Pittsylvania County native a cowboy at heart

Daniel Lanier may not ride bulls or wear a Stetson and alligator skin boots around his Hurt farm.While he prefers Guns ‘n’ Roses to George Strait and would rather entertain crowds with funny antics than bust his backside falling off a horned beast, Lanier said in his eyes he’s no less of a cowboy.

He gets to experience rodeos as a clown, sees his share of bucking bulls at the auctions he conducts, and puts in his manual labor raising bulls at his farm.

“To a lot of kids, being a cowboy’s a dream. I mean I grew up dreaming about being a cowboy myself,” Lanier said.

“A lot of people wish they could do it. I get to live it every day.”

Growing up in Pittsylvania County, Lanier, 26, and his father worked together on a cattle farm started by Lanier’s grandfather, the late Quentin Lanier.

“I learned to drive a tractor by sitting in grandpa’s lap,” Lanier said.

He got his first experiences with livestock working on his grandfather’s farm. Considering his aversion to cattle at the time, Lanier went from the frying pan into the fire in little time.

“I was always scared of cattle until I was 10 or 12,” he said, “then I decided that beef cows weren’t what I wanted. I decided rodeo cattle is what I wanted to do.”

Lanier’s father and a friend traveled to South Carolina, picked up 18 head of cattle and started the True Grit Rodeo Company more than 10 years ago, Lanier said.

“We had to do something,” Lanier said, “and shoot, we loved cattle, so we just turned it into something we liked. Rodeo’s always fun and cattle is something physical you’ve got to do.”

Now Lanier has three offices — a regular workspace he uses at the Lynchburg Livestock Market, as an agent for Watts Auction; the auction ring at the same market on Monday nights, not affiliated with Watts; and his clown barrel inside a ring also occupied by wild-eyed bulls.

His weekend job as a rodeo clown, Lanier said, is his favorite. He’s been all over, even to Canada, showing his stuff to cheering kids and adults alike.

“It’s so much fun,” he said.

“You get to go put on some face paint, act a fool and 90 percent of the people there don’t know you,” Lanier said, “and they think it’s the coolest job in the world, and you know what? It is.”

But his job as an auctioneer, Lanier said, is what pays the bills.

“The auctioneering is my bread and butter,” he said.

Jeff Showalter, of Rockingham County, auctions cattle with Lanier in Lynchburg on Monday nights.

“He’s a good guy, easy to get along with,” Showalter said.

“In the last two or three years he’s really progressed a good bit,” Showalter said.

Having been in the auctioneering business for 25 years, Showalter said he sees marks of a great auctioneer in Lanier.

“He’s still young and wet behind the ears,” Showalter said, adding “he’s on the right track. He just needs to keep plowing after it.”

“If he just keeps his head on his shoulders and takes what the older people tell him,” Showalter said, “he’ll be the best one day.”

Lanier graduated from Gretna High School in 2000, and said agriculture was his focus.

“I took every agriculture class that Gretna offered,” he said, and even helped to convince the school to add an extra class his graduating year.

He attended the Mendenhall School of Auctioneering, in High Point, N.C., from which he graduated in 2004.

Lanier said his crowning achievement so far is his receipt of the 2008 Southern Extreme Bull Riding Association Barrel Man of the Year.

“A lot of people struggled, had hard times with the economy and everything (in 2008),” he said, “and I excelled.”

“I didn’t make a whole lot of money,” he said, but added, “I had so much fun.”

“You want something and you try hard, you’re going to achieve it,” Lanier said. “Nothing’s out of reach if you want it bad enough.”

The best part, he said, is that he takes pleasure in his job.

“I get to work and enjoy it,” he said. “It’s great.”

Thompson is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.