Samantha Lyne Mauney: J.B. Mauney’s Wife, NFR Barrel Racer and Phil Lyne’s Daughter

Samantha Lyne Mauney is a Texas barrel racer who spent 13 years chasing a National Finals Rodeo berth before earning one in 2014. She ran 100 rodeos that season, squeezed into Las Vegas ranked 14th in the world, and cashed her first NFR check in Round 9 on a horse she had owned for less than two weeks.

Most people find her name through her husband, two-time PBR world champion J.B. Mauney. But her NFR qualification came three years before their wedding, and she grew up as the daughter of one of rodeo’s great all-around cowboys, Phil Lyne.

Quick facts

Samantha Lyne’s parents and early life in Cotulla

Samantha is the younger of Phil Lyne’s two daughters; her older sister is Amanda. The family is rooted in Cotulla, a small ranching town in South Texas.

Samantha did not start out on a fancy, purpose-bred barrel horse. According to her 2014 NFR rookie profile, her barrel racing career began on Tom, one of her father’s steer roping horses. It is a fitting detail: a ranch horse borrowed from a world champion’s string, used to teach his younger daughter an entirely different event.

Phil Lyne was a rodeo giant. He won back-to-back all-around and tie-down roping world titles in 1971 and 1972, later added a steer roping championship, and in 1972 set a single-season earnings record. He was the first cowboy to win the NFR average in three different events over his career.

Phil Lyne died in Cotulla on August 14, 2026, at the age of 79. For Samantha, horses and rodeo were never a hobby she discovered later. They were the family business, and she chose barrels as her own lane rather than following her father into the roping events.

Who is Phil Lyne? The legacy she grew up with

To understand the household Samantha grew up in, it helps to know just how good her father was. Phil Lyne joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association (the forerunner of today’s PRCA) in 1969 and was named Rookie of the Year with $12,500 in earnings. Within two seasons he was the best all-around cowboy in the sport.

His 1972 season is the stuff of rodeo history. He won $60,852, a single-season record at the time, and wrapped up his second straight all-around and tie-down roping titles before the NFR had even finished. In Oklahoma City that December he roped a calf in 8.5 seconds, an NFR record, and led the average in both tie-down roping and bull riding. Few cowboys have ever been elite in a timed event and a roughstock event at once. Lyne did it at the Finals.

He was also one of the faces of the Oscar-winning documentary The Great American Cowboy, which followed his rivalry with Larry Mahan. Then, at the peak of his fame, he largely stepped away from full-time rodeo and went home to ranch in Cotulla.

He never fully left the arena, though. He turned to steer roping, won the average at the National Finals Steer Roping in 1983 and 1986, and later added a steer roping world title, his fifth championship. He became the first cowboy to win the NFR average in three different events.

That is the shadow Samantha rode out from under. A champion parent can open doors, but it also means every result gets measured against a legend. She chose an event her father never competed in, and earned her own way to the same Finals he once dominated.

Cotulla: a small town with a big rodeo name

Cotulla sits in La Salle County, between San Antonio and Laredo, a ranching community of a few thousand people. For a town that size, its mark on rodeo is out of all proportion.

Besides the Lyne family, Cotulla is the hometown of Hailey Kinsel, one of the best barrel racers of her generation. Kinsel won WPRA world championships in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022, and her mare DM Sissy Hayday, known as “Sister,” was named Barrel Racing Horse of the Year in 2018 and 2025.

Kinsel’s first NFR came in 2017, three years after Samantha’s. That two barrel racers from the same small South Texas town reached the sport’s biggest stage within a few years of each other says a lot about the ranch culture there. Kids grow up horseback, learn to work cattle, and treat a good horse as both a tool and a partner. Samantha came out of exactly that world.

Samantha Lyne’s barrel racing career: 13 years to the NFR

Samantha joined the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in 2001 and qualified for her first NFR in 2014. Only the top 15 barrel racers in the world standings make the Finals, and getting there that year took a punishing schedule: 100 rodeos and $70,577 in regular-season earnings.

The margin was razor thin. She entered Las Vegas 14th, and the 15th-place qualifier, Jana Bean, was just $161 behind her. Asked as a rookie what she was most excited about, Samantha said it was running down the alley of the Thomas & Mack Center for the first time.

Samantha Lyne at the 2014 NFR: round-by-round

The Finals were tough. A barrel knocked over in Round 8 left her with a 19.10, and she went eight rounds without a check. Then came Round 9.

She was the first rider out and stopped the clock at 13.94 seconds, good for third place and $11,340. She did it on a Paint gelding she called “Jimmy,” a horse she had reportedly bought only 10 days before the Finals and planned to use just for the grand entry. She closed with a 14.58 in Round 10 and finished the season with $81,917.

One check from ten rounds is not a fairy-tale result. But the NFR field is the 15 best in the world, and placing in a round on a horse she barely knew showed the kind of horsemanship that got her there.

