There are a lot of gold in the Goodman family. As in gold buckles. Stan, Jessica, and their son Wyatt, who are all Arkansas Cowboys Association members, all own at least one buckle and hope that more are on the way. And their daughter, Charslee, is headed for her own championships.
Stan Goodman became interested in bareback riding in high school and competed at the Arkansas High School Finals in 1997. He won seventh in the world at Nationals the same year. His wife, Jessica, was an ACA barrel racer in high school, growing up in a family that competed as bull riders and team ropers. She and Stan were high school sweethearts, and after high school, they married in 1999.
Stan hit the rodeo trail hard, riding barebacks in the ACA for several years before he struck out farther from home, competing in the International Pro Rodeo Association and the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association. He rodeoed full time until he began his own business, Goodman Construction, in the early 2000s.
Jessica earned an elementary education degree in 2003, and began teaching first grade at Cherokee Elementary, as part of the Highland School District.
When Stan rodeoed full time, he traveled with tie-down roper Cavin Hall. He rode barebacks for ten years, winning the ACA’s Rookie of the Year in 1997, the championship in 1998, and the average three times. When he quit in 2007, he took up tie-down roping. “I’d never roped a calf till I was done riding horses,” he said. “I didn’t have any interest in it.” But when he hauled Jessica to rodeos, he got bored and missed the competition. “I told her I didn’t want to sit around and watch, so I bought a horse to rope calves.”
That was four years ago, and Stan learned to rope calves at the same time he was training his horse Scooter. Fourteen years after winning the bareback rookie title, he was rookie of the year in the tie-down roping.
Stan and Jessica started their family with the birth of Wyatt in 2003. Now Wyatt, age ten, is in his third year of ACA competition. The young cowboy ties goats and is starting to breakaway rope. Stan is proud of his son. “He’s going to make a hand someday.” And he’s followin in his dad’s footsteps, as the 2012 Goat Tying Rookie of the Year.
After Wyatt, Jessica put her rodeo on hold while she enjoyed being a mom. She put off buying a barrel horse while she and Stan tried for their second child. But after heartaches and no success, she gave up and bought Ocho, her barrel horse. Two months later, she was pregnant with Charslee. God gave her Ocho for a reason, she believes. “I always felt like God was saying, ‘Here is Ocho. I’m sorry you had to go through all this. Here’s this amazing horse and here’s your baby, too.’”
And Ocho has been an amazing horse. “He was a godsend,” Jessica said. “He’s an all-around perfect horse. He’s consistent and honest.” Ocho carried Jessica to the 2011 and 2012 ACA Barrel Racing Championships, and was the ACA’s Barrel Horse of the Year in 2011. The two years she won the title, she won more money in a single event than anyone else in the ACA.
The two kids keep their parents busy with their activities. “Our horses are well-known at the ball field,” Jessica said. “There are many times our horses are standing beside the trailer at the baseball field while we watch a game. Then we load up and head to a rodeo.” Wyatt plays baseball, football, basketball, sings in the choir, and is a straight A student. Charslee, a kindergartener, plays t-ball, does gymnastic, and is beginning to barrel race.
Wyatt was seven when he qualified for his first ACA Finals, and his goat tying horse had a unique connection to his daddy. He tied goats on Cavin Hall’s 27 year old calf horse, which had been a bucking horse that Stan rode in high school. That year, Wyatt was the youngest competitor at the ACA Finals. In addition to rodeo, the family raises beef cattle.
