story by Michele Toberer
Living up to the nickname “Cowboy” has been a lifelong endeavor for Herrick, Illinois 18-year-old, Coltin Rauch. After moving through the ranks of junior and high school rodeo, he is now blazing the rodeo trail as he works hard to make his mark in the International Professional Rodeo Association. Cowboy has been a member of the IPRA for three years, but since the homeschooler recently graduated high school, he has zeroed his focus in on qualifying for the 2018 IFR in tie-down roping. Much of his summer has been on the road, hitting multiple rodeos across the eastern United States and Canada, and experiencing success towards his goal. “I started this season with a game plan to make a run for the IFR, and I really like all the traveling I get to do, I’ve been all over; from Mississippi to New Brunswick, Canada. Plus, the payouts at the IPRA rodeos are really good.”
Although Cowboy’s dad, Ryan, couldn’t convince his wife, Wendy, to name Coltin “Rope” when he was born, it wasn’t long before the nickname Cowboy had naturally stuck. Cowboy’s parents did not rodeo, but they had future hopes for their son, and Cowboy spent his childhood with a rope in his hands. At just three-years-old, they bought Cowboy his first little bay rodeo pony, Miss Piggy, who he learned to breakaway rope on when he was just 5 years old and went to Missouri for his first roping clinic with Roy Durfey. This clinic ignited a fire in Cowboy for calf roping that has been burning ever since. Cowboy has been to many roping clinics and has spent many visits with Roy over the years, learning all he could from his mentor about riding, and roping calves. “I love the horsemanship in calf roping, and I like that when you rope calves, someone else isn’t reliable for your outcome, it’s all on you.”
Growing up, Cowboy attended many rodeos to watch his older sister Alyssa compete and liked to tag along after all the ropers, constantly roping dummies and the feet of people passing by. Cowboy’s younger sister, Ella, currently competes in breakaway roping at high school rodeos. He learned that to be good at what he does takes a good work ethic and spends much of his time riding his two calf horses and practicing his roping skills. Thad Davis has been instrumental in Cowboy’s roping career, and Cowboy was grateful to purchase Willie, a powerful, sorrel 14-year-old gelding from Thad last fall. Cowboy also has a 13-year-old bay mare, Brownie, that he has raised since she was two. She is the horse that Cowboy will choose for rodeos up in Canada where they strictly enforce a jerk-down rule, “Willie has a really powerful stop, and Brownie stops a little easier, so I can hold my slack on her and am less likely to jerk a calf down.”
At home this winter, Cowboy plans to attend farrier school, learning a trade that will not only help him with his own horses, but that he can use as he continues to compete in rodeos across the IPRA circuit. He also helps his dad with his business, building steel retaining walls and boathouses. Roping is generally his main focus, but Cowboy is an avid golfer and tries to get on the course at least once or twice a week when he’s home.
Going to many rodeos requires responsibility and a good outlook, and he’s taken lessons from watching some of the pros like Cody Ohl and Joe Beaver, “You have to have a short memory, if you have a bad rodeo you can’t let it drag you down too much or it will have a snowball effect and get into worse than it is. You just have to have a short memory and be able to forget those bad runs, so you can go do your best at the next one.” Cowboy is grateful for the support of his family, including grandparents; Joe and Kathy Rauch, Dennis Tipsword and Bonnie Hicks, and Barb Tipsword and Jed Stevens, as he looks forward to his favorite rodeo, “My favorite rodeo is always the next one, I like them all.”
