captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> when we first met her, she was a war crimes victim intent on concealing her identity while searching for her family who had been rounded up by isis. five years later, nadia murad is a nobel peace prize winner fighting to hold isis accountable. >> ( translated ): the morning that i won the nobel prize, i asked my husband, abid, to see if there was a way i could decline, because the prize would make my life difficult. but, fate and god sometimes bring you something so that you can stop crimes and help others. ( ticking )

>> chris downey had constructed the life he'd always wanted, an architect with a good job. >> that whole exterior. >> happily married and coaching his ten-year-old son's little league. but then something awful happened. he went blind. and that threatened to end his career. >> is that different? >> oh, yeah. >> or did it? >> i'm a kid again. i'm relearning so much of architecture. it wasn't about what i'm missing in architecture, it was about what i had been missing in architecture. ( ticking ) rang and riding in utah. the wright family is the first family of american rodeo.world e roughest rides look like a ballet. are you kind of dancing with the horse? >> i like to think you are. i dance a lot better with a horse than i do with my wife. ( laughter )

i ain't got no rhythm. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes." ( ticking ) the race is never ov. the journey has no port. the adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. ♪ ♪ and still going for my best. e to afib... ...not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin, i'm reaching for that. eliquis. eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk

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say hello to a drug-free way to ease stress. stress comfort, a gummie supplement with lemon balm plus saffron to naturally boost your mood. stress comfort from nature's bounty >> pelley: she wore a scarf in oufirst inrview, because she not want you to know her. shs -old poor farm family. r m own a h salon in her village of nearly 2,000, but that was before the

massacre. she didn't want to be on "60 minutes." but, she needed the world to know what isis did. the murder, the rape, the genocide of her people. nearly six years ago, in iraq, we discovered this hesitant, frightened woman. we did not imagine her scarf concealed not only her identity, but also a fierce invincibility which would lead her, four years after our interview, to the highest honor the world has to give. we found her here-- among refugees who survived the invasion of the isis terrorist army. her people are yazidis, a minority in northern iraq that is poor, persecuted, and bound by faith to its revered mount sinjar. in 2014, isis invaded. two months later, we came to

report on the atrocities of the self-described islamic state. of course, no country on earth recognizes that state, but if it had a border, this would be it. beyond that border was the yazidi homeland, where the faithful practice a religion that predates islam by 3,000 years. in isis's perversion of the muslim faith, the yazidis were non-believers, condemned to slavery and death. >> nadia murad ( translated ): on friday, august 15, at 11:30 a.m., they entered our village and told us all to come to the school. there, the women and kids were put upstairs, and the men downstairs. >> pelley: what happened to you at that point? >> murad ( translated ): as we were entering the school, i was with one of my brothers. there, we saw a bulldozer, and i asked my brother "why is there a bulldozer here?" he replied, "to throw dirt on the bodies when they're done killing."

>> pelley: her brother was right. the yazidis, about half a million, were defenseless civilians. thousands of men, and elder women, were executed. boys, age seven and older, were forced into the isis army. what happened next? >> murad ( translated ): they started loading up 150 girls in four dump trucks. >> pelley: more than 3,000 women and girls, as young as nine, were trucked into slavery. she says she was sold and raped, sold and raped again, and then gang-raped after a failed escape. what about the other members of your family? >> murad ( translated ): i have no idea where my brothers are. i want them all to return, but most of all, i just want my mother! tell them, "i just want my mother!" >> pelley: she seemed broken.

