story by Lily Weinacht
Rodeo is Coy Arnold’s sole sport, and the 17 year old from Hutchinson, Kansas, is homeschooled so he can travel and practice more often. He takes his school with him anywhere, including the rodeo trail, and his dedication paid off last summer when he won the 2017 KHSRA All-Around Cowboy and Tie-Down Roping Champion titles. “I was leading the calf roping going in to state finals, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the all-around. I was just focusing on catching my steer for my partner,” says Coy, who team roped with heeler Reed Boos. This was his first state title in high school, and he won state in the breakaway roping as an eighth grader. Coy finished 11th in the nation in the tie-down roping at the NHSFR this summer, while he competed in the IFYR in both his roping events prior to Nationals.
Coy started roping when he was 4 or 5, following after his grandparents and parents, Dusty and Stephanie Arnold, who all competed in rodeo. “My dad helps me a lot, and so do Timber and Trisha Allenbrand,” says Coy. “I’ve stayed with them during the summers, and they’ve taken me to rodeos and Timber has helped me with my horsemanship. We all rodeo together and do it as a team and help everybody out.” While Coy enjoys both his events, he likes the challenge of seeing how fast he can tie his calf every run, and executing what he practices at home every day. He ran the fastest tie-down roping run at the 2016 NHSFR with an 8.4, winning the second round, and he also won Mike Johnson’s Junior Calf Roping in 2016.
The Arnold family makes their home outside of Hutchinson, including Coy’s parents; his 14-year-old sister, Carlee, who won the all-around, breakaway roping, and ribbon roping titles in the KJHSRA this year; and their older brother, Zane, who also ropes. They raise quarter horses for their family to ride, though they sell one or two occasionally. Coy’s dad rides the colts, and Coy is in charge of the rope horses. The family raised and trained both of Coy’s rope horses, Chunky and Cash. Chunky went to his first rodeo two years ago when Coy started tie-down roping, and Coy has turned him into a solid calf horse. The Arnolds also have roping calves and steers for practice, and Coy practices every day unless it’s muddy, in which case, he’ll haul to an indoor arena not far away. “Sometimes if my dad can’t get off work, my sister will work the chutes for me, but most of the time, my dad does it.”
A senior this year, Coy admits he’d rather be riding horses or roping than doing school, but he does find math the easiest of his subjects. If he has free time, he and his family go out to eat, or Coy goes to the lake in the summer. He also likes to keep up with how professional ropers like Tuf Cooper and Tyson Durfey are doing. “I actually was lucky enough to meet them at Mike Johnson’s Junior Calf Roping, and they invited me to come rope with them sometime.”
Coy’s goal for his senior year is to qualify for the NHSFR a third time, and he’s switched from heading to heeling with Camden Hoelting. He heeled when he was in junior high and decided to switch back this season. “Hopefully I will get a scholarship to go to school and make the college finals, and after that, I hope I can make the NFR one day.”
