Rodeo Update

Ex-teacher Gives Roping Lesson

By Ted Harbin

GUNNISON, Colo. – Nicole Hadley had some things to prove.

She arrived in Gunnison a day before she was scheduled to rope, because she has an investigative mind. She wanted to see what the cattle looked like and prepare her mind for her breakaway roping run during the final performance of the Cattlemen’s Days PRCA Rodeo.

“I wanted to get a feel for Gunnison since I’ve probably passed through her when I was a little tyke,” said Hadley of Goodland, Kansas. “I got to know the town of Gunnison, and we went downtown and went to an ice cream truck and ate at Mario’s Pizza.”

She knew that Brighton Bauman of Burleson, Texas, had set the standard during her run Thursday morning run, so Hadley threw caution to the wind and went for it. By sharing the title, Bauman and Hadley each collected $2,869, which will move the Kansas cowgirl into first place in the Mountain States Circuit standings.

That’s saying something for a cowgirl that was teaching high school agriculture classes just a few months ago.

“I actually didn’t start ProRodeoing until last year, so that was my rookie year,” she said. “I’ve been working on my set of horses I had … four really strong horses that are finished and ready to go. I decided I needed to chase my dreams, and I can always go back to teach when I was done.”

She’s hoping that’s not anytime soon but competing at the professional level of rodeo is hard. It wasn’t even available to breakaway ropers until the last few years. The first National Finals Breakaway Roping took place in 2020, and Hadley has some work to do if she ever wants to make it to that mountaintop.

“My family has a row-crop farming operation, so they raise corn and wheat,” Hadley said. “I got started in rodeo because my dad grew up actually on the western side of Colorado in Cedaredge, so I was definitely very odd for our area.”

She attended Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, then transferred to the University of Wyoming. At both schools, she was an all-around cowgirl, competing in multiple events. That education helped her transition into a life on the rodeo trail, and her goal for the 2024 campaign is to earn enough money to finish the year among the top 40 in the world standings; by doing that, she will qualify to compete in lucrative winter rodeos in Texas, like Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston.

Once she saw the calf she had drawn for her run on Saturday, Hadley made a gameplan.

“The calf was strong and was going to allow me to have that opportunity to make a really fast run on him,” she said. “About two hours before I roped, I just decided I was going to go fast, so I chose the fast horse, and everything worked in my favor. I’m super thankful for that.”

That mount is Ginger, a 19-year-old sorrel mare she’s had for 12 years.

“She’s been to the high school finals and the college finals, and now to the ProRodeos,” Hadley said. “She’s not the one I usually call on, but she’s definitely a horse I like to use on a faster setup where the scores are not long, and the calves are pretty strong.

“I watched (Friday) night, and I just had a gut feeling that she was the one I needed to ride, and I just went with it.”

That gut feeling has her riding high in Gunnison taking home a share of the inaugural breakaway title.

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