story by Michele Toberer
At just 12-years-old, Cade Tobin of Cynthiana, Kentucky, has already earned a name for himself as an all-around cowboy. The Harrison County Middle School 6th grader has earned three champion and three reserve champion all-around cowboy titles in two different junior rodeo associations in the past four years. Cade started out riding sheep before he even began kindergarten, and now competes in practically every event possible for his age. He competes in breakaway roping, goat tying, both ends in team roping, and is now riding steers after stepping up from sheep and calves. Two years ago, added to the long list of events he practices and prepares for, was miniature bareback riding in the International Miniature Rodeo Association. “It’s fun and exciting riding bareback ponies; I like getting bucked off!”
Cade attempted his first miniature bareback ride at an event his father, Mike Tobin, helped put on at the Harrison County Fair, the Kentucky Youth Rodeo Championships. Mike explained, “I wanted to add a cool attraction to the rodeo and feature an event our junior rodeos around here didn’t really offer. I found Gus Haley of Rafter H Mini Broncs and asked him to be involved. Cade wanted to give it a try, and even though he bucked off his first one, I knew he had the bug.” Now, Cade has made multiple bareback rides and has qualified to compete at the IMRA finals at the International Professional Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in January.
Cade’s dad is a team roper who has put his heading and heeling on the backburner while he invests in his children getting their own starts as the next generation of rodeo athletes. Mike and Cade’s mom, Lori, met at a rodeo where she was also competing as a barrel racer, and have been together ever since. Cade has a 19-year-old sister, Haley, and 4-year-old sister, Brinlee. Haley is also a rodeo competitor and is starting her second year as a student athlete on the rodeo team at Southern Arkansas University. Lori works in the business office at a local hospital. Mike works for the Kentucky Farm Bureau; and the family has a farm where they raise a cow-calf herd and farm hay.
The family also trains horses; often buying colts from the Pitzer sale in Nebraska and raising them up to train for their future needs. Mike trains the rope horses and Lori trains the barrel horses. They often show some of their colts at AQHA shows, and Cade recently qualified his two horses, Muffin and Durango, in the heading and heeling for the AQHA World Finals.
While in between seasons in his junior rodeo associations, Cade spent the summer focusing on his bareback riding, and was able to attend several IMRA events that included the mini buckers. After each one, he is looking forward to getting on the next. He also looks forward to school starting soon, where math is his favorite subject, and he enjoys playing basketball for the Cynthiana Bulldogs. In his spare time, he is a typical kid that likes to play Fortnite and Xbox games, but hopes to be a farmer and rodeo star in the future. For now, he looks forward to the IMRA finals coming up in January and having his chance to spur one out under the big lights of the IFR, like his favorite professional bareback rider, Kaycee Field.
