—a comeback at Calgary in July at the latest. He opted against getting both hips fixed for now, because that would take the possibility of making the 2026 NFR off the table.
“My hip injuries have messed with me mentally more than anything,” Shad said. “The limited range of motion has really hurt my tying. I haven’t been able to practice at home, and when I get to the rodeos, I feel stiff and don’t have the flexibility I need. It’s a lot less fun, and there’s no way to win as much. Then came the major lower-back pain shooting up there from my hips.”
In that operating room right now, Dr. Byrd is repairing Shad’s left labrum, shaving the bone on the head of his femur to fit better in his own hip socket, and cleaning up bone spurs with power tools. The wild-card factor is whether or not Shad needs what’s called microfracture surgery, where holes have to be drilled in the bone to allow new cartilage to grow back. Surgeons can’t see that from any diagnostic tests before physically getting in there inside that joint.
“Dr. Byrd said he wouldn’t know about that until he had me opened up,” Shad said. “If he does have to do the microfracture surgery, it’ll add another three or four months to my recovery. That would mean missing 10 months of the year, so basically the whole season.
“I love rodeoing in the winter. It’s my favorite time to go. So this is a terrible time for this surgery. But it’s my best option for me to get back to the NFR in 2026. I just want to be 100% healthy. I don’t feel like a guy can be at 75% and beat Riley Webb.”
Once Shad gets weaned for short stints from that ice machine, he’ll start physical therapy with Jim Bui in Decatur, Texas four days a week. He plans to go back to Tijuana next month for more stem-cell therapy in this left hip—maybe both of them.
“It’s scary going into this surgery today,” Shad said. “I don’t know what my future looks like yet. I’ve worried about my health for two years, and at the end of the day, the surgery is still a risk and a gamble. The problems with my hips are something I’m going to have to deal with the rest of my career. But right now all the things are going through my mind—what if it doesn’t heal right, and I have to get it done again.
“The fear of the unknown is real, and it messes with your mind. I’ve never had to take off from roping. I’ve always been on my feet, and I’m the kind of person who can’t sit still. For four weeks after I wake back up today, I can’t even put on my own socks and shoes. I’m not going to lie, this is scary.”
Here’s hoping for the best possible outcome in that operating room. I’m imagining straight-laced Dr. Byrd getting his groove on, scalpel in hand, with The O’Jays blaring Money, Money, Money, Money (“For the Love of Money”) as mood music in the background. It’s always settling to me when surgeons know exactly what these guys are dying to get back to at the other end of PT.
Today’s the day Mister Money Mayfield starts to get his tie-down roping groove back. Prayers for surgical success and a fast, full recovery. This cowboy comeback story starts now.
UPDATE from sister Shelby, 4 p.m., 12-18-25: The surgery is done, and Shad is awake. Sadly, the microfracture procedure was necessary. It’ll mean a little longer recovery (Dr. Byrd estimates three or four extra months, so maybe 10 total). Not the news Shad or any of us wanted to hear. His healing starts now.
Shelby Mayfield 📸 Las Tunas Performance Horses and Reliance Ranches
