story by Lily Weinacht
Junior Boys World Goat Tying Champion
Denton Good took home his second world title in the NLBRA after securing the 2018 Junior Boys World Goat Tying Champion title last summer. The 15-year-old from Long Valley, South Dakota, won the junior boys team roping with Jace Thorstensen in 2015, and his most recent win put his saddle count up to three. “My brother has five saddles in the house and I have a couple, so I started riding my goat tying saddle. We had to start sitting in them for recliners,” Denton says with a laugh. He also won the team roping as a header at the NJHFR in 2017, and finished fourth in the ribbon roping world standings with Acelyn Brink last summer, but his greatest love in rodeo is steer wrestling. He moved up to the senior boys in the NLBRA, where he’s steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, and ribbon roping. He also rodeos in the SDHSRA, and competed in a Jr. American steer wrestling qualifier in March in Fort Worth, Texas. “I was 4.9 on my first steer and I was a little long on my second one, but it was a great experience, and there’s a few guys I hazed for in The American Semi-Finals.”
Denton started competing in the NLBRA when he was 5, and he loves the rodeo family ties. His dad, Allen Good, is a horse trainer and PRCA steer wrestler, and his older brother, Carson, steer wrestles and team ropes. “Most of our neighbors around here Little Britches rodeo and we’re mainly the only ones that have an indoor arena, so we all get together and practice,” says Denton. The Goods also put on a series of Northern Hills Little Britches rodeos in the spring and supply the timed event and roughstock steers, while Denton supplies the goats from his herd. He also helps sort cattle at the rodeos and pitches in with the other stock contractors. “We do high school, college, and pro rodeos. We mainly supply bulldogging steers for the big rodeos.”
His horsepower includes Hitch, the steer wrestling horse Denton trained, and co-owns with Casey Cowan of Fort Pierre, South Dakoa. He also team ropes on Crackers, who he has won all three of his world titles on, and tie-down ropes on Jet. Both horses were born and raised on the Good’s ranch, where they also run beef cattle. “I’m definitely motivated by my family and my grandparents, Gordon and Janet Good,” says Denton. “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t leave the ranch.” Denton and his parents, Allen and Beth, are sometimes gone for a month at a time rodeoing in the summer, and his grandparents make it possible for him to rodeo by running the ranch while the family is gone.
A freshman at Kadoka Area High School, Denton enjoys his Ag. class and studying farm business. “I played a little junior high basketball, but all we do now is rodeo. We practice every night and we’re always doing something, mainly bulldogging,” he explains. “For extra money, I cut wood and sell it to people to burn, and I train horses in my spare time. My goal is mainly staying positive, and knowing that no matter what, there’s always going to be another rodeo.”
