Cowboy Cribs: Teel’s Home Gives him Space to Both Focus and Decompress
By: Darci Miller
PUEBLO, Colo. – In Cody Teel’s own words, he lives on a “funny farm.”
In the PBR’s new series Cowboy Cribs, presented by Union Home Mortgage, fans get a peek inside the homes of some of the PBR’s top cowboys.
When it comes to the Teel residence in College Station, Texas, where Cody lives with his wife Kaitlin and 18-month-old daughter Evelyn, that home includes sheep, a mini pony, a number of cows, a dog and two pigs.
It’s enough to keep anyone plenty busy.
“A lot of people ask me what I do during the week for hobbies or anything, but for me, I don’t do a whole lot aside from preparing and working out, and getting ready for the weekend,” Teel said. “I’m just hanging out at the house. And with our new place now with a little more room, we’ve been able to build stuff for all the animals and pets we’ve acquired. Between Kaitlin and Evelyn, we have little sheep, a mini pony and a few cows. So my free time is spent hanging out with the family, and enjoying all of the outside stuff that we’ve kind of built at our house.”
The Teels bought their home in 2017, putting down roots in Kaitlin’s hometown and three hours away from where Cody grew up. While the house was several years old when they bought it, they only had to remodel a few things to turn it into exactly what they wanted.
In addition to the veritable farm out back, they also have work and office space for Kaitlin, where she runs her online shop, Shop Teel.
“Being a homeowner, it’s a lot different. A lot more responsibility, but it’s also a good feeling having something that’s yours and is an investment,” Teel said. “Every dollar you put in it is money in your pocket down the road.”
While he’s currently ranked No. 53 in the world standings following a difficult start to the 2020 season, the 2012 PRCA champion has been a perennial world title threat since coming to the PBR, finishing a career-best No. 3 in the world in 2018.
One of the keys to his success, Teel believes, is the comfort he’s been able to find at home.
“Learning to love the process, more than anything, during the week. That’s just as important as actually doing it itself,” Teel said. “If you don’t love that part, it doesn’t work, in my opinion. I think that’s the mental side of figuring out what clicks for you. It is such an individual sport, and a lot of guys go at it a different way. I think that finding what works for you, setting your goals and figuring out what you need to do to achieve those goals during the week, I think that’s important mentally, to always be working towards something, because you either get better or you get worse. You never stay the same. In this sport, you’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Teel will be back in action this weekend as the PBR returns to competition with the Las Vegas Invitational, presented by Union Home Mortgage, at Lazy E Arena in Oklahoma. Fans can watch the event on CBS Sports Network and RidePass Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET and Sunday LIVE at noon ET.
Regardless of the results – be it this weekend or at season’s end – Teel knows that ups and downs are part of the sport, and he’ll always be able to leave work at the door when he returns home.
“Just learning to deal with the highs and lows of it, because it happens in bull riding, especially at the top level,” Teel said. “You’re getting on the toughest bulls every weekend. You’re going to have those kind of dips in it, but your job as a professional is to stay as even-keeled as possible. Whether I’m really doing good or not so good, I want to be the same person showing up every time. Sometimes it’s good to step away and have that moment where you kind of forget about bull riding for a second and decompress.”
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