CRA, DominicBroussard
When Dominic Broussard, 11, was even younger, a deep love of horses was already taking root. He wasn’t nearly as interested in toy trucks and trains like other young kids. He was interested in horses, and any sort of game or toy to do with the four-legged animals.
But his father, Kent, had been out of the horse world for quite some time, not owning one for over 20 years, by the time Dominic had caught the bug.
Kent and his wife Denise have two older sons, Dustin and Drake, but it was their youngest, Dominic, that got the family on horseback again around the age of 6, with the urging of his horse-loving great-grandfather.
“I’ve just loved them from the time I was born,” Dominic says of horses.
The family started out just riding the trails near their home in Louisiana, but the day came when Dominic asked to start roping after getting interested in the sport at a Dixie Dude Ranch.
Now, his family stays busy hauling him to competitions in the Cajun Rodeo Association and beyond. He competes in the breakaway, calf roping and goat tying. Dominic recently won the Reserve Champion title in breakaway roping for the Acadiana Youth Rodeo Association and is the state champion in 4-H for both breakaway and tie-down roping.
He competes on his line-back dun gelding named Hammer, and says his favorite part of rodeo is spending time with his friends and learning from the veterans of the sport, especially his coach, Reed Landry,
“We just happened to fall in with the best roping instructor around,” Kent says of Reed, and adds, “Reed and Gale Landry have just taken us under their wing, and they have brought us into all this rodeo stuff. We didn’t know much about it before them. They handle all of that for us, from her calling in to rodeos and him working with [Dominic] five days a week on roping.”
It is Dominic’s involvement in the CRA that gives him an opportunity to learn from, and compete against, some of the best in the sport, Kent explains.
“He’s 11 years old, he ropes against a lot of the men in the jackpots and the women in breakaway, and I never expected him to be taken in. All the old ropers just treat him like a younger brother. All the guys with their pro cards acknowledge him and make a point to pat him on the back and tell him good job.”
Dominic even competes against Reed in the breakaway for CRA. “CRA puts him in another class, competing against some of the best in Louisiana. It just picks up the caliber of competition to make him get a little better on his game,” Kent says.
Dominic gave up all of his other sports to compete in rodeo, and he has to earn the privilege he admits. “I have to feed, make good grades and practice hard,” he says. So naturally, he is a pretty focused athlete until after the competition. Then, he likes to enjoy himself on the road with his horse and friends. At school, Dominic favors the subject of history and learning about the past, but he’s also got his sights set on the future with dreams of training horses and being a professional roper one day.