but, as our interview went on, her confidence grew, as though she came to realize she wasn't speaking for herself, she was speaking for her people. months later, she settled in germany, joined a human rights group, and campaigned for justice. in 2018, the world learned her name, because nadia murad was awarded the nobel peace prize. ( applause ) the 2018 peace prize was meant to expose atrocities women suffer in war. the honor was shared with denis mukwege, whose hospital treats the sexually assaulted in the democratic republic of congo. i'm curious why you chose to speak with us five years ago? >> murad ( translated ): at the beginning, rape was a big shame for me and for others to speak about. because it would have remained a

shame on you, on your family and on your people. the biggest incentive that made me talk was those left behind, including my mother and sisters. i knew what was happening to those in the captivity of isis. >> pelley: nadia murad was captive nine days when the last man who bought her left a door unlocked. kind-hearted strangers smuggled her across the islamic state line. she became a u.n. human rights ambassador, began learning english, wrote a memoir, and vowed to see isis in court. but for that, she needed a >> amal clooney: i met nadia after a colleague called me and said, "i have a new case for you." and i said, "no thanks. i'm busy." and he said, "there's just an extraordinary young woman i want you to meet. give me an hour." >> pelley: it didn't take an hour for leading human rights attorney amal clooney to take the case. >> clooney: i saw it as a test

of the international system. it was so egregious, because it involved isis, it involved a clear case of genocide. it involved sexual slavery to-- at a scale that we haven't seen in modern times. and i thought, if the u.n. can't act in this case, then what does the international rule of law even mean? >> pelley: by 2015, not one free yazidi remained in their homeland. this wasn't just war. by international law, the executions, rape, and kidnapping were war crimes. >> clooney: this was the same dilemma that the world had after the atrocities of nazi germany. and it's the u.s., under president truman and president roosevelt, that said, "no, we have to have trials, because there must be a judicial record of the atrocities committed by the nazis." because today, you do have people denying that there were gas chambers and-- and what do you have to point to? you can go back and say, "well, there are 4,000 documents that were submitted as exhibits in

the nuremburg trials." and the yazidis deserve nothing less than that. >> pelley: and there might be similar stacks of evidence of the crimes against the yazidis, but clooney feared securing it was a race against time. >> clooney: you had mass graves that weren't secured, where the yazidis knew their relatives were buried, and nobody was exhuming them. and also, i noticed that witnesses were becoming more and more reluctant to speak out, as time went by. so, you know, there was only so much we could do as a small team of lawyers. and we said, "this is the responsibility of the u.n. and it's the responsibility of the most powerful body within the u.n., which is the security council." >> pelley: had you ever heard of the u.n. security council? >> murad: never. >> pelley: in 2015, just a year after we met her, nadia murad asked the security council to hold isis accountable. >> murad ( translated ): i've seen what they've done to boys and girls. rafficking and genocide need to be brought to justice. >> pelley: the security council

voted to approve a first step. in 2017, it created an investigative team to collect evidence of isis's crimes in iraq. the team began exhuming some of the 202 mass graves that are known. now, the question is whether the evidence will ever be heard. iraqi courts are convicting thousands of isis suspects of terrorism, but none has been tried for the crime of genocide against the yazidis. small pockets of isis fighters remain in syria and iraq. but u.s. and iraqi troops have shattered isis as a cohesive military force. is that justice? >> clooney: absolutely not. you know, if you speak to yazidi witnesses, victims, survivors, they will say, "it doesn't help me if somebody's killed in a drone strike." in terms of justice, that means something very different. that means being able to be in a courtroom and look their abusers in the eye, and tell the world

what happened. what isis did to them. and that hasn't happened yet. >> pelley: it has happened before, in other atrocities. last year, a u.n.-backed court in cambodia convicted two former officials of genocide, 40 years after the khmer rouge murdered 1.7 million. beginning in the 1990s, u.n. war crime trials were held for the former yugoslavia and rwanda. but iraq is not a member of the international criminal court and has not agreed to war crime trials of its own. >> clooney: what we would like to see is an openness by the iraqis to actually have international judges be involved in these trials. potentially, international prosecutors. there are different ways of designing it. you know, the iraqi government could enter into a treaty with the u.n., or there could be an inatcourth iraqis could agree to transfer those responsible for international crimes to that court. >> pelley: today, peace, if not

