story by Lily Weinacht
Pacific Northwest met Southwest and together made their home in The Grand Canyon State when Brooke and Ty Thomas met and moved to Stanfield, Arizona, several years ago. The husband and wife first came to know one another in Idaho, where Brooke graduated from college and Ty was rodeoing. “We got married and moved to Washington where my family lives, and we would come here (Arizona) in the winter,” says Brooke. She and Ty moved south for the roping and rodeo opportunities several years ago and joined the GCPRA in 2016, Brooke qualifying for the finals in barrel racing, and Ty in the team roping. “The biggest thing that attracted us to the GCPRA since we have a family now and don’t rodeo too much is their incentive bracket. I train my own barrel horses and Ty trains his rope horses, and it allows us to get them seasoned and not be in that open bracket.” Ty adds, “The rodeos are great, and we enjoy them all. I love the Pacific Northwest, but once you commit to rodeo there, that’s your summer. Down here, we do a little of this and that, and it fits our lifestyle better now that we have a family.”
Brooke and Ty have a three-year-old daughter, Taylor, and Brooke is pregnant with their second child. She’s not entering rodeos this summer, but normally competes in barrel racing and ropes with Ty at home. She grew up playing volleyball and didn’t start rodeoing until 10 years ago when she met Ty. “I think barrels are really easy to watch, but when I started running barrels and training horses, it was the most difficult thing I’d ever done,” she says. “It’s easy to make a good horse, but getting it to beat that last half second is challenging, and I enjoy the challenge. From a training standpoint, Ty’s folks have offered a lot of advice, and Kelsey Lutjen has been really helpful for me.”
Ty is the second generation of his family to rodeo, growing up in Oklahoma and competing in tie-down roping and team roping as both a header and heeler. “My parents were my biggest influences and they were with me every step of the way,” says Ty, who ropes with his neighbor, Matt Morford, in both the GCPRA and World Series ropings. “We live in a very good neighborhood, and there’s a lot of people that rope here. I ride across the road to rope with Matt, and I’ve never had that before. I built an arena and set it up so that two people can rope by themselves.”
Brooke and Ty train all their horses, and two of their mares are by a stud belonging to Ty’s parents. “We try to pick horses that both of us can either head or heel on and run barrels, but it’s challenging sometimes. We’re probably the tallest husband and wife team in the GCPRA – Ty is six-foot-five and I’m five-ten,” says Brooke. “My mare Rainy is the one I took to a few GCPRAs, and I think she’ll be awesome. She’s super green, but she’s proving she can clock in. When I come back, that’s who I’ll be on.” Ty is on a younger head horse, Rez, he started seasoning last year. Their daughter, Taylor, rides her pony named Sparky, and she recently went to the Sherry Cervi Youth Championships in Marana, Arizona. She was the youngest girl to run barrels by herself, and won a trophy.
When they’re not rodeoing, Ty works for Rain and Hail Crop Insurance, and Brooke runs her own financial planning company, as well as developing her own financial planning software. They also enjoy camping and boating in the summer. Both Brooke and Ty plan to qualify for the GCPRA finals in the future, along with their goal of rodeoing in the PRCA. Ty was the 1999 PRCA Team Roping Rookie of the Year, and he’d like to return to circuit rodeoing. “Our family takes definite priority, but we’d like to get horses finished and back to pro rodeos. That’s our ideal goal, and the GCPRA incentives make it so easy to get horses seasoned and have a shot at that.”
