story by Kyle Eustice
Born and raised in King, North Carolina, 8-year-old Cadee Carroll lives with her mother Brandy, 38, father Jeff, 37, and little brother Colton, 2. Cadee is a third grade student at Mt. Olive Elementary School, Her passion truly lies with rodeo. Her love affair with horses began when she got in the saddle for the first time at 2 years old. A few short years later, while watching the NFR on television, she told her parents she wanted to give rodeo a try. At the ripe age of 5, she began competing.
“I started in a local association and have been with it for four years,” said Cadee. “This was my first year in the JRSRA. I went and watched a few of their rodeos and really liked how things were ran, how everyone was nice and made you feel welcome.”
So far, Cadee has participated in goat tying, barrels and pole bending, but has difficulty choosing a favorite.
“I love all three events,” said Cadee. “They all have to do with rodeo.”
While Cadee is clearly just getting started, she’s already had a moment she’s really proud of in her burgeoning career.
“My biggest accomplishment is winning goat tying for the year in both associations,” said Cadee. “It felt great to get first place, and proved practice and hard work pays off.”
Although she still has her education to complete, she’s confident in her path. She wants to rodeo through junior high, high school and college, and eventually end up with rodeoing as her profession. Fortunately, she has a few role models she can look up too, especially her father and grandmother MeMe, who both used to team rope. When she’s not at school or rodeoing, she’s with MeMe.
“I usually go to her barn,” explained Cadee. “I like helping with riding lessons, trail rides and helping other kids that have an interest in rodeo.”
Most importantly, Cadee spends countless hours practicing. Every chance she gets, she can be found in the arena as she strives for greatness in all of her events. She also does a lot of traveling, something necessary to grow in the sport.
“With two associations, we are traveling about every other weekend,” said Cadee. “We went to 27 rodeos this year. Some weekends, we had two rodeos, one on Friday and one on Saturday.”
During the week, Cadee practices at least three times and then usually one day on the weekend on her horse, Blue, who is her favorite because he works with her and always does his best. However, having fun is also truly important to Cadee when she competing.
“Winning helps of course,” said Cadee, “but as long as you are having fun, it makes it all worth while.
