Lee moving biz to family ranch ahead of second ‘Ultimate Cowboy’ shot.
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Jared Lee, a fifth-generation Florida cracker cowboy, will be operating his cowdog training and horse training operations off his father’s ranch in Suwannee County. (COURTESY)
LURAVILLE — A reality TV star is roping up his cowboy business and coming back home.
Jared Lee, the Suwannee County native that starred on the first season of Ultimate Cowboy Showdown in 2019, is moving back to North Florida this summer. And that’s not the only big news for the world champion cowdog trainer. This fall, Lee will be back on the INSP TV show hosted by Trace Adkins for its All-Star fourth season.
“There ain’t no bull that’s going to stand in my way for season 4, the All-Star season,” Lee said. “I’m not holding nothing back.”
By the time that second stint on TV airs, though, Lee will be back home in Suwannee County.
In addition to helping his father, Jesse, run Rafter 7 Ranch, a 200-acre ranch near Luraville, Lee will also be bringing his businesses with him. That includes Lee HDC Ranching, his horse, dog and cattle ranching operation. He also trains Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs, as well as horses and can train others on working with their own cowdogs.
While most of that work is centered on Lee’s own ranch, currently in Picayune, Mississippi, he travels across the country delivering dogs or working with ranchers to learn how to train their own dogs.
“We kind of go everywhere,” he said. Lee’s dogs have won multiple world championships with his cowdogs, which he said will be a big boost in ranchers in Florida and the southeast, making their operations more efficient and easier on their cattle.
Once the Lee family — which includes Jared’s wife, Beth; brother, Cody; and children, Colt, Lucien, Lilli, Sawyer, Harper and Walker — arrives in Suwannee County in June or July, that operation will be based here. It will include herding lessons, hosting cowdog events and trials at the ranch in Live Oak.
Before leaving home more than a decade ago, Lee was already operating a horse training operation off his father’s ranch.
The facility is still intact and has been used since during trips back home.
That included a lengthy stay two years ago when Jesse Lee caught covid-19.
“I had to shut my business down and come down there for about a month to take care of everything for him,” Lee said. “Since covid, I’ve felt like God’s been calling me to go home.”
That calling will allow Lee to work alongside his father, to carry on the family ranch. It’s something he’s always wanted to do. But Lee said the move to Mississippi was necessary, too, to prove he could make it on his own.
“I wanted to be able to show my dad that I could hustle,” he said. “I’m not sitting around waiting on no handouts.
“My daddy had built something that I could just step right up underneath anytime I wanted to. I didn’t want to ride his name. I wanted to be out there myself and I did. Now is the time to join up as teammates.”
The “Lee farmily” will also be bringing a second business with them, BB’s Petting Farm. Lee said his wife, who is a school teacher, had the idea of starting a portable petting farm show that could be taken to schools or festivals to educate children on the animals, which include a wide variety from chickens and rabbits to potbelly pigs and hedgehogs and a miniature highland calf. There are also miniature Nigerian dwarf goats and lizards and turtles.
“I thought she was crazy about it,” he said. “It would blow your mind the amount of business she gets. She’s come up with this idea and it’s shot off ike a rocket.”
Lee’s business has also skyrocketed in recent years. His initial run on “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown” was cut short in 2019 when he broke his leg when charged by a bull.
Still, the airing of the show that fall — when he was named the fan favorite — coincided with his initial world championship win on the cowdog circuit.
The dual breakthroughs led to a boom in business.
“Since I healed after the incident on season 1, my business tripled and it hasn’t slowed down yet,” he said, noting it was the combination of both that really led to the big impact.
Now, he’s hoping to bring that impact home to North Florida. And he hopes it will also be accompanied by a new star turn and title-winning appearance on the reality show.
“I’m pumped up,” Lee said/ “I’m not going to let anything stand in my way, or hold me back. I’ve got something to prove.”