story by Lindsay Humphrey
Seventeen-year-old Brooke McCully is lucky in many ways, but she’s especially thankful for both of her sisters: Brittni, 21, and Brynne, 10. “My biggest inspiration in life is my older sister. She’s always been someone to look up to for me. She’s played a big role in how far I’ve made it in life,” said the Mullen, Nebraska, native. Brooke is also flanked by a younger sister who has been a major contributor to the success of the middle McCully sister. “I’m really thankful for my younger sister who helps keep my horses in shape for me while I’m gone for [volleyball] games. She always has my horses warmed up and calves ready to rope when I get home from practice at school.”
It’s a two-way street for these sisters who don’t really have to ask each other for help, they just know when it’s needed. “I always helped Brittni when she was at home and now Brynne’s doing that for me. We all want the best for each other and want to get better, so we are there for each other any way possible.” Now that Brittni is older and has gone off to college, Brooke travels with her to NSRA events and spent this last summer on the rodeo trail with her. “I’m finally old enough that my parents (Brad and Traci) let me go rodeo with my sister. They send us off to all the rodeos now instead of taking us to them.”
Even though Brooke’s parents have more of a hands-off approach to their rodeo career nowadays, it started out very differently. “My parents probably hauled us to every junior rodeo they could find when we were little. I started trotting around the barrels when I was three.” The girls did every rodeo event under the sun before getting to high school and narrowing their focus a bit. “We didn’t really know about the junior high rodeo association until my sister got into eighth grade. To keep it fair I didn’t get to rodeo in it until I was in eighth grade.” Betty Karen and Gary Pearman, also affectionately known as gramps, are family friends who helped get Brooke and her sisters started in rodeo.
“Betty Karen and Gary had some old horses that they roped and ran barrels on and they were kind enough to let us use them until we could get our own.” Many of the horses Brooke’s competed on were trained at home with the help of her dad. Even her current breakaway mare, 14-year-old Ellen, who used to be a rank ranch horse. “We got Ellen cheap because she bucked with her old owner a lot. My dad finished training her and my sister and I taught her to breakaway. She’s ended up being a really good horse.” And then there’s Tank, the larger-than-life rope horse who essentially does it all. “I heel on Tank and he’s also a practice breakaway horse that we use a lot.”
Although Brooke competes in barrels, poles, breakaway and team roping in high school rodeo, she’s completely focused on the calf roping event in the NSRA. It’s just been in the last two years that Brooke has competed at more than just a handful of NSRA events. Brooke headed into the finals sitting in the top ten and walked away with eighth place in the year end. “I’ve really enjoyed competing in the NSRA because I’m getting to know a lot of people that I’ve looked up to throughout the years. It really is just a big family every time we go somewhere. Everyone is always helping each other out and want their competitors to succeed.”
