story by Laurie Dineen
Chisum and Avery Draper of Wetmore, Colorado just completed their first year competing as CJRA members. As fraternal twins, these two 7 year olds are second generation CJRA competitors and fifth generation ranch hands. Their dad, Chad Draper was raised on the Draper family ranch outside of Wetmore and is currently the ranch manager for the Hatchet Cattle Co., which is adjacent to the Draper Ranch. He joined the CJRA in 1994, the very first year of CJRA rodeo, and is excited to see his children now competing in the same organization. Their mom, Christy, a HS Science teacher, rode and showed horses growing up and was Miss Rodeo Colorado in 2003. One might say their desire to ride horses, work cattle and rodeo is in their genes.
“My sister and I have been riding since we were babies, helping on the ranch and spending a lot of time with our grandparents, (Buddy and Jerry Draper), and our cousins,” said Chisum. “We help gather the cows, feed the calves and horses, shut gates and at branding help with the counting and writing down ear tag numbers and brands. It is a lot of fun.”
This year, both competed in barrels, poles and flags riding the same horse – Jelly Bean, in most of their events. Chisum likes the poles the best and Avery prefers barrels but both agree they like to go fast. They had a great CJRA year leading up to the finals, however, “they didn’t have the very best of finals competing wise,” said Christy. Avery ended up 3rd in the poles, 7th in barrels, 8th in flags and was 7th all around. Chisum placed 4th in poles, 8th in barrels and was 8th all around. One thing for certain, they both were bitten by the rodeo bug.
Chisum & Avery Draper – courtesy of the family
Avery and Chisum have also played soccer and have taken Karate classes, but this year they are going to be found in the arena practicing their rodeo events instead. “We practice every day,” said Chisum, “and next year I want to goat tying and dummy roping to my events as well as parent/child team roping. That takes a lot of practice!” Avery also loves to rope the dummy, but prefers heading. “I plan to enter the dummy roping next year for sure,” she said. Both are looking forward to next year because they had “so much fun competing, seeing friends and encouraging each other.”
As twins, they have a lot of similar likes. “My brother is my best friend,” said Avery. “We play and practice together, we both love to ride horses and spend as much time on the ranch with our grandparents. I am just starting to ride my Grandma Jerry’s horse Izzy in the barrels and hope to ride her next summer,” she said. Chisum is beginning to ride his dads heeling horse Cesar which he plans to ride next summer as well.
With a summer of competing down, both Chisum and Avery are looking forward to continuing to rodeo at the Little Britches Rodeos this fall in addition to attending school. They are both eager learners and as first graders at Mountain View Core Knowledge School in Canon City, and are excited for what the new school year has to bring.
Chisum and Avery both agreed they learned a lot their first year. “I learned to have confidence, to focus on my events,” said Avery. “And we met a lot of new friends,” added Chisum.
One thing for sure, it will be fun to watch these two young rodeo athletes grow and reach new heights both in and out of the arena!