justice, has settled into the folds of mount sinjar. four days after accepting the nobel, nadia murad returned with the yazidi man she would soon marry, and two replicas of her peace prize. this is what the absence of justice looks like. the demands of the desperate focused on a woman, abducted at 21 and now returning bearing the weight of a seven-ounce medal. >> murad ( translated ): the morning that i won the nobel prize, i asked my husband, abid, to see if there was a way i could decline, because the prize would make my life difficult. but, fate and god sometimes bring you something so that you can stop crimes and help others. >> pelley: has the nobel prize changed your hopes for the future? >> murad ( translated ): now

people look at me like i can rebuild sinjar, that i can bring more help for the victims and that i can take care of the orphans. but, without support, this is not going to happen by just having a nobel. >> pelley: in her village, she said, "i have left a nobel prize at the iraqi parliament. i hope iraq, after 4,000 years, will recognize yazidis. we have always been second- class citizens." later, she walked to a site that held the answer to the desperate question she asked in our first interview. the long green depression in the earth was a mass grave-- her mother's grave. ( crying ) she said, "dear mother, my poor mother."

you left a replica of your nobel peace prize at your mother's grave. >> murad: yeah. >> pelley: what do you think she would have thought of that? >> murad ( translated ): i wonder if she knows that i have talked to the world about her silent death, the killing of her six sons and her two nieces. i often feel that what i have been doing is because of her. i wish that she would know about it. she may be happy because the world now knows what isis has done. >> pelley: this is the school where nadia murad was separated from her family. five years later, the murdered and missing are present, but unaccounted for. >> pelley: altogether, nadia, how many members of your family were murdered? >> murad ( translated ): we were 48 brothers, mothers, sisters,

nephews and nieces in our family. nine were killed, and three are missing. the rest, who were rescued, now live in refugee camps. >> pelley: there isn't much for refugees to return to. yazidi homes were wrecked or looted of everything but memories. today, nadia murad is navigating without a chart, steering by the constellation of her people's dreams-- an accidental leader facing questions she cannot answer. will they have homes? will there be justice? it's estimated as many as 5,000 yazidis were murdered, 6,000 heduled foe missing still.wiats being entombed in baghdad, where

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>> stahl: at age 45, chris downey had pretty much constructed the life he'd always wanted. an architect with a good job at a small housing firm francisco, he was happily married, with a ten-year-old son. he was an assistant little

league coach and avid cyclist. and then doctors discovered a tumor in his brain. he had surgery, and the tumor was safely gone. but downey was left completely blind. as we first reported in 2019, what he has done in the decade since losing his sight-- as a person, and as an architect-- can only be described as a different kind of vision. several mornings a week, as the sun rises over the oakland estuary in california, an amateur rowing team works the water. it's hard to tell which one of them is blind... and chris downey thinks that's just fine. >> chris downey: it's really exciting to be in a sport where nobody looks in the direction they're going. you face this way in the boat, and you're going that way. so, okay, even-steven. we were just talking about that whole exterior.

>> stahl: it's not exactly "even-steven" in this design meeting, where downey is collaborating with sighted architects on a new hospital building... >> chris downey: under the canopy, where you could have down lights. >> stahl: ...but he hasn't let that stop him. here you are, in a profession that basically requires you to read-- read designs and draw designs. you must've thought in your head, "that is insurmountable?" >> chris downey: no. i never thought-- >> stahl: you never thought-- you never thought the word "insurmountable--" >> chris downey: lots of people, friends that were architects and anybody else would say, "oh my god, it's the worst thing imaginable, to be an architect and to lose your sight. i can't imagine anything worse." but i quickly came to realize that the creative process is an intellectual process. it's how you think. so i just needed new tools. >> stahl: new tools? downey found a printer that could emboss architectural drawings so that he could read and understand through touch. >> chris downey: they look like normal prints, normal drawings,

on the computer. but then they just come out in tactile form. >> stahl: so it is like braille, isn't it? >> chris downey: right. >> stahl: and he came up with a way to "sketch" his ideas onto the plans using a simple children's toy-- malleable wax sticks that he shapes to show his modifications to others. and he says something surprising started to happen. he could no longer see buildings and spaces, but he began hearing them. >> chris downey: the sounds, the textures... and the sound changes because there's a canopy overhead. >> stahl: you can sense that we're under a canopy? >> chris downey: yes. it's all a matter of how the sound works, from the tip of the cane. i was fascinated-- walking through buildings that i knew sighted, but i was experiencing them in a different way. i was hearing architecture, i >> stahl: it sounds as if you began almost enjoying, in a way, being the blind architect.

