The Big Horn Equestrian Centre, located just south of Sheridan, hosts competitions for polo ponies and riders. There are farms with gardens and ranches in the foothills with freshly mown hay.
And in one couple’s backyard, there is a 68-foot-long, 32-foot-high flying trapeze rig where people can experience the thrill of flying, mid-air somersaults, and cool tricks like the “shooting star.”
It’s all done with a safety harness, if necessary, and a large net waiting below.
Patty Tobi, 61, co-owner of the backyard, said she decided to become a trapeze artist 13 years ago and “talked her way” into a circus school in upstate New York.
Tony Steele, a trapeze artist and member of the Circus Ring of Fame, was one of her coaches.
“There’s not a specific reason that I chose flying trapeze that I know of,” she informed me. “I tried my first somersault three years ago. As I got older, I became more willing to try new things.
“Mostly, adults don’t want to try things because they don’t want to look stupid, and it turns out that trying things that you are not good at and looking stupid is pretty liberating.”
When the now-retired anaesthesiologist realised that flying trapeze could be liberating 13 years ago, she had to travel to find places where she could practise and improve.
Birthday Gift
Husband Steve Tobi stepped up 11 years ago and helped Patty pull off the nearly impossible feat of finding and installing the huge professional trapeze rig in their back yard.
“It was a birthday gift for my 50th birthday,” she told me.
Patty Tobi said they had no idea how to build one, but they eventually persuaded one of her circus school’s coaches — who had spent the majority of his career with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Circus — to help.
Though initially opposed, he eventually agreed when he saw their plan and commitment to doing it right.
Since its installation, dozens of people have flown through the air with the WyFly Flying Trapeze Club, which they established.
The club has 12 members who will be at the rig multiple times per week this summer to work on new skills and tricks.
Patty Tobi stated as a child that she had no high-flying persona to emulate, but she does recall having many dreams about “flying.”
Steve, who has spent much of his life playing hockey and skiing, stated that for the first summer after the rig was set up, he let his wife do her thing while he stayed on ground.
A friend from Denver with trapeze experience would come up and fly with Patty until one day, her late father informed her that his insurance agent wanted to learn to fly.
Reba Johnson, 70, who is now retired from her insurance job, came to the club and took a chance, and she is still a member and spends time on the rig.
During a Cowboy State Daily visit, she easily climbed the 28-foot ladder to the landing area for the flyers. Standing on the flyers’ platform, she swings out to warm up by practicing a flip into the net.
She said she enjoys the sense of community that has developed among the club members.
“These people that I play on the trapeze with are just awesome, supportive, fun and sometimes a shoulder to cry on,” she told me.
Shooting Star
Johnson gets the most excited when she masters a trick with the safety lines and then removes them and performs it correctly, despite the fact that the safety net remains below.
She prefers the shooting star trick, but she can also perform a straddle and a return to the board, among others.
The shooting star involves flying out to the catcher, swinging out with the bar, driving high with the legs and then opening the legs so the body and arms pass through them to be caught by the catcher.
After one year, Steve Tobi asked his wife what she wanted for her 51st birthday. The rig would be a difficult gift to top. She said she wanted a catcher.
They persuaded a friend from Sheridan to travel to Seattle and train as a catcher, and Steve Tobi decided to accompany his wife on the rig. He sought training to swing and fall without safety lines, followed by training on the West Coast to learn how to receive flyers after they launch off their trapeze swings.
Timing is critical in this role, and the catcher signals the flyer when to begin a leap and swing out.
Steve Tobi stated that he has discovered that each flyer responds differently to his word signal to launch, with some immediately leaping and others pausing before leaping. In trapeze, fractions of a second matter.
The catcher’s goal is for the flyer to meet him at the peak of both of their swings, allowing the catch to be made in the fraction of a second when they are still before the downswing.
“If they are doing a flipping trick, the catcher has to arrive just as they finish the rotation,” he informed me.
