An expert horseman, Lyons gave up the notion of a business career and opted for the rodeo arena instead, touring nationwide and eventually reaching Los Angeles at the age of 21.

Lyons doubled such cowboy stars as Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Buck Jones and Johnny Mack Brown, often under the direction of Francis Ford, elder brother of John.

[2] Film scholar J. Hoberman relates an incident from 1955 when Lyons and Canutt were involved in using their brawling reputation to break up a group of leftists who were reportedly targeting Wayne.

He specialized in mass horse falls (sometimes up to a dozen in a single scene),[4] back-flip dismounts at gallop, and wagon and carriage separations and rollovers; all seen to good effect in The Comancheros for Michael Curtiz.

[6] Although he gained notoriety for taking horses over high jumps and down steep hills,[7] Wayne biographer Scott Eyman records Lyons always cared for the safety of men and animals under his charge and on one occasion worried whether cattle to be used in a stampede scene might break their legs by going over a small gully.