Story by Siri Stevens
Joyce Barnes has been involved with the Moffat County High School Rodeo Club for 12 years. She started when her oldest, Casey, was in junior high. All three of her sons have come through the Moffat County High School Rodeo Club and her youngest, Cactus, is still involved at 15 years old. Casey, now 26, is out of college and hauls cattle for a living, rodeoing locally in the PRCA as well as CPRA. As the coach for the club, Joyce helps put together the rodeo (August 26-28), as well as hauling cattle for the kids to practice on during the year. “We also put on some team ropings and barrel races to help raise money to pay some of the kid’s fees. This year is challenging as the stock and everything has gone up. The high school association went up in their fees to help the clubs with the cost of the stock.”
Joyce competed in all the events, but roping was her favorite. She made it to the college finals in the goat tying. “I think rodeo taught me how to compete but it also taught me to be willing to help others and work together. I made great friends that I still have today – we all rodeoed together. I learned what it takes to go down the road, from the money to the hauling.” Joyce owns a trucking business, hauling cattle and hay. She took her rodeo scholarship to Oregon, and then to Mesa State, where she graduated with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry. “I was headed to vet school and then I got married.” She and her husband, Bruce, live on a ranch in Maybell and along with trucking, they ranch, raising Corriente cattle for roping. “I love trucking,” she said. “I’ve been doing it since I was 18, and we haul cattle and hay. “The people that I truck with and the friends are one of a kind, just like the rodeo friends we have.”
Their sons, Casey, Cutter, and Cactus, all rodeoed and the older two went to college on a rodeo scholarship. Casey is driving now and will get his own truck and trailer soon. Cutter (23) just graduated college, and is shoeing horses. Cactus is competing and going to high school. Their club consists of around 10 kids and they get together once a week to practice as long as the weather permits. “We hauled up to Hayden last winter – a one hour drive each way. We are 45 miles up to Hayden. There’s an indoor in Craig, but it’s not that big. Our county has a day set aside, it’s a membership barn in Craig, but there’s a day a week that we can use it.”
Joyce and Bruce provide the cattle for the practice as well as the annual rodeo. “We are giving All Around and runner up prizes for both days,” she said, admitting that the hardest part of the rodeo is finding the cutting cattle as well as an indoor arena to have the competition. “Everything is turned out right now.” Her favorite part of putting the rodeo on is getting to see all her rodeo friends again. “Our organization has grown and I enjoy seeing the people and helping the kids and getting it all together. Our town will donate and sponsor our rodeo. We have great businesses in town that support our kids. During Covid we had our rodeo – our commissioners opened it up for us to have it.” Joyce also volunteers as an EMT in Maybell. Her goal is to have a place in Arizona to rope in the winter. “We had a place down there and we ended up selling it, but that’s our plan is to do that again. I want to rope. I head and heel, mostly head so I can rope with my husband. I’m a #4+, he’s #5. We do all of them, NTR, World Series, and other jackpots.” For now, Joyce loves helping the kids. “We’ve got a great bunch of kids; I have the cattle and the ability to do it. I did it as a kid and people helped me, so I’m paying it forward.”
