Dee Heinemann was just "a little kid" when he first fell in love with the sport that would go on to shape his life.
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"I used to get up early in the morning and watch rodeo tapes before I went to school and watch them before I went to bed," the former Moonbi-now-Gunnedah cowboy reminisced.
Dreaming of being a bareback rider just like his dad, Mick, he never could of envisaged the amazing career he would have.
In January the 43-year-old won a record 10th Australian Bushmen's Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABCRA) open bareback title.
Equal with the legendary Greg Gibson on nine heading into the 2023 season, Heinemann saw off the challenge of three-time, and defending, national champion Travis Heeb to clinch the honours and ride his way into the history books once again.
Emphasis on the once again.
The year he won the first of his 10, he also won the rookie title - something rarely achieved.
He has also twice won the end-of-season and aggregate titles in the one year, twice gone back-to-back and even won three in-a-row.
The first season he had fully committed to since 2018, when he won his ninth title, Heinemann won 17 events across the 2023 season to carry a $1,695 lead over Heeb into the recent National Finals.
He probably could have won more had he not missed seven months after tearing his bicep off his arm at a rodeo at West Wylong.
"It happened about the fourth jump into the ride," he recalled.
A mine storeman out at Narrabri, he played down the title record.
In his opinion there's a lot of riders that have finished up now that rode a lot better than he does, but didn't enjoy the success he has.
"Some of the guys I still wish I was half as good as," he said.
Even for the most recent season he reckoned the only reason he was ahead of Heeb was because he "out-travelled him".
In his early 20s when he won his first title, Heinemann can still remember it. It was the realisation of a dream he'd held since he was young.
"Fellas used to call into home on their way through sometimes, and you'd meet people who were your idols," he reflected of his childhood.
"And you're like I want to try and win what they've won one day."
Twice crowned the best All Round Cowboy in the country, he has done a bit of everything in the sport over the years - roping, steer wrestling, bullriding, saddlebroncs - he apparently "wasn't much good at" at the latter.
He wasn't too bad on the bulls winning the rookie title in 2000 and finishing runner-up for the national title. But after one too many torn groins he swapped the chaps for the vest and moved into the bullfighting ranks.
He did that for about five years, but bareback was always his true passion.
"Your bones don't stop growing until you're 22 so I just waited it out," he explained about why he didn't get into it until later on.
"I've seen a lot of guys get on early and suffer injuries."
So in 2004 he did a bareback riding school with Glen Mansfield, and the rest as they say is history.
"I was lucky enough when I first started all the really good guys were still riding," Heinemann said.
"You had to ride as good as you could to place so that was probably to my benefit."
They were great times; travelling around with his mates.
"We couldn't wait to go the next weekend because we were just all hanging out and having run and riding was just a part of it," he reflected.
It is one of the things that has kept him in the sport for almost two decades, although he joked that when he's "laying up, icing myself hurt", he does question why he's still doing it.
The simple answer is he just loves it.
