story by Lindsay King
“It’s old school, it separates the men from the boys. There is no scoring, you get out and it’s a race to see who is fast enough to get down there and get it done,” said Hayden Powell from Rogers, New Mexico, about the Pendleton Roundup. Though he dreams of catching two heels at the Thomas and Mack, Hayden appreciates a good challenge and sees that in the turf in Oregon. Sitting atop his dad’s old rope horse at just six years old, Hayden tracked calves around the arena learning how to rope. “After I started spinning steers, we just took off from there. My dad has roped since long before I was born and taught me everything I know.” The 16 year old is the only son of Larry and Audrey Powell and lives his dream every day on the ranch his dad manages.
With plenty of land to roam and cattle to tend, Hayden looks forward to getting all the work done in time to rope with his dad. “We just work hard all day to get everything done so we can work on getting better in the team roping or fixing a problem with my calf roping.” Self-described as plain jane, Hayden keeps busy helping on the ranch and roping at rodeos and jackpots as much as possible. At the USTRC finals this past fall, Hayden placed sixth in the number 11 shoot out with his high school roping partner Trent Wood.
After taking reserve at state in the team roping, Trent and Hayden made their way to Nationals. Though the team roping did not turn out so well, Hayden was 16th callback in the tie-down roping and took home ninth in the world. However, the 2017 NMHSRA rookie of the year and all-around cowboy spent his proudest moment taking second in the Rising Stars calf roping. “On my first calf I had a bobble, I was feeling like I would not be able to come back after that. But my next three calves were good enough to get me second. It felt pretty good to rope against such talented ropers and still get second.” Coming out of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and straight to Nationals made it easy for Hayden to pinpoint his favorite rodeos: a tie between Nationals and the IFYR. “I like competing against such great people. We all have a lot of fun roping dummies all week and meeting a lot of life-long friends from different places.”
The high school sophomore of Dora Consolidated Schools hopes to one day get a scholarship to rodeo while pursuing a degree related to agriculture. His ultimate goal is to emulate his dad by running an Angus cattle ranch one day. “Both of my parents have been the biggest influence on who I am today and where I am in my rodeo career. They have always pushed me to be the best that I can be.” With so many great role models to choose from, one rises to the top for Hayden. “I met Trevor Brazile in Vegas two years ago. He is just the man, he is the same guy in and out of the arena. He is just a nice guy and a great roper.”
Out of all the great rodeos Hayden has competed at, he simply cannot pick just one as his favorite. His packed rodeo schedule makes his mental game even more important. “I like to go back and watch old videos of my good runs to get me thinking about what I need to do for my next run. I also listen to a lot of motivational speeches.” Hayden and his dad provide steers and calves for multiple rodeos, including many of the NMHSRA events. “High school rodeo is a lot of fun, we get to rope good stock alongside friends and we are all having fun while doing it. You can’t beat that really.”
