story by Ruth Nicolaus
Brody Hayes is building himself up, literally. He spends three afternoons a week in the weight room, lifiting and getting stronger, so he can be a better tie-down roper. And since August, when he started, he’s put on fifteen pounds of muscle.
The Alexandria, La. cowboy, a contestant in the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association, counts tie-down as his favorite event. But he also team ropes, as a header for Kyle Clark.
Brody, who is eighteen, rides a fourteen year old bay mare for the tie-down. The family has owned the mare, called “Mare” because she’s the only mare on the place, for seven years. She’s a good one, Brody says. “She’s one of the hardest stopping horses I’ve ever seen, and she can work a rope the best of all I’ve seen. She’s one of a kind.” For a head horse, he rides a twelve year old gray gelding named Platinum.
He is savoring every minute of his senior year at Rapides High School, because he knows it’s the last one. “My senior year has been a fun one,” he said, “definitely the best so far. I’m enjoying it, knowing that the real world is fixing to be here.” He is done with classes by noon every day, and spends his afternoons in the roping pen or at the gym.
He is a member of his school’s FFA chapter, Beta Club, 4-H, and is on the honor roll.
For fun, Brody likes to hunt whitetail deer and hogs, mallards, wood ducks and teal. The ducks are good in gumbo, which his mom or grandma cooks. He loves his mom’s rice and gravy and his Mama Sue Hayes’ pecan pies.
This fall, he will attend McNeese State and major in electrical engineering. There are a couple of reasons he’s chosen electrical engineering. For one, the job market is starting to grow in that field, and secondly, electricity is used by everyone. “It’s a really big field, and I find it interesting, due to the fact that you have to have electricity to live,” he said. He will not rodeo for McNeese; he plans on pouring his energy into his studies. But he will keep his horses.
He has competed at state finals every year since sixth grade, and in eighth grade, went to the National Junior High Finals in the tie-down.
He has two older sisters, who both rodeoed: Rebecca and Josie. Brody is the son of Marvin and Bonnie Hayes.
