story by Michele Toberer
Rodeo has become important to 14-year-old, Allie Frey, from Eunice, Louisiana, not only because she loves it, but because she has seen first-hand the relationships it brings to rodeo family lives. Allie is not the first rodeo competitor in her family, and with a family tree like hers, she doesn’t think she will likely be the last. Allie lives with her parents, Winston and Cindy Frey, on a farm that has been in the Frey family for generations. She has grown up watching both of her older sisters compete in rodeo; Millie, a high school freshman, a current LHSRA competitor, and Chloe, a freshman at McNeese State University, traveled up the same LJHSRA and LHSRA roads, that Allie is now on. However, the Frey family rodeo path began many years ago, as Allie’s grandfather, Warren Frey, competed in LHSRA, winning a 1956 National High School Rodeo Bareback Riding Champion title in Reno, Nevada. Warren went on to compete for McNeese College in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as a team MVP, in bareback riding, bull riding and steer wrestling. He was a National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Bull Riding Champion in 1958. Allie’s grandpa returned to his family farm after college, farming rice, cattle, and raising another generation of rodeo competitors with Allie’s grandmother Verna, who passed away in 2012. They had five children, that all competed in rodeo growing up, and have went on to raise their children in the same lifestyle. Allie’s father Winston, was a PRCA steer wrestling competitor from 1990 to 2000, competing at the WNFR in 1993. Winston came back to the family fam that he and his father both grew up on, and now runs the same operation himself, as he in turn raises another branch of the rodeo family tree.
This year, Allie will complete her third year with the Louisiana Junior High Rodeo Assocation, competing in barrel racing and pole bending, with her sights set on gold buckles at the National Junior High Finals this June. Allie’s barrel horse, a palomino mare named Dixie, used to carry her sister Chloe in competition, but has been Allie’s main barrel horse for the past three years. In pole bending, Allie runs a blaze-faced, sorrel Quarter Horse gelding named Two Eyed Trey Bar, but he is simply called “T”. He is 22 years old, and has brought riders to junior high and high school national finals 17 times, including her sister Chloe, for 5 years. Allie loves that “he is fast, consistent and fun to ride, he really likes his job.”
Allie enjoys being in the Honors Program as an 8th grade student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. She likes the challenges in her physical science class, and thinks that becoming a pediatrician could be in her future. Allie takes part in school athletics, playing basketball and volleyball, which is her favorite. After school, Allie spends time with her two border collies, Sister and Vegas, practices in the arena, and helps to take care of all the horses and cattle on the family farm. The family raises Braford cattle, and Brahmas, which Allie used to also show. Allie enjoys helping her mom out at her western store, Frey Outfitters, in Eunice, selling the latest western wear, gifts and accessories.
Allie’s dad, whom she calls “poppa,” is the 2nd vice president of the LJHSRA, and Allie says she loves that her family is involved, as well as the friendships that the association brings to her life. “It’s all about competition, but when you’ve been in it so long, and have known the people that long, it’s not just about the competition, they’re your family.” She mentioned she loves hearing her poppa’s stories about the friends he traveled with while he competed in the PRCA. “Those friends he traveled with became family for life. My poppa always talks to Ote Berry, and he is like an uncle to us.” Allie appreciates the support of her sisters and poppa, and all they help her with rodeo, and looks up to her mom with respect for all she has accomplished in her business and life, and for being her biggest fan.