>> chris downey: it was sort of this-- this excitement of, "i'm a kid again. i'm-- i'm relearning so much of architecture." it wasn't about what i'm missing in architecture, it's what-- it was about what i had been missing in architecture. >> is that sufficiently different? >> chris downey: oh, yeah. ( laughter ) >> stahl: chris downey's upbeat attitude doesn't mean that he didn't go through one of the most frightening experiences imaginable, and struggle. he and his wife rosa were living in this same home with their son renzo, then ten, when downey first noticed a problem while playing catch with renzo. the ball kept coming in and out of sight. the cause turned out to be a tumor near his optic nerve. surgery to remove it lasted 9.5 hours. he says his surgeon had told him there was a slight risk of total sight loss, but that he'd never had it happen. >> rosa downey: when he first came out of surgery, he was able to see. >> stahl: but then things

started to go wrong. the next day, half his field of vision disappeared. and then? >> chris downey: the next time i woke up, it was... all gone. it was just black. >> stahl: complete and total darkness? no light, you can't see anything? >> chris downey: no light. it's dark. it's all dark. >> stahl: after days of frantic testing, a surgeon told him it was permanent, irreversible, and sent in a social worker. >> chris downey: she says, "oh, and i see from your chart you're-- you're an architect, so we can talk about career alternatives." >> stahl: career alternatives, right away? >> chris downey: i hadn't been told i was officially blind for 24 hours, and-- >> stahl: and she's saying you can't be an architect anymore. >> chris downey: yeah, and she was saying we could talk about career alternatives. i felt like these walls were being built up around me, just like, "yeah, you're getting boxed in." >> stahl: alone that night in his room, downey did some serious thinking... about his son, and about his own father,

who had died from complications after surgery when downey was seven years old. >> chris downey: i could quickly appreciate the wonder, the-- just the joy of, "i'm still here. >> stahl: it was actually joy? >> chris downey: yeah, it was like, "i'm still here with my family. my son still has his dad." >> stahl: you know your eyes are tearing up. you know that. >> chris downey: yeah, sorry. i always have a hard time talking through that. >> stahl: he knew that how he handled this would send a strong message to renzo. >> chris downey: i had been talking with him about the need to really apply himself. at the age of ten, it's that point where if you want something you really have to work at it. and here i am, facing this great challenge. >> stahl: so, motivated to set an example, he headed back to work only one month later. >> bryan bashin: this was the most healthy thing about chris. >> stahl: bryan bashin is executive director of the non- profit lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired in san

francisco, and is blind himself. >> bashin: he waited a few days, until the stitches were out of his skull. and 30 days after brain surgery, he was back in the office thinking, "okay, there's got to be a way to figure this out. and i'm going to figure it out." >> stahl: bashings organization, the lighthouse, helps people new to vision loss learn how to figure things out. >> bashin: when someone becomes blind, the odds are 99% they've never met another blind person. >> stahl: is that right? >> bashin: yeah, that really is true. blind people need those role models, how to be blind, how to hold down a job, how to live an independent life. >> stahl: specifically, how to work in the kitchen-- safely. how to navigate public transportation. how to use screen reading software to listen to emails as quickly as the rest of us read them. did you understand that? >> chris downey: yes. >> stahl: no! and most critically, how to get around in the world alone.

