Shad Mayfield Carries 2026 Momentum Into New Season with Roping Fiesta Victory

The veteran tie-down roper picked up more than $13,000 in earnings towards the 2027 season with a late October win at the Cinch Roping Fiesta.

Tie-down roper Shad Mayfield won his second Cinch Roping Fiesta title over the weekend, earning more than $13,000 along the way. | Courtesy of the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo

San Angelo is essentially where it all ended for Shad Mayfield last fall. 

In late October 2025, Mayfield gritted his way through two runs at the Cinch Roping Fiesta. Pain and discomfort from lingering hip issues were taking their toll on his body. 

About a month and a half later, he competed at the 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Days after NFR, he had the first of two surgeries on his hips, followed by significant physical therapy to recover. 

Mayfield had hoped last year’s Roping Fiesta would give him something to build on when he started his comeback in 2026. Instead, the event left him with a sour taste. 

“Last year I went to San Angelo and I missed both my calves. I vowed I wasn’t going to let that happen again,” Mayfield said with a laugh. 

The Clovis, N.M., tie-down roper got the job done this October, winning the first go and placing fourth in the second round. While his finals run didn’t draw a check, Mayfield’s aggregate time of 30 seconds on three-head was almost a full second better than runner-up John Douch (30.9), lifting Mayfield to a $13,487 payday and victory at ProRodeo’s biggest standalone roping event.

The outcome is a continuation of the momentum Mayfield picked up since returning to the arena in June. 

Almost immediately after NFR, Mayfield underwent surgery on his left hip for micro-fracture repair. Four months later, he was back under the knife, this time for a repair and cleaning of the labrum in his right hip. 

Before surgery, he picked up a little more than $3,600 in earnings at a few October events in Texas that counted towards 2026 before being sidelined. He didn’t compete again until mid-June, leaving Mayfield essentially three and a half months to go from unranked to inside the top 15 of the PRCA World Standings.

In that short time, he earned more than $135,700, vaulting him from nonfactor to NFR qualifier. Mayfield is headed into the 2026 NFR as the No. 14 man in the tie-down standings, completing an unlikely comeback story. 

“I don’t have any chance of a gold buckle really, so we’re just going to go at it and have fun and try to win as much money as we can,” Mayfield said of his pending NFR trip.

“Everything feels good, coming off of the summer. It was a stressful last couple of months there, having to fight for an NFR back number. It kind of throws it back to my rookie year. That was the last time I was in a bubble race and ended up making it.”

Winning the Roping Fiesta was the latest in a string of tone setters for 2027. Mayfield picked up earnings at the Fort Bend and Waller county fair & rodeo events in early October. Combined, he’s already got more than $18,200 in his ledger for the upcoming PRCA season. 

While the goal of winning as much money as possible remains unchanged, Mayfield knows just how significant earnings before the calendar flips can be. He previously won the Roping Fiesta in 2020. Now, he’s hoping to see history repeat itself. 

“The last time I won that roping, I actually won my first world championship the next year in 2020. I was thinking about it the other day – the last time I won this roping I won a world title. So, maybe going into 2027 I can win another world title,” Mayfield said. “I’m trying to get as much money stacked up as I can going into 2027. We’ve got big goals for next year.”