A week before the California Rodeo Salinas, Stran Smith, one of the fastest professional tie-down ropers in the world, rests in an air-conditioned trailer to avoid the wrath of Casper, Wyoming’s 103-degree heat. Talking to the Weekly by phone before competing in a central Wyoming rodeo, he says he gets ready for his competitions by “relaxing with his family and watching a movie.”

As a tie-down roper, Smith demobilizes a calf through precise teamwork with his horse. After catching the calf with a loop of rope, the cowboy jumps off the horse, pins the calf to the ground and ties its feet together, then remounts the horse. The competition is judged on speed, but the time is only recorded if the calf remains demobilized for at least six seconds after a cowboy throws up his hand. Professional ropers aim to complete this entire act in eight seconds or less.

Smith, 35, of Childress, Texas, achieved a 6.7 second tie-down in the 2001 Dallas Rodeo, giving him a place in the record books. Since his senior year at West Texas A&M, Smith has been traveling all over the country competing in rodeos. “I fly or drive into a city, rope, and then fly or drive into another city,” he explains.

But in 2003, at the age of 32, Smith’s career as a professional cowboy and his life came to a standstill after he suffered a sudden stroke.

“Up until then, I’d spend 200 to 250 days a year on the road, living life on a day-to-day basis,” he says of life before the stroke. “I felt invincible and I never took the time to relax and smell the roses.”

At the time of his stroke, Smith was at the top of his game and his wife was four months pregnant. Doctors informed him the stroke had been induced by a congenital heart defect, or as Smith explains it, “a hole in my heart.”

The stroke had no apparent physical effects on Smith other than a short-term loss of speech; however, at his doctor’s request he was forced into early retirement under the fear that strenuous activity may cause him to suffer another stroke. Smith refers to this period of his life and career as the “hardest and the best time” of his life.

Family and friends researched Smith’s condition and treatment options, eventually finding doctors in Boston to perform a procedure that would correct an atrial septal defect. The operation was risky, new, and still unapproved by the FDA, but Smith chose to take the risk.

He decided to have the surgery after learning he could have other strokes even if he was on daily medication and stayed away from strenuous physical activity.

“My wife was pregnant with [their son] Stone and I didn’t want to have another stroke after the baby was born,” Smith says. “The doctors came out after the procedure and said it was a textbook surgery. Everything went better than planned.”

Smith says his recovery was 100 percent. After getting the okay from his doctors, he went back to competing only eight weeks after the surgery.

“I’ve been given a second chance,” Smith says. “I had my career taken away and it was given back to me.”

As frustrating and disheartening as the experience was, Smith looks at it overall as, “something negative that turned into something positive.”

“When you have to go through something like this, it forces you to look at all the little things you usually skip over.” Smith adds, “This experience caused me to gain a new level of maturity and faith.”

The Napa, Idaho Rodeo was Smith’s first competition back after his surgery.

“Usually, when you’re out there [competing], you have to put your emotions behind you,” Smith says. “You don’t have time to think, but I couldn’t help it after all that I had just gone through.”

His second comeback event was at California Rodeo Salinas, at which he placed in the top five.

“I returned with an advantage: I was an old veteran with the hunger of a rookie,” he says.

This year marks Smith’s 11th California Rodeo Salinas, a competition he always looks forward to. “There’s a certain mystique to the Salinas Rodeo and winning the Salinas Buckle [which he won in 1996],” he says. “I love the weather there. I always try to stay an extra day to see the area.”

Currently, Smith enjoys a second place ranking in the Jack Daniel’s World Standings for tie-down roping, and he and his wife await the birth of their second child. Though Smith’s schedule remains similar to a touring rock star, he has slowed himself down and cherishes his health and family above everything else.

<>STRAN SMITH COMPETES IN THE SALINAS RODEO ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, JULY 21-22 AT 6:30PM AND ON SUNDAY, JULY 24 AT 1:15PM at the salinas sports complex, 1034 N. Main St., salinas. $12-$19. 775-3100 or www.carodeo.com