downey learned that at the lighthouse. when you first crossed a big street like this on your own, was it terrifying? >> chris downey: absolutely terrifying. >> stahl: i can imagine. ( laughs ) i can totally imagine. >> chris downey: i remember that day, stepping off the curb, and it was like, you would have thought i was stepping into raging waters. take a deep breath and go for it. you got to push through it. >> stahl: within a few months, he was travelling the streets on his own and getting back to normalcy with his son. >> chris downey: the first father's day came up. rosa was like, "so, what do you want to do? do you want to go on a picnic, go on a nice lunch? "i want to play baseball." ( laughter ) "with renzo." renzo was like-- he pops up. i could just-- i could feel him, like, jump to the edge of his chair. "baseball, you want to play baseball?" >> renzo downey: so dad would throw to me, and i'd play like i was playing first base. >> stahl: how could he throw the ball to you? >> renzo downey: i'd just call out, "i'm over here." and he'd point, and i'd say, "yeah, that's right."

and then he'd throw it at me. >> chris downey: that's something i really loved about our relationship. he quickly was looking for possibilities. he wasn't saying, "you can't do that." he was like, "well, why not?" >> stahl: downey seems to have a knack for finding windows when doors slam shut. just nine months after going blind, the recession hit, and he lost his job. but, he got word that a nearby firm was designing a rehabilitation center for veterans with sight loss. they were eager to meet a blind architect. what are the chances? you had to believe that god's hand came down-- >> chris downey: it took my disability and turned it upside down. all of a sudden, it defined unique, unusual value that virtually nobody else had to offer. >> stahl: nobody. >> chris downey: yeah. >> stahl: starting with that job, downey developed a specialty, making spaces

accessible to the blind. he helped design a new eye center at duke university hospital, consulted on a job for microsoft, and signed on to help the visually impaired find their way in san francisco's new, and much delayed, four-block-long transbay transit center, which we visited during construction. >> chris downey: if you're blind, you don't drive. right? they don't like it when we drive. so, you know, we're committed transit users. so the question was, "how on earth do you navigate this size of facility, if you're blind?" >> stahl: his solution: grooves set into the concrete running the entire length of the platform... >> chris downey: i would just follow this, following those grooves. >> stahl: ...with a subtle change from smooth to textured concrete, to signal where to turn to get to the escalators. >> chris downey: would you like to give it a try? >> stahl: okay. i know to go straight because of this line. and i feel-- ( scraping ) oh, my.

oh, my. so it's pretty obvious. >> chris downey: i can hear the difference from here. >> stahl: it's something sighted people may never notice-- and that's precisely the point. downey believes in what's called universal design-- that accommodates people with disabilities, but is just as appealing to people without them. it's the approach he used for his biggest project yet, consulting on the total renovation of a new, three-story office space for his old training ground, the lighthouse for the blind. >> bashin: coming into blindness need not be some dreary social service experience, but rather, more like coming into an apple store-- thinking that there might be something fun around the corner. >> stahl: one of downey's ideas s lk the three floors with an internal staircase that sighted people can see, and the blind can hear. >> bashin: in blindness, it's so wonderful to be on the 9th floor and hear a burst of laughter up

on the 11th floor, or to hear somebody playing the piano on the 10th floor. >> stahl: for the hallways, downey chose polished concrete, because of the acoustics. >> bashin: i can hear the special tap of somebody's cane, or the click of a guide dog's toenails. >> stahl: the click of a guide dog's toenails? >> bashin: yeah, yeah. >> stahl: well, is that good or bad? >> bashin: that's great. it's like you're seeing somebody coming down the hall. i know the sound of individual people who work here by the way they use their cane, or the kind of walk they have. >> stahl: you can really distinguish between people by how they tap their cane? >> bashin: absolutely. >> stahl: if you hadn't had a blind architect-- >> bashin: it wouldn't have been as rich or so subtle, for sure. >> stahl: spring 2018 marked the ten-year anniversary of downey losing his sight. so what did he do? he threw a party, a fundraiser for the lighthouse, where he's

been student, architect, and now, president of the board. >> chris downey: maybe a slightly bizarre thing, celebrating my ten-year blind birthday. but when you're 55 and you have a chance to be ten again, you take it. >> stahl: i get the feeling that you actually think you're a better architect today. >> chris downey: i'm absolutely convinced i'm a better architect today than i was sighted. >> stahl: if you could see tomorrow, would you still want to be able to feel the design? >> chris downey: if i were to get my sight back, it would be-- i don't know. i would be afraid that i'd-- i'd sort of lose what i've really been working on. i don't really think about having my sight restored. there's-- be some logistical liberation to it. but, will it make my life better? i don't think so. ( ticking ) tow up... ...for the sweet.

