story by Michele Toberer
Originally from Ontario, Canada, Cody Mousseau, known in most rodeo circles as “Moose,” has spent a great portion of his life as an International Professional Rodeo Association competitor. Seneca, South Carolina, where he lives with his wife Savannah, is where Cody now calls home while staying in the states on a rodeo sports visa. The couple was married in October 2018, and his IPRA competition has taken on a whole new dimension as he and Savannah travel the rodeo trail together, competing at IPRA rodeos across the U.S. and Canada.
As an only child in Canada, his parents, Jennifer and Barry, started him off on the rodeo trail at a young age, helping him develop his passion for roping when he was 12 years old. Before that, the family was often found at team cattle penning competitions, although Jennifer barrel raced, and Barry competed as a steer wrestler, tie down roper and saddlebronc rider. Cody heeled during his first year as a team roper but has mainly stuck to the heading side of the team roping equation since he was 13. He competed in the Ontario High School Rodeo Association all four of his high school years, qualifying for nationals in team roping four times, as well as three times in tie down roping and once as a steer wrestler, an event he started his senior year. Cody also began competing in the multiple IPRA rodeos held in Canada while he was in high school, before graduating in 2008. “We don’t have a lot of junior associations in Canada, so you pretty much either high school rodeo or IPRA rodeo, and I did both.”
In 2008, Cody bought his first IPRA card, and went on to qualify for his first IFR in 2011 as a header. He qualified for the IFR again in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, in all three of his timed events; heading, tie down roping, and steer wrestling. In 2014, he won his first world champion titles in steer wrestling and heading. His heeler was Tyler Kidd, and the team won the finals average. “It was pretty cool to win with Tyler because I had been living with the Kidd family for three or four months every winter. I did that for a long time, staying with them and rodeoing here during the winters, then going back to Canada for the summers.” Cody spent close to three months in Australia in 2015, and came back with Aussie, Ty Parkinson, who he headed for during the 2015 season, and the team qualified for the 2015 IFR, where they placed in some team roping rounds, and Ty won the bull riding and heeling titles as well as the rookie of the year and all-around cowboy titles. In 2016 Cody again qualified for the IFR in both team roping and tie down roping, and then-girlfriend, Savannah, qualified in breakaway roping. “Savannah and I met at an IPRA rodeo in Jasper, Georgia in 2014 and started dating a few months after; we’ve been together ever since.” Even with a knee surgery, Cody was still able to qualify as a header to the IFR in 2017, and he was back at it full throttle, qualifying for the 2018 IFR in steer wrestling.
Rodeo is Cody’s full-time focus while Savannah splits her time between working as a nurse and rodeo competition. She’s currently sitting as one of the top 10 IPRA breakaway ropers. “We are really working to try to make the finals together again this year, and I’d like to make it in all three of my events. We’re hoping to spend some time in Canada this summer with my parents and you can go to two or three IPRA rodeos every weekend up there. There is a lot of added money at those rodeos and breakaway roping has gotten really good up there, so it’s a great place to go.”
Cody credits his parents, Chet Kidd, and Brad Stewart for where he is today. “Chet and Brad taught me a lot about rodeoing and winning, and I owe a lot to my parents also. I plan to keep rodeoing as long as I can and have as much fun as I can.”