The rig’s catcher swing is shorter than the flyer swing. Steve Tobi stated that he can speed up his swing to adjust by crunching his abdomen or delay it by stretching out.
Patty Tobi has improved to the point where she can perform a single somersault while being caught by her husband. A few other members can perform double somersaults, but none of the club catchers have caught one yet — but visiting catchers have.
According to Steve Tobi, the ability to do so remains a goal.
Steve Jackman of Sheridan, a club member for the past nine years, also plays catcher. He laughed about the first time he arrived and tried out the trapeze rig.
“I did terribly,” he admitted. “The first time after I left, Patty looked over at Steve and said, ‘We’ll never see him again.'” And now it’s seven years later.
New members
Patty Tobi stated that they hold open houses every year, and that new people attend and ask to join. Several people have been members in the past, but for a variety of reasons, including elbow issues and pregnancies, they have moved on.”
Membership costs $400 per year, which the couple claims is significantly less than the cost of other flying trapeze rigs found throughout the West.
Davis King, a Florida State University student who is spending the summer visiting his father, said he enjoys coming over to the Tobi house and getting some airtime.
“It’s about freedom. “You can fly, you can drop—it’s pretty free to be up there,” he explained.
Another member, Sheridan resident Amy Walters, said she began trapeze training in 2017.
She enjoyed gymnastics as a child and considered a career in circus performance. She has attended circus schools and spent the summers working at camps and teaching trapeze.
“I’ve also worked at a summer resort where people come on vacation and they get to try trapeze,” she told me.
Valerie Hovland, 52, who has lived in Sheridan for the past three years after previously living in California, said she has taken about ten lessons since joining the club more than a year ago.
The retiree, who also teaches dance and water aerobics, stated that she enjoys “doing something hard and figuring it out.”
“As you get older you want to try different things,” she told me. “And this is hard, but it is a lot of fun and everybody is really nice.”
Hovland mentioned that she enjoys “flying through the air” and “feeling like a bird.” She encourages others to try the activity.
She’s started working on her upper body strength to help her improve.
Safety First
As a retired doctor, Patty Tobi said she is adamant about safety on the rig.
During Cowboy State Daily’s visit in late June, she observed the dark clouds approaching the Bighorn Mountains, listened to occasional thunder, and closely monitored a weather app before calling the session to a halt.
She stated that being on a 32-foot metal trapeze rig is not the best place to be when there is a risk of lighting.
Having the trapeze rig has allowed them to fill their backyard over time.
The Tobis shared that in 2019, they planned a backyard circus for their extended family and a few friends, but when word spread, over 400 people showed up.
“We had fire spinners and an emcee, someone making popcorn, flying trapeze and a ‘wild’ animal show,” according to her. Their pet dog dressed up as a lion was one of the “wild” animals on display.
Their trapeze hobby has made them friends all over the world, and this summer they expect visitors from the United States and Europe.
An Italian friend who flies trapeze and lives in the Netherlands is expected in the next few weeks.
The First Session
Patty Tobi stated that for any new member, the first session entails signing a release and wearing a safety belt that is connected to lines at all times. There’s even a safety device for climbing the ladder to the landing, where trapeze flyers take off.
The would-be flyer would be shown from below how it appears to take off from the board where the flyers launch, and the person would be given instructions. There would also be instructions for performing the first ‘trick’ from the bar, which is a ‘knee hang’.
“Most people within a first session can learn how to hang by their knees, release with their hands and be caught by the catcher,” she told me. “All of that is done in safety lines.”
For those who believe they are too old to learn new tricks, Patty Tobi shares the story of her late father, who would come and watch until he decided he wanted to try it himself.
“Everything went very well. “He was small and spry and could still do 10 pull-ups at 90,” she explained. “He just said, ‘I wish you had started doing this when you were younger,’ meaning that we should have started doing it when he was younger.”