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( ticking ) >> whitaker: rodeo might just be america's original pastime. it started with an event called saddle bronc in the old west. today, there's one name that dominates saddle bronc: the wrights. like every sport in america, rodeo has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, but when we first brought you this story in november, there were nine members of the wright family riding the circuit, and they ranked among the best in the world. in a sport with plenty of wannabe cowboys, as you'll see and hear, the wrights are the real deal, vestiges of the american frontier. their lifestyle has prepared them for what's been called one of the last blue collar sports in america. in saddle bronc, there are no tom brady salaries and there are

regular injuries that would make runningbacks flinch. and yet, none of that discourages the wrights. each generation seems to be better than the last. tonight, you'll meet america's first family of rodeo, competing for glory on horseback, the wright way. >> announcer: anybody heard of the wrights, in the bronc riding? >> whitaker: you may not have heard of the wrights before... >> announcer: they are a utah sensation! >> whitaker: ...but at rodeos big and small across the country, like this one in utah, that last name is as famous as manning or montana. and there are just about enough wrights to field their own football team. >> announcer: it is the wright night at the rodeo! >> whitaker: nine professional cowboys, with five world titles among them. there's ryder wright... >> announcer: ryder! come on, ryder! >> whitaker: ...the youngest world champion of all time, and at 21, currently sitting in first place.

>> announcer: hey, we've been guy. spencer wright, another world champion. that was incredible! >> cody wright: yah, he did awesome. >> whitaker: and in a league of his own, cody wright, the one who started the family dynasty 20 years ago. >> announcer: and street smart! >> whitaker: at 42, cody's a two-time world champion and one of the best bronc riders ever. what's that feel like? >> cody wright: adrenaline. a little bit of fear. and you got to learn how to control it. you know, otherwise, you know, it'll go to heck pretty quick. >> announcer: there's stetson wright. >> whitaker: in saddle bronc... >> lift. >> whitaker: ...the goal is to hang on with style for eight seconds... >> yeah! >> whitaker: ...to a horse specially bred to buck you off. can you explain to us what's going on in that eight seconds?

>> announcer: let's go to cody wright. >> yeah, go on! >> cody wright: you've got a rein you hang on to. you need to lift on it, because that's what holds you down in the saddle. when they jump and kick, you know, they're stretched out, their feet are off the ground, you want to be stretched out, you know, your free arm straight back, and your feet set as high in the neck as you can get them. >> whitaker: it's like one hell of a rocking horse. >> cody wright: it can be the roughest ride in the world if you're out of time, or it can be the smoothest ride in the world. >> whitaker: so are you-- are kindncing thorse? >> cody wright: i like to think you are. i dance a lot better with a horse than i do with my wife. ( laughter ) i ain't got no rhythm. >> whitaker: the wrights, and the broncos they're randomly paired with, are partners in the rodeo. both have to perform well to get a good score from the judges. but when it's go-time, the

wrights, the sons and brothers, crowd around the chute like a nascar pit crew, helping each other saddle up. this is a team sport for you guys. >> cody wright: i think so. i love it. there's nobody i'd rather see do better. but don't-- don't think that i ain't trying to beat them. >> jake wright: we all show up to the rodeo wanting to win first, but, and, but we're going to help each other do it too. >> whitaker: that's jake wright, cody's younger brother and one of his toughest competitors. and yes, there are more brothers: jake's twin jesse. a brother-in-law, coburn bradshaw. plus, alex, calvin, stuart and spencer wright. >> spencer wright: we're like a big support grouyou know, s b t . >> everybody focused? >> spencer wright: and i know that's why we all have been so successful at what we do. >> whitaker: all that practice has propelled them to the

