Hollywood, Wiggles, Sampson and Winston are Josh Edwards’ pride and joy. These four horses help Edwards with his job day-to-day.

Edwards is a pickup man. In the rodeo, he is the man riding in on his horse after the cowboy is finished being bucked off a horse or bull.

“We ride up beside them,” Edwards said. “(We) try to set them down safely, trip the flank off the buckin’ horses, (and) guide them out safely.”

After the timed event ends, he ushers cattle out as quickly as possible to keep the flow of the rodeo and performances going.

Edwards started his rodeo days as a contestant. He used to rope and trip calves and steers at the Mesquite Rodeo in Mesquite, Texas.

“One day somebody got hurt or sick or somethin’ and couldn’t be a pickup man at the rodeo and they asked me if I would fill in,” Edwards said. “And I at that point didn’t really know what the job was, but I said ‘well, sure, I mean I’ll help wherever I can’ and once I did it I was just kind of hooked.”

Over the next couple of years he transitioned into becoming a full-time pickup man.

Edwards is a stunt man.

He said he got into stunt work through the rodeo business. Some cowboys he worked with heard that a movie director needed a guy to perform a particular stunt and his friends recommended Edwards for the job.

“I’d wanted to be a stunt man since I was 5 years old,” Edwards said. “But they didn’t bring one of them to career day, so I didn’t really know how to get involved with it.”

Eventually Edwards discovered some stuntmen and networked his way into feature films “The Free State of Jones,” “The Genesis Code” and “Seven Days in Utopia.”

“(I) got the opportunity to double some lead actors and do some utility stunts as well,” Edwards said.

Edwards is a stock man.

His job doesn’t start and end with the rodeo.

“We’re up in the mornin’s feeding the livestock, takin’ care of the livestock,” Edwards said. “Our job is really more livestock supervision and handling until the rodeo starts and then once (it does), we transition into the production side of it.”

The bucking stock often eat grain in the morning and hay at night, but it depends on whatever the stock contractor decides.

The age of the stock can range as well.

“Typically … the buckin’ horse(s) (are) … 5 year(s) old … because it takes that much time for them to develop,” Edwards said. “Bulls (are) very similar to that. (But they) could be (as young as) 3 years old.”

Edwards’ horses range from 8 years old to 20. They’ve been with him a long time and he takes good care of them.

“They’re trained to do this job and they’re tools,” Edwards said. “But they’re very well taken care of tools, so when I’m not at a rodeo they’re turned out on grass and well-fed and well cared for.”

Edwards is a rodeo man.

He loves the sport, loves showcasing his animals and loves the people.

“On the production end there’s not a lot of money to be made,” Edwards said. “(So you know people are doing it) more (for) the love of the game.”