World champion barrel racer Martha Josey’s small beginnings cultivated a strong work ethic and determination in the Texas cowgirl. So strong, that her trailblazing not only propelled her through four highly successful decades in the arena, but also building a rodeo school, marketing the Josey Ranch brand, and sustaining the business for 56 years and counting. And the ripple effect continues to influence each generation of barrel racers that follow.
“I started teaching with my husband,” says Martha, who married tie-down roper R.E. Josey in 1966. The couple was invited to teach a barrel racing clinic that same year in Connecticut—one of the first in the area—and three girls that attended later went on to qualify for the NFR, including Lee Natale of New Jersey. Martha and R.E. had moved to West Texas after they married, but after the success of their clinic, a homesick Martha talked R.E. into moving back to her mother’s home in Marshall, Texas, and opening a rodeo school on the property. Thus Josey Ranch was founded in 1967 with 33 students in the first class. Today it is the longest-running rodeo school in the country.
When she wasn’t teaching, Martha rodeoed hard. The young woman who previously had to rent a horse trailer and tow it with her mother’s worn Buick went on a winning streak. Before joining the WPRA in 1968, she won 52 consecutive barrel races and 7 horse trailers aboard CeBe. She qualified for her first NFR that same year.
Her success and R.E.’s—who won three AQHA world calf roping titles in the early 1970s—caught the attention of companies such as Purina, Hesston, Wrangler, Priefert, and many more, who approached the couple with sponsorships for Josey Ranch. “When you’re winning, students want to ride what you ride, eat what you eat, and feed what you feed,” Martha explains. “There are many, many banners at our ranch.”
She invested the money from the first rodeo school into promoting Josey Ranch. “I didn’t go to college since I started rodeoing, but I always had marketing on my mind. Out of sight is out of mind, so you always have to put things before people.” Martha attributes some of her business savvy to her grandmother, Mattie Castleberry, who after working in a cigar store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, decided to start her own business purchasing small buildings and turning them into night clubs. “She didn’t drink or cuss, but she was a businesswoman. She started in Kilgore, Texas and put in Mattie’s Ballroom. When the Reo Palm Isle was the largest night club in Texas, the owner went off to war and he asked Mattie to run it. When the war was over, she bought it from him. So many country singers started right there at Reo Palm. I live on her property, and the top of the barn she built is my trophy room,” says Martha.
Another area of her business savvy began in the 1970s with her need for a saddle she could stay in. Her main barrel horse at the time was Cebe Reed. “He was such a turner and could be quick, and I couldn’t find a saddle I could stay on. I kept looking, and every saddle I’d win I couldn’t ride.” Martha, who calls herself a perfectionist when it comes to designing her saddles and bits. She designed a saddle for herself through Circle Y Saddles that not only helped the rider, but also the horse. “One thing that’s really different is that the saddle tree is in close contact with the horse. And the stirrup is on a swivel so you can put your feet in front of you or behind but not get thrown backward. Circle Y has been phenomenal to work with, and we have many champions riding it now.”
Although her rodeo career was peppered at times with serious riding injuries, Martha qualified for the NFR four consecutive decades—one of the only women to do so—and represented the U.S.A in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. In 1980 after winning the AQHA World Championship aboard her horse Sonny Bit O’Both, she won the WPRA world title just ahead of one of her past students, Lynn McKenzie. Sonny still holds the record as the only horse to carry a rider to both titles in the same year. Recently, Martha was the recipient of the prestigious Tad Lucas Award, and at 85, she continues to ride and teach at Josey Ranch, as did R.E. until his passing in February of 2022.
Josey Ranch has welcomed more than 300,000 students and given out more than $350,000 in college scholarships. “This year is the first time ever we’re holding the Josey Gold Cup Senior Barrel Race, and we just had a meeting about the Junior World Cup and how to be bigger and better,” says Martha. “Gary Arthur, my nephew, is helping me run this place. Without him I’d be in a heap of trouble. Team Josey goes to the out of state clinics—that’s Ty and his wife Lisa—and Mark Burke is our video man at all of the clinics.”
Martha continues to impart to her students the values that carried her through her titanic career. “They need that passion and they need to stay positive and be motivated, because sometimes you have to be your own best cheerleader. After finishing a rodeo you didn’t do good at, you have to learn how to put that behind you and let it help you be better for the next one. And enjoy the moment. How enjoyable it is to do something we love so much, and have the family involved.”
