story by Ruth Nicolaus
NJHSRA member, Brett McAbee Jr.
– Mable McAbee
Brett McAbee, Jr. loves all things cowboy and rodeo.
His favorite books are the “Hank the Cowdog” Series and Louis L’ Amour books, his favorite country music artist is Chris LeDoux, and his favorite movie is “Eight Seconds,” and if they made that into a book, he’d read it.
The thirteen-year-old cowboy who lives five miles east of Ansley, Neb., is a member of the Nebraska Junior High Rodeo Association. He competes as a bull rider, breakaway roper, ribbon roper (his runner is Mataya Ecklund), goat tyer, and team roper (his header is Brody, his younger brother.)
For his events, Brett rides a seven-year old-horse named Boots who is “basically my best friend,” he says. “We click together. It’s a bond. It’s hard to explain.” The family has had Boots, a sorrel with a blaze face, since he was a yearling.
Brett is an eighth grade student at Ansley Public School. He enjoys school, especially his English and reading class. His favorite teacher is Mrs. Deaver, the music and choir teacher, because “she always has a positive attitude towards everything.”
Of all his events, bull riding is his favorite, and he admires bull riders Mike Lee, J.B. Mauney, and J.W. Harris. Last December, at a PBR Touring event in Kearney, Neb., he rode two mini bulls to win the average and a check for $660! On his second ride, he wasn’t sure he’d made the eight second buzzer. The crowd was “actually cheering so loud I couldn’t hear the buzzer so I was actually hoping I made it.” When he realized he had, “I was really happy.” He’s saving his earnings for college and future entry fees.
Brett has won second place in the Nebraska Junior High Finals Rodeo in the bull riding in both his sixth and seventh grade years, and has competed at the National Junior High School Finals both years.
When he grows up, he’d like to ride bulls in the PBR and at the Wrangler National Finals, and be a rodeo coach at a college, possibly at Panhandle State University or in Texas.
He has an older sister, Mable, who is a freshman in high school and competes in high school rodeo, and a younger brother, Brody, who ropes with him and is in sixth grade.
Because he and his dad share the same name, his friends and family often call him B.J.
He is on his school’s A-B Honor Roll, and is the son of Brett and Jaime McAbee.