national finals rodeo in las vegas. it's the cowboy superbowl... >> announcer: spencer wright, he's got a great ride going! >> whitaker: ...and team wright has made it every year for the last decade and a half. cody has won the champion's gold buckle twice. >> jake wright: he showed us that we could do it with a little hard work and a lot of try. >> spencer wright: if he would've never even pursued rodeo, i wonder what the rest of us would even be doing. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: what they're doing comes at a steep cost. while these horses are rarely injured, that can't be said for the wrights. they all have the same orthopedic surgeon on speed dial. can i see a show of hands of how many of you've been injured? so all of you've been injured? and two of you came into this interview on crutches. ( laughter ) >> jake wright: three of us. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: tell me some of the injuries. >> jesse wright: i think the worst was my back, when i broke my back in omaha. >> alex wright: fractured my skull. >> jake wright: i broke my nose

about ten times >> spencer wright: i broke all the sinuses on this-- right side of my face one time and had a brain bleed. as far as injuries goes, i think i'm one of the lucky ones sitting here. >> whitaker: do you hear yourself? brain bleed? ( laughs ) and you call that lucky? >> calvin wright: hurts a lot less than heartache, bill. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: but heartache won't land you in the hospital. the wright boys are well aware every ride could be their last. stuart came close. >> stuart wright: i said, "let's go," and horse reared up and hit my head. kind of knocked me a little senseless. and i fell off, into the arena. he just jumped straight up and fell completely on me. thought it broke my back, because i just felt my ribs pop as he landed on me. i was like, "oh my gosh!" >> whitaker: as awful as that may sound, the wrights say the hardest part of the job is being away from home. >> cody wright: what'd they tell alex last time he went to the doctor? >> whitaker: they're on the road around 250 days a year, clocking

100,000 miles in these... what they call "rodeo motels." >> cody wright: this weekend you're going to heridan and fort pierre, or vice versa? >> whitaker: where they eat, sleep, and drive from canada to the mexican border, chasing eight second dreams. do you sometimes feel like you're on the road more times than you're on a horse? >> jesse wright: you drive 22, 24 hours from home to there. and we're there an hour, turn around and driving back. >> coburn bradshaw: we drive for a living, and ride bucking horses for fun. ( laughs ) >> everyone: yeah. ( laughter ) >> whitaker: when they aren't on the road, home is southern utah. they mostly grew up in milford, a no-stoplight town where the wrights are the main attraction. they're a family of 13 kids, kept in line by their parents, bill and evelyn. that's a huge family. >> evelyn wright: it's a good-

sized family. kid's are kind of "more- ish," you know-- the more you get, the more you want. >> bill wright: she trained the older ones to help the younger ones. >> evelyn wright: i had to organize them. >> bill wright: but she-- >> evelyn wright: i'm like, "i cannot do this on my own. or else it's going to be bad, because mom's going to grow bear hair and you're not going to like it." >> home video: all right, quit it. >> whitaker: the wright kids were cowboys playing cowboys and were natural ranch hands. it kept them out of evelyn's hair, and out of trouble. the seven boys and six girls knew how to ride a horse before. mes o'd, t but never went pro. >> evelyn wright: they learned how to break horses early, how to ride and tame horses and train them. i think you have to be a cowboy before you can be a rodeo cowboy. >> whitaker: the ranch was their training ground. the family has been working this land at the edge of zion

national park for more than a century and a half. >> bill wright: i'm five generations, cody's six, rusty's seven, and his boy is eight. ( laughs ) generations. >> whitaker: bill, do you think the wright family will be ranching this land in another 150 years? >> bill wright: well, i hope so, i really do. when you work as hard on something as i have at this, you don't want to see it just go away. >> whitaker: what keeps their way of life going are rituals like this: branding day. >> hee-oh! hee-oh! >> whitaker: bill and his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gather every year to round up, vaccinate, and brand their cattle. the hard work brings them together. it defines them on the ranch and in the arena.

