Casey Greer - Diamond J Action Photography

Meet the Member Casey Greer

story by Michele Toberer

Casey Greer, resident of Quitman, Arkansas, is a first-generation cowboy, coming from a family that had no rodeo roots whatsoever. However, in high school his friends, including NFR-qualifier Jason Thomas, were heavily involved in rodeo, and Casey felt a pull to join in. Casey has been a steer wrestling cowboy ever since. Back in his high school days, Casey was blessed to have the Thomas family take him under their wing, letting him practice on steers, teaching him all they could about steer wrestling, and loaning him a babysitter of a mare named Molly to learn on. Casey’s parents were extremely supportive of their son’s newfound passion, and helped him purchase his first horse, Batman. “Batman was a small black horse that had a lot more ability than he looked like he should have,” and he carried Casey in competition through college rodeo. In high school, Casey competed in the AHSRA, and finished in the Top 20 at the national finals in 2006.
A rodeo scholarship brought Casey to the University of Arkansas Monticello, where he made the college national finals his junior year, and met his wife Lana, also known as Tootie. Tootie competed as a goat-tier and breakaway roper, while Casey competed in steer wrestling, and team roping. They both graduated in 2010, Casey with an Animal Science degree, and Tootie with a degree in Agriculture Business. The well-matched pair was married in August of 2010, and now have a three-year-old daughter, Quinn, and two-year-old son, Collin, that travel with them to rodeos. “They love to go to rodeos, it’s all they pretend to play and all they talk about.”
Casey works for US Compounding Pharmacy as a pharmaceuticals sales team manager, and considers himself a “rodeo weekend warrior,” often going to 2-4 rodeos per weekend. Tootie took a break from rodeo, until recently, and now has her goals set on doing well enough in goat tying and breakaway to win an all-around title this season.
The past two years, Casey had been using Blue, Tootie’s blue roan breakaway mare, as a haze horse. He has switched to riding the beloved Quarter Horse family member in steer wrestling this year, and really likes her in that job, “She’s typical of most mares, she has a lot more heart than most have, and I know it’s kind of cliché, but I think she really enjoys her job.” Blue is one of the only horses he knows of that has won a Horse of the Year title in both hazing and steer wrestling. Now, for a haze horse Casey hauls Bud Bogan’s horse, JJ, and likes him because the 13-year-old chestnut is really broke, so he is easy for anyone to ride, as Casey doesn’t always know who will be available to haze for him at a rodeo.
One of the special parts of rodeo is the friends made along the way, and Casey appreciates the brotherhood he has with his hauling partners, John Barnett, Zack Oliver and Seth Caldwell. They are typically together at practice, hauling to rodeos, and dinners and special occasions in between. “I travel with the greatest group of guys. Sometimes our wives get jealous of how much time we spend together,” Casey said laughingly.
Another cowboy Casey credits for being a wonderful mentor, is Richard Ramsey. “Richard was a retired bulldogger, but he always kept good horses for me to ride, I practiced with him a lot and I have so much respect for him.”
Casey earned the Arkansas Cowboy Association Steer Wrestling Champion title in both 2016 and 2017, as well as winning the same awards in the Arkansas Rodeo Association those same years. He believes some of his success has come from working on his mental attitude. “This is a sport where there are no cheerleaders or coaches, you are on your own to make yourself believe you can accomplish your goals. Having a winning attitude is extremely important to achieving success.” Casey is a member of several associations, but he especially enjoys being a part of the ACA because the competitors are such a close-knit group. “Everyone looks forward to going and cheering on their peers, everybody is there for everybody.”

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