Wilson Creek man 'best in the nation'

WILSON CREEK — Caleb McMillan has the quiet and understated confidence of a young man who knows that he’s good at what he does.

“It’s kind of a cool feeling to know you’re the best in the nation at something,” the 19-year-old Wilson Creek High School graduate said.

And he is the best in the nation at just about anything to do with horses — from riding them to selling them — at least according to the national FFA, which gave McMillan its Entrepreneurship in Equine Science Award at the organization’s nation convention in Indianapolis in October 2016.

McMillan said he’s been riding horses since he was born, so competitive rodeo riding — broncos, steers, roping calves — came as naturally as walking does to the rest of us.

“I grew up in a rodeo family,” Caleb said. “I didn’t have a choice.”

The rodeo part has been easy for McMillan, who has spent the last several years on the road during the summer with his brother Jacob riding and winning and riding some more.

“We go to rodeo in May through August,” he said. “For four months, it’s rodeos virtually every weekend. Around the 4th of July, it’s 12 days straight of rodeos.”

He’s even invested his rodeo winning in a brand new pickup truck, which he’s put 25,000 miles since he bought last July.

McMillan says he breaks his horses to ride when they are 3, though most of the animals he takes on rodeo tours with him are 10 years old, trained right but still able to learn something new, like running on the grass at the Pendleton Round-Up.

“I like to have my horses trained to listen to me, so I don’t have to listen so much to them,” he said.

Scott Mortimer, who teaches agricultural career and technical education in Wilson Creek, said he has always been impressed with McMillan’s horse skills. That’s one of the reasons Mortimer sponsored him for the FFA equine entrepreneurship award.

“This is kind of a big deal,” Mortimer said of the FFA award.

“He developed most of his abilities before I had the opportunity to have him in my class,” he said. “I hope I introduced him to more of the technical side of things.”

The technical side of things involved raising and training horses for sale, something the 10-member panel in Indianapolis grilled McMillan on for 20 minutes or so.

“When I went in there, I thought I would get kicked out for sure, because I didn’t have a list of the horses in my inventory,” he said.

“Caleb tends every horse he’s riding as a horse he can sell, as something in his inventory,” Mortimer added.

The Wilson Creek native has just finished his first semester studying welding at Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., on a rodeo scholarship.

“I hope to make a living riding rodeo,” he said. “If all else fails, I’ll weld aluminum or something.”

Mortimer is confident McMillan has that future.

“I hope to watch the finals one day and see him riding,” he said. “He’s also learning a craft that’s in demand, and if life leads him in that direction, he has another skill to put to use.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.