>> cody wright: dad's the first one to preach that you get out of it what you put into it. and if he's seen you putting something into it, they were both behind you. and it didn't matter if they had to sell the-- the farm. they was going to get you there. >> whitaker: they sacrificed a lot for you to reach your dream. >> cody wright: i think so. um... >> whitaker: this cowboy gets emotional because he knows exactly how much his parents gave up when he was starting out, in a family where money was tight. >> evelyn wright: we went to gillette, wyoming, to the national finals. and i had like ten kids. he comes back from the expo and he said, "i bought cody a saddle." i'm like, "what?" "yeah, it was only $1,100." i'm like, "what? ( laughter ) you did what?" i was so-- i started crying. i'm like-- he's like, "we got to help him. we got to support him. he's going to lose his dream if we don't." and what do you say to that?

>> well, thanks for coming. >> whitaker: these days, cody may be living his dream, but it hasn't exactly made him rich, considering cowboys have to foot the bill for just about everything. >> i really like rodeos. >> cody wright: if you're rodeoing full time, and going to, you know, 100 rodeos, you've got to make over $60,000 or $70,000 just to break even. >> whitaker: so you could go through all this and go to a rodeo and walk away with nothing. >> cody wright: yeah. you could walk away in the red. >> whitaker: less than nothing. >> cody wright: less than nothing. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: so surely there are easier ways to make a living. >> cody wright: you'd think so. ( laughs ) but, better? i-- i don't know. >> whitaker: still, the sport has taken a toll on cody's body and his family. he's spending less time in the arena now, and more time on the ranch. >> cody wright: reach back... >> whitaker: and in the practice pen, leading the next generation to carry on the wright legacy,

sons ryder, rusty, stetson, who are already rising stars, and the youngest, statler. we were there the day cody coached his 16-year-old on his very first bronc ride. >> cody wright: statler, right there, lift hard and take ahold of him. >> statler wright: well, i was, like, super nervous, until i got in there. and then i just pretty much forgot about everything else but what my dad's taught me. >> cody wright: go on! go on! keep going, buddy! >> whitaker: that ride, how'd that feel? >> statler wright: i hurt my butt, actually. ( laughs ) a lot. but as soon as i hit the ground, i wanted to do it again. >> whitaker: one hall of famer told us that you guys have the potential to be the best there ever was. >> rusty wright: i think we could do it. but really, that's kind of humbling and, it lights a fire. >> whitaker: a fire, they say, to win those gold buckles, just like their dad, cody. >> cody wright: you know, i

wanted a gold buckle. but to ride every horse the best i could was always-- what did it for me, you know. sure, i want money. who don't? you need it to go along. but i always just wanted to ride broncs. it was striving to make that perfect ride. and you know, the feeling that you feel when you're in time with a horse that's trying to get you off their back as hard as they can. >> whitaker: have you ever had a perfect ride? >> cody wright: no. i've never had a perfect ride. ( laughs ) when i make that perfect ride, i'm going to be done. >> whitaker: after our story aired, the family added one more world championship to its collection. stetson wright won his first gold buckle for all- around cowboy at the national finals rodeo in december. ( ticking ) >> how do you tell a rodeo story? first you learn to ride a

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in the tubbs fire. the flames, the ash, it was terrifying. thousands of family homes are destroyed in wildfires. families are forced to move and higher property taxes are a huge problem. prop 19 limits taxes on wildfire victims so families can move without a tax penalty. nineteen will help rebuild lives. vote 'yes' on 19.

the unfair money bail system. he, accused of rape. while he, accused of stealing $5. the stanford rapist could afford bail; got out the same day. the senior citizen could not; forced to wait in jail nearly a year. voting yes on prop 25 ends this failed system, replacing it with one based on public safety. because the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail. >> whitaker: i'm bill whitaker.

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