At 12 years old, 7th grader, Braxton Guillot, has already been rodeoing half of his life, and certainly has roping calves on his mind for the rest of it. As the oldest of Janea and Brandon Guillot’s three children, Braxton is grateful to be following in his father’s footsteps and especially appreciates competing in the Louisiana High School Rodeo Association, knowing his father is an LHSRA alumni. In his second year with LHSRA’s junior division, Braxton is competing as a tie-down roper and ribbon roper, roping calves for the 2nd season for his partner, Grace Dubois.
Tie-down roping has always been Braxton’s favorite event, and he was glad to win a bet with his dad last season so he could compete in the event this year. As a 6th grader, Braxton competed in breakaway roping under an agreement that if he qualified for national finals in breakaway roping, they would discuss Braxton switching to tie-down roping for his 7th grade season. If Braxton won the state breakaway title, he could switch to tie-down this season for sure. Braxton was determined to achieve this goal and gladly took on the challenge. As a rookie, he finished the season as LJHSRA’s 2019 champion breakaway roper and went on to national finals where he finished 4th out of the top boy breakaway ropers in the world. “It was exciting doing so well at nationals last year, but tie-down roping is a lot more fun, I love getting off and tying.”
Braxton attends school at Leonville Elementary, where his favorite class is math. When he was younger, he played basketball and baseball, but has focused his energies on roping for a few years now. Braxton’s dad works as a farrier with a large portion of his clientele being racehorses; and his mom stays at home to care for Braxton, his 10-year-old brother, Colt, and 4-month-old sister, Josie. The family also raises beef cattle and trains performance horses. Braxton’s dad still competes in amateur rodeos, seasoning many of the performance horses he is readying as future mounts for Braxton and his siblings. The success Braxton had in breakaway roping last season was even sweeter because it was accomplished on a 12-year-old chestnut mare named Big Momma, that his dad had trained for him. Braxton also competes on a home-raised and trained 8-year-old sorrel bald-faced gelding named Ocho.
After school, Braxton cleans stalls, helps feed livestock, and spends most days practicing for his next rodeo. “I rope almost every day and I tie my Perfect Calf dummy a lot.” Besides competing in the LJHSRA, Braxton has made trips to Las Vegas, Nevada for major youth rodeo competitions in the past two years. Last season, Braxton competed at Mike and Sherrylynn Johnson’s Vegas Tuffest Jr. World Championship, and also at Chris Neal’s Las Vegas Stars, where he won the champion 12-and -under breakaway roper title, and his brother Colt won the fastest time in the same roping with a 2.4 second run on his dun pony, Squirrel. Braxton looks forward to having Colt competing in the LHSRA as soon as he is old enough. “I like competing in the LJHSRA and hanging out with all my friends there. It will be fun when Colt is competing in the association too.”
For the future, Braxton hopes to train performance horses and have a professional tie-down roping career like his favorite professionals, Joe Beaver and Shane Hanchey. Although he aspires to compete at the professional level, he plans to do it his way. “My main goal is just to be the best version of me that I can be.”
Braxton is very grateful to his sponsors for their support: Lone Star Feed, T-Pop Leather Shop, Equine Catalyst, Kaylon Rodriguez, Backyard Bits & Spurs, Cowboy’s Western Store, and Delta Equine Veterinarian.