What was on the line in Las Vegas

The 2014 Wrangler NFR carried a total purse of $6.375 million, with close to $800,000 set aside for barrel racing alone. Each of the ten go-rounds paid $61,298 across six places:

The barrel racer with the fastest total time across all ten runs also collected the average title, worth $48,732. With that much money changing hands in ten nights, a rider’s world ranking can swing wildly. Samantha’s single third-place check moved her total from $70,577 to $81,917, a 16 percent jump from one 13.94-second run.

She was also up against some of the biggest names the sport has produced. The field included Sherry Cervi and Lisa Lockhart, both NFR veterans with long records at the Thomas & Mack. The world title race went down to the wire, and Fallon Taylor and her mare Flos Heiress won it. For a rookie in that company, simply being in the alley each night was an achievement.

Why barrel racing is harder than it looks

Riders run a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels against the clock. NFR rounds are often won in the 13-second range, so a tenth of a second can mean thousands of dollars, and a tipped barrel adds a five-second penalty that usually ends a run’s chances. That is exactly what happened to Samantha in Round 8.

What a 100-rodeo season really means

One hundred rodeos in a year sounds like a statistic. On the road it means close to two rodeos a week, every week, from winter through fall. Barrel racers pull their own horses, often thousands of miles a month, and many nights end in a trailer’s living quarters at a fairground rather than a hotel.

The math is unforgiving. Every rodeo has an entry fee, and most pay only the fastest handful of riders. A barrel racer can run well, miss the money by a hundredth of a second, and leave town poorer than she arrived. Fuel, shoeing, vet care, feed and travel keep piling up whether the checks come or not.

Samantha’s 2014 numbers show that pressure. Her career earnings going into the NFR were $76,497, and $70,577 of that came in 2014 alone. In other words, she had earned only about $6,000 in her previous 13 years of WPRA membership combined. 2014 was the year everything she had been working toward came together at once, and she had to keep it together for 100 rodeos to stay inside the top 15.

That also explains why her Round 9 check mattered so much. For most of the field, a third-place NFR payday was a nice night. For a rider whose entire career had been built in one hard season, it was real money.

Samantha Lyne’s horses: Pistoletta, Java and Jimmy

Her 2014 campaign was built on two horses: LK Watch Me Rock, a six-year-old mare called “Pistoletta,” and Java Buzz, an eight-year-old called “Java.” At the Finals she added a third, the Paint “Jimmy,” who earned her only NFR check.

Her work with horses did not stop when she stepped back from heavy competition. The Mauney family runs a ranch known as Bucktown XV, and Samantha has been credited with raising XV Mario, a gelding reported to have carried Makenna Shook to a fast 16.53-second run on a standard pattern in Burley, Idaho. Details of her breeding program are not widely published, so treat this as the part of her story still being written.

Why switching horses at the NFR was a gamble

A good barrel horse is a rare mix of traits. It needs explosive speed out of the alley, the agility to rate and wrap tightly around each barrel, and the mind to stay calm while thousands of fans scream. Most of all it needs to trust its rider, because the cues in a 14-second run come through seat, legs and hands faster than anyone can think.

That trust usually takes months or years to build. Riders learn exactly how deep their horse likes to go into a turn, how much hand it needs, and when it is about to drop a shoulder. Swapping to an unfamiliar horse removes all of that knowledge, which is why most NFR barrel racers stick with the horses that carried them through the season.

The Thomas & Mack makes the problem worse. The arena is smaller than many outdoor rodeos, with a long, narrow alley and a fast first barrel. Horses that have never run it often struggle.

So when Samantha rode Jimmy, a horse she had owned for about ten days and originally bought to carry her in the grand entry, to a third-place check, it said something about her as a horsewoman. Reading an unfamiliar horse well enough to place against the world’s best is a skill no bloodline can hand you.

J.B. Mauney’s wife: marriage, kids and family life

Samantha married J.B. Mauney, the bull rider fans call “The Dragon Slayer.” The wedding date is most often given as January 3, 2017, though some profiles list 2016. Mauney won PBR world titles in 2013 and 2015 and became famous for riding bulls others could not.

Their son, Jagger Briggs Mauney, was born on January 23, 2019. PBR.com reported that J.B. left the hospital that Friday for the Sacramento event with his gear bag already packed. Samantha is also stepmother to Bella, J.B.’s daughter from his first marriage.

J.B.’s riding career ended abruptly in 2023. He broke his neck when the bull Arctic Assassin bucked him off at the Lewiston Round-Up in Idaho on September 6, needed surgery to remove a disc, and announced his retirement six days later. The family has since been based at their ranch, where, by several accounts, that same bull now lives.

J.B. Mauney, the Dragon Slayer

Samantha married into a career every bit as famous as her father’s. James Burton “J.B.” Mauney, a North Carolina native, spent nearly two decades as one of professional bull riding’s biggest draws.

