story by Lily Weinacht
“I think it’s how good it feels to win that motivates me. It takes so much to win and so much goes into it that it’s rewarding, and I don’t think you ever really get over that,” says Joseph Parsons. The 34-year-old tie-down and team roper from Marana, Arizona, is familiar with both hard work and success. He grew up ranching alongside his dad, Joe Parsons, a 5-time WNFR tie-down roping qualifier, and Joseph found his own passion for the sport when he was 12. “I went to my first junior rodeo in Tucson and did real good, and from that day on I never looked back.”
He junior high and high school rodeoed, qualifying for the NHSFR four times and winning the national tie-down roping title in 2002. Joseph then college rodeoed for Central Arizona College one year, finishing second in the nation in the tie-down roping at the CNFR. He’d already been competing in the GCPRA since he was 14, and qualified for the GCPRA finals numerous times since. He is the 2018 GCPRA All-Around Cowboy, and won the year-end in the tie-down roping in 2014. “That was my first time for the all-around, and there’s lots of guys competing in multiple events, so it’s a hard one to win. It just depends on who does best at the finals. I got a call saying stick around for the banquet; you won the all around. It’s exciting, and that’s why we do it! People work so hard at making the GCPRA good, and they most definitely have,” he adds. “They’ve made it exciting and you’re proud to be a part of it, and it’s appreciated having a place locally in Arizona to go compete.”
Joseph has also competed outside of the Grand Canyon State for PRCA rodeos, but needed to stay closer to home last year after horses changed his plans. “In three months, one of my horses broke a leg and the other had a heart attack. I had a 22-year-old horse I’d retired that I tried to get by on, and this year I was able to put some good horses together, but I’ve been staying closer to home circuit rodeoing and going to Grand Canyons. I bought a horse from Devin Burris, another GCPRA competitor, and one from Cole Robinson, a good friend of mine from Wyoming. I’d been bugging them about those horses the last three or four years, and they’re just as good as I thought,” he says with a laugh.
Joseph ropes as often as possible, and practice is a friends and family affair. His dad taught him everything from the beginning, while Joseph’s sisters, Emily and Erin, will come work barrel horses, and their mom, Joy, is supportive in every aspect. “My whole family has always been behind me from the get go. I couldn’t have done it without their help,” says Joseph. “My dad’s the one who works the chutes and taught me when I was young to get calves and horses. Calf roping is what my dad did, so of course I wanted to do it, but I like that it’s individual, and it’s a family tradition.”
When he’s not rodeoing, Joseph runs his hay business, growing and selling hay, 90 percent of which he ships to Texas. He and his family also raise their own horses. “I have three Dinero babies out of Sherry Cervi and Mel Potter’s program. I want to keep my young horses coming along and win on horses that I’ve raised and trained. I’d like to make it to the Grand Canyon Finals—I look forward to qualifying for that and being there every year.”
