story by Lily Weinacht
Before Brannan Allen and his family pulled into the South Dakota state fairgrounds in Huron for the NJHFR, he was already a state champion, winning the all around, tie-down roping, chute dogging, and ribbon roping with Josie Roselle in the CJHSRA. The 14-year-old from Loma, Colorado, was also the reserve state champion in goat tying and team roping with heeler Trey Huwa. His third qualification to the NJHFR earned him one of his greatest buckles yet when he won 2018 NJHFR Reserve Tie-Down Roping Champion. “I didn’t know I did that well until the last kid went,” Brannan recalls. “It was sort of crazy that I came back from fourth and hit second place!” He also made it back to the short go in the team roping with Trey. The pair of ropers, who just started roping together at the start of the season, finished eighth in the world standings, while Brannan took sixth place in a tie-down roping jackpot at Nationals and won scholarship money.
“My (reserve champion) buckle is sitting on my shelf right now, and I don’t know that it will ever come off. I might wear it for a special occasion,” says Brannan. “I was up in every performance at Nationals, so I stayed busy the whole time, and my tie-down horse, Jake, did really awesome. My team roping horse is Fritz. I’ve ridden him for probably three years, and he makes it pretty easy for my heeler to rope behind. He’s a seasoned horse and does everything, and my goat horse, LB—Little Bitty—wasn’t a goat horse until about six months ago when I got off on two goats with her at a junior high rodeo. She’s my dad’s heel horse, and I just decided to try her out and she did pretty dang good.”
Brannan and his family have 18 horses altogether. His sister, Gentry, is entering sixth grade and the CJHSRA this fall, and their brother Clayton will be a third-grader and competes in the NLBRA. “Clayton helps me out in my events and we team rope all the time at the house,” says Brannan. “Tie-down roping used to not be very fun because I didn’t know how to do it very well. Practicing a lot and buying a lot of calves and getting off in practice helped. I practice every morning and my mom runs the chutes.”
Along with his mom and step-dad, Tammy and Jon Goza, Brannan looks up to Kyle Hayes, Ace Slone, Josh Peek, and Kasen Brennise. “Kyle has helped me out a lot in the calf roping and I got my calf horse from him. I met Ace through Josh when I went to one of Josh’s calf roping clinics, and I met Kasen through junior high and high school rodeo. There’s always something to work on or get better at to make my runs a little faster.”
Brannan also enjoys hiking some of the trails around his hometown and going into the mountains, or Mount Garfield and the Colorado National Monument. He plays basketball on Fruita 8/9 School’s basketball team, where he also likes P.E. and math. Before he starts ninth grade, however, Brannan is off to compete in the NLBRA finals in the team roping, ribbon roping, flag racing, goat tying, and breakaway roping. “This is my last year of breakaway roping, so I’d like to win that. I’ll be in high school rodeo this fall, and I think the calf roping will be a lot tougher, so that will be a new challenge, and I’m looking forward to the team roping.”
