story by Ruth Nicolaus
Josey Murphy knows what she loves, and she loves rodeo. The thirteen year old cowgirl, a resident of Keachi, La., competes in the Louisiana Junior High School Rodeo Association, in the barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, team roping (as a header for Levi Brown), goat tying, and ribbon roping (as the runner for Garrett Frey).
Of all her events, she loves the barrels the most. “I like the rush,” she said, “and my horses try to do their best. I like going really fast.”
Josey’s rodeo mounts include a bay named Toby, a barrel horse who has just returned from injury after a three-year absence; a sorrel named Ruby, another barrel horse; a third barrel horse, Peppy, who is owned by Tom O’Neal; and another barrel horse named Racee who is owned by her grandmother but is on the injury list and should be back by springtime. For her other events, she rides a black horse named Joan Jett for the breakaway; a dapple gray named Casino for the goats; Storm, a big paint and Sitting Bull, a gray horse, both as head horses, and a gray named Crickett for the pole bending. Of all her horses, she likes Joan Jett the best, in part because she rode Joan at the National Junior High Finals last July.
She is an eighth grade student at Central High School in Grand Cane, where she loves to study history, especially about Native Americans, and she loves the school’s four day week. There are nine kids in her class, which she enjoys. Her favorite teacher of her entire school career was her third grade teacher, Miss Williams, “the sweetest teacher,” Josey said. She came to watch Josey run barrels one time, which Josey really appreciated.
Josey is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and on her school’s A B Honor Roll.
She loves to watch movies, including her favorite, Racing Stripes, and her second favorite, Secretariat. She also loves to ride her Mexican pony named Burrito into the woods, swim, jump on the trampoline, and have sleepovers with her friends.
Josey has qualified for state finals both her sixth and seventh grade years. She finished the 2015 season in second place in the breakaway and the goat tying and third in the barrels at the state level, and at the national level at the National Junior High Finals, fourth in the breakaway.
She has an older brother, Macon, who is sixteen and a high school rodeo contestant. She is the daughter of K.C. and Julie Murphy.