His nickname came from his appetite for the rankest bulls in the world. Where many riders hoped to avoid the toughest draws, Mauney sought them out. The most famous example came in 2013, when he rode Bushwacker for 95.25 points. Bushwacker had been nearly unrideable for years, and the ride became one of the defining moments of Mauney’s championship season. According to the PBR, he went on to ride every world champion bull from 2007 onward and recorded 75 rides of 90 points or more.

He won PBR world titles in 2013 and 2015, and over his career became one of the highest-earning bull riders in the sport. Injuries were a constant companion: broken bones, shoulder surgeries and concussions. The neck injury in Lewiston in 2023 was simply the one he could not ride through.

For Samantha, being married to Mauney meant years of watching her husband climb on animals that could end his career in a second, often from home with a young son. Rodeo spouses rarely get credit for that side of the sport, but the travel, the hospital visits and the uncertainty land on them too.

Samantha Lyne’s age, birthday, education and net worth

A lot of what circulates online about Samantha is guesswork. Here is where things stand:

• Age: Several profiles say she was born in 1978, which would make her about 48 in 2026. Her birthday is widely listed as March 22, and J.B. Mauney has posted birthday wishes to her on that date. Her birth year has never been confirmed by a primary source, and some sites wrongly list 1990 by confusing her with other women named Samantha Lyne.
• Education: She is widely reported to have studied interior design, but sources disagree on the school (Texas State University and TCU are both named).
• Business: Some sites link her to a Western-wear line called Mauney Collection. Her exact role is not documented.
• Net worth: No reliable figure exists. Rodeo prize money is not take-home pay; fuel, entry fees, vet bills and horse upkeep eat much of it. Any number you see online is an estimate.

Common myths about Samantha Lyne

Because so many low-quality biography sites copy from each other, several errors about Samantha keep spreading. If you are searching for J.B. Mauney’s wife, watch out for these:

• “Her father is Don Gay.” False. Don Gay is an eight-time world champion bull rider, but he is not Samantha’s father. Her father is Phil Lyne.
• “She married J.B. in 2009” or “in 2011.” False. J.B. Mauney was married to his first wife, Lexie Wiggly, from about 2012 to 2015. He married Samantha after that, with January 3, 2017 the most commonly cited date.
• “J.B. is an eight-time world champion.” False. He won two PBR world titles, in 2013 and 2015.
• “Samantha Lyne is an actress or singer.” These pages describe different people, or are simply invented. The Samantha Lyne married to J.B. Mauney is a barrel racer from Cotulla, Texas.
• Exact net worth figures. Any site claiming to know her net worth to the dollar is guessing.

Samantha Lyne’s legacy

Samantha Lyne’s story is easy to flatten into a single line: daughter of a champion, wife of a champion. The record says more than that.

She spent 13 years as a WPRA member before her breakthrough, earning only a few thousand dollars in that time. Then, in one season, she entered 100 rodeos, earned more than $70,000, and held onto a top-15 spot by a margin of $161. At the Finals she placed in a round on a horse she had owned for less than two weeks. None of that came from her last name.

She also represents a part of rodeo that rarely makes headlines: the riders who never win a world title but build the sport anyway. They fill the entries at small-town rodeos, raise and train the next generation of horses, and pass their knowledge to the riders who come after them. With her family’s ranch and her work with young horses, Samantha remains part of that chain.

For anyone coming to her story through J.B. Mauney, the takeaway is simple. Samantha Lyne earned her place in Las Vegas on her own, in an event her father never ran, against the best barrel racers in the world. That deserves to be remembered on its own terms.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Samantha Lyne? A Texas barrel racer from Cotulla who qualified for the 2014 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. She is the daughter of five-time world champion Phil Lyne and the wife of retired bull rider J.B. Mauney.

Did Samantha Lyne win money at the NFR? Yes. She placed third in Round 9 of the 2014 NFR with a 13.94-second run, earning $11,340.

When did Samantha Lyne marry J.B. Mauney? Most sources give January 3, 2017; a few list 2016.

Does Samantha Lyne have children? She and J.B. have a son, Jagger Briggs, born January 23, 2019. She is also stepmother to J.B.’s daughter, Bella.

Is Phil Lyne still alive? No. Phil Lyne died in Cotulla, Texas, on August 14, 2026, at age 79.

How old is Samantha Lyne? She is commonly reported to have been born in 1978, but this has not been confirmed by a primary source.

Who is J.B. Mauney’s wife? J.B. Mauney’s wife is Samantha Lyne Mauney, a former WPRA barrel racer from Cotulla, Texas, and the daughter of rodeo champion Phil Lyne.

Who are Samantha Lyne’s parents? Her father is five-time world champion cowboy Phil Lyne and her mother is reported to be Sarah Lyne. She has one older sister, Amanda.

What is Samantha Lyne’s net worth? It has never been publicly verified. Her documented rodeo earnings in 2014 were $81,917, but prize money is not the same as net worth.

When is Samantha Lyne’s birthday? Her birthday is commonly listed as March 22.

Is Samantha Lyne on Instagram? Yes, she posts as @samanthalynemauney, mostly about family, horses and ranch life.