COEUR d'ALENE — The Gem State Stampede PRCA Rodeo begins tonight at the North Idaho State Fair, but Jacob Paul will have to wait until Saturday for his turn at tiedown roping.

He’s ready. 

The man raised in Post Falls said he'll probably be just over 8 seconds but would love to have a time of 7.4 seconds. If you were wondering, that’s fast. 

“That will be probably what it takes to win this rodeo,” Paul said. “That's what we’ll be shooting to do. Might as well damn sure try it.” 

Paul will be one of several hundred competing in the rodeo, with prize money of around $200,000 at stake. 

Cowboys will go at it in bull and bronc riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling and calf roping, also known as tiedown roping. 

The stands will be packed for the sold-out rodeo that started Wednesday. Tonight is Xtreme Bulls, and then the rodeo continues Friday through Sunday. Bleacher seats will be free Sunday on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dave Paul, Jacob’s dad and chairman of the Gem State Stampede Rodeo Committee, said some of toughest cowboys are in town from throughout the nation, including world champion tiedown roper Shad Mayfield. 

“The field is packed with talent,” he said.  

The Post Falls man counts his son among them.  

“He’s a calf roper,” Dave Paul said.  

Dave Paul was a bull rider for 15 years before retiring. He moved his family to Post Falls nearly 30 years ago and introduced his sons, Alex and Jacob, to the rodeo lifestyle. The boys practiced roping and riding pretty much daily. 

Jacob Paul took to it when he was 1 year old. He grew up at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds and helped build the arena where the rodeo is held, his father said. 

He proved to be very good.

“His whole passion is roping calves,” Dave Paul said. “He loved it.” 

Jacob Paul lives in Blanchard with his wife and two children, who are following in his cowboy boots. His daughter, 3, recently competed in her first rodeo at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. 

“That's how Jacob grew up, and that’s how he wants to raise his kids,” Dave Paul said. 

Jacob has been tiedown roping since he was 12. He’s also tried team roping and bronc and bull riding. 

He believes he'll do well when the calf breaks and he follows on his horse of seven years, Zena, lassos the calf, dismounts, takes it down and ties three legs. 

If he draws a good calf, one that is sharp out of the gate and runs straight, he hopes to break 8 seconds.  

“We’ll see,” he said. 

Jacob Paul has competed at a high level for years and won his fair share of prize money, but he’s also a family and working man, so it doesn’t get his full attention anymore. Today, he runs Big Iron Fabrication and Field Service. 

Still, he travels and competes when he can. Tiedown roping is something he’s done his whole life and plans to continue doing and sharing with his children.  

“Making sure my kids are involved and know the lifestyle I grew up with,” he said.  

He looks up to his father. 

“My biggest hero right there,” Jacob Paul said. 

He broke an arm along the way and suffered the typical scrapes and bruises that come with the rodeo, but at 29, still loves it.

“This is my life. I’m a cowboy at the end of the day, and no one will ever take that from me,” he said.  

    Dave Paul gives directions during preparation for the PRCA Rodeo at the North Idaho State Fair on Wednesday.
  

    Sisters Mardi Moran, left and Macy Moran make sure calves for the North Idaho State Fair head to the gated pen on Wednesday.
  

    Kids pose with the Bumblebee character from the Transformers movie at the North Idaho State Fair on Wednesday. From left, Elias Anderson, Avery Tarbutton, Asa Tarbutton and Merrick Tarbutton.