Dana Lee brings us up to date on the past few months and 2016 season!

Tonight is the official kick off of the 2016 season and it couldn’t come at a better time! I

think Mike was going stir crazy these past 2 weeks not getting on bulls. While some take the

break as a time to heal up that’s never Mike’s plan. He loves riding and tries to go to as many

events as he can.

The weekend after finals was his start of the 2016 season and he’s attended every event

he could since then. I’m happy and thankful to say that Mike has stayed healthy through the

break and done an amazing job at the events he’s attended!

Watching him ride during this break I saw a resurgence in his love of riding and he

looked so happy being on top of those bulls. I’m not sure that I can put into words the joy you

feel watching someone you love do something they love to do and being truly at peace with it.  I

am so thankful that God has put this into his life and that I am lucky enough to get to watch him

experience it!

I am so excited for this next season and what it has in store for our family.  As some of

you know Peter has officially turned 2 years old which I still can’t believe myself! Where has the

time gone?! So this next year me and Peter won’t be able to travel with Mike to every event like

we have for the past 2 years. While I’m excited for this next chapter in our lives Peter and I both

will miss being at every event cheering Mike on in person. But that doesn’t mean that we’ll cheer

any less louder from home!

Praying for all the riders, bull fighters and livestock to have a safe and healthy 2016

season!

— Dana Lee

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Dana Lee shares how her husband responds to his big win in Thackerville, Ok.

Mike has never been one to brag about himself. When we first started dating and I’d ask how a bull riding went it was either one of two answer “good” or “not good I bucked off all my bulls”. Being a man of little words I quickly realized that “good” could mean a variety of different things. One of them being WINNING an event.

I will never forget the first time he said he did “good” and when I asked him what place he finished he told me “uh first”. I was so excited for him but so confused at the same time because if I won I’d be jumping up and down with joy wanting to yell it from the rooftops! But Mike had it figured out long before I did.

Mike is the most humble man I have ever met and proves this to me on a daily basis. He is quick to thank God for his wins but hardly ever will admit that he won an event or even did well at it because he feels like it would be bragging on himself. There is only a handful of times I can remember Mike calling me excited to tell me that he won an event or did good. After you get to know Mike you realize that just because he doesn’t jump up and down and shout it from the rooftops doesn’t mean he is any less excited!

Winning this past weekend in Thackerville was a great blessing for Mike and there are no words to express how happy it makes me to see him up there in front of everyone thanking God for his blessing. Watching Mike ride has become one of my favorite things to do. To see him do something he loves and be able to cheer him on while he does it is amazing for me. To watch his dreams come true is a dream come true for me.

When I asked Mike on the drive home how it felt to win he said “Good, really good. God really blessed me tonight.” He said he hoped he could win another one this year too. And I believe if he stays healthy he will! For now he’s just taking it one bull at a time and one event at a time. 

Through the Summer with Mike Lee and Family

Fun traveling on the road!

This summer run was a lot of fun. My family got to come with me a great deal and I got back to just me and my family and riding bulls. It seems to help me ride better when it’s nothing else other than just me and the love of bull riding. Then everything else just disappears.

I put on two bull riding schools this summer one in Lane, OK and one in Mission, SD. The one in Lane OK called the Lane Frost Memorial Bull Riding School. I have been doing it for several years now and this year was a good year. Plenty of kids and several that were really motivated to ride and learn. We all went running up and down the gravel roads in the Oklahoma hills and a few of the kids even beat me back to the arena. It was a great few days and I got to see a lot of talent in these students. I hope the school had an impact on them because I push them hard and make them think outside of the box and push them out of their comfort zones. And not just an impact in bull riding but in other parts of their lives too.

Putting up tepees with the Lakota Tribe

The school in Mission South Dakota was for the Lakota Tribe there. It was a lot of fun getting to learn about their culture and the family that put on the school. It’s really pretty country there with great people who took care of me and my family like they were their own. We got to work a lot on the horses, more than I normally do, because of their natural ability to ride a horse. And believe it or not if you can ride a horse trotting around bareback in a round pen with no hands for 8 seconds then you can probably ride a bull.

Lancaster, CA event.
Mike won it and got 2nd and 3rd place
riding all six of his bulls.

I got on a lot of bulls this summer. Decatur was good event and California was really fun. I got to get on Bushwacker and he felt really good and really fun. In the past he hadn’t felt that good because I was out of time, but it seems to be easier to believe it’s possible now. God is helping me believe that things are possible. Not because I deserve them but because I trust and have faith in his plan for me. It seems to be that sometimes you quit trying to hold onto everything, you just let it go, and trust in your instincts and live bull by bull and day by day and there seems to be more freedom in that and more fun.

Mike Lee and Brendan Clark
with their sons at the
Salinas, CA PBR event.

This summer I pushed myself to the limits by entering several times at each event. This might not be for anyone else but it really helps me. When I get exhausted and I don’t have anything else left in my tank is when I find out who I really am. Things slow down and I feel alive.

Calgary Stampede Down Time

I got to spend time with my son Peter who is 7 months old and just kind of getting to watch and be with a baby again makes you kind of slow down and think about life. Think about “what am I living for?” And if everything was taken away from me, if my money, my bull riding, my family were all taken away then what is it if you lose everything that you live for?

It comes to mind that we’re all going to lose everything. We’re all going out the way we came in, naked and with nothing, just as my son peter did. I’m kind of experiencing the world in his eyes. It just makes you slow down and think what am I riding for? What am I living for? And at the end if you have no faith and no hope to meet your maker, and to meet Jesus, it makes no sense. All this work, all this effort, good, bad, what is it for? What is it worth? Without God without our maker then it seems pointless. And when things are pointless I lose hope.

This summer I found my hope again, and my belief that things are possible. I had told my wife I was feeling anxious this summer about a particular bull, it was a really good bull and there was a lot of pressure and I was getting a little bit of anxiety about it not wanting to mess it up. My wife turned towards me and said “that’s good, enjoy that feeling, enjoy the pressure, enjoy the moment. Don’t run from it, don’t try to escape it, take it all in, feel it, let it come over you. Bask in the greatness of that moment and rejoice in the mere fact that you get to experience it! Take note of how hard you worked to get there and how blessed you are to be there. Those are the moments to live for, the moments that you will remember the most. You tried your hardest and you didn’t let the fear take away your faith in the gift that God has given you.” When my wife told me that God whispered in my ear “just let it go and trust your instincts.”

Sometimes I forget I have a Father in heaven and that he leads my paths. As long as my spirits right I can trust and have hope and belief in things that seemed impossible. Sometimes I just have to remember to try to just enjoy the moment.