story by Lily Weinacht
This September marks Blake Arp’s nineteenth year competing in rodeo, which he was introduced to by his best friend, Cody Pringle. “I was about ten years old, and I played baseball and football when I met Cody,” Blake recalls. “He became my best friend, and I’d go watch him rodeo, and he’d watch me play ball. I started doing what he did, and he started playing ball, and rodeo evolved into something I was pretty passionate about.” Blake rode steers and junior bulls, but it wasn’t until high school that he found his niche in bareback riding. “Initially, I had no clue what bareback was, but my parents wanted me to compete in more than one event. I got on my first horse, and I was the first guy out – I’d never even seen someone do it – and I almost rode him. As soon as I was off, I wanted to do it again.”
Blake, who hails from Hogansville, Georgia, describes bareback riding as a boxing match, as opposed to the dance of bull riding. One boxing match in particular left him with a broken neck his senior year after riding in the short-go of the NHSFR in Farmington, New Mexico. He made eight, but flipped backwards off his bronc and fractured a vertebrae. “The doctors told me I’d never ride again, but I wore a halo brace and healed up. I took a year off and went to school, and when I started back rodeoing, it was like I came back better than ever.” Blake went to Clarendon College in Texas on a full-ride scholarship, and continued competing in the IPRA, which he joined as a sophomore in high school.
He also competes in the SRA, PCA, and Lone Star Rodeos, while this is his fourth year in the SPRA. “I really got involved with the SPRA last year, and they voted me in as Bareback Riding Director this year,” says Blake, who’s competed in the SPRA finals three times. “This association fits the point I’m at in my life, and Cody and I each own two discount retail stores, so we can supply things for their rodeos and sometimes sponsorships. All those contestants like incentives, so we try to do something extra.”
Blake and Cody’s business savvy started with buying and selling animals like goats and chickens when they were growing up. Blake’s two stores, Walker’s Discount, are named after his son, and located in Cedartown and Carollton, Georgia. Blake and Cody also own 21 head of bucking horses, which they lease to stock contractors including Double Creek Rodeo Company and Oubre Rodeo Company. “A bunch of our mares are starting to foal, and our bareback horse V19 won Bareback Horse of the Year in the SPRA last year. We didn’t expect to win, but that horse is very valuable to us, and we have a couple horses coming up that I think are even better than him.
“Cody and I live next door to each other, and if we’re not buying and selling for our stores, we competitively mud race four-wheelers and go to mud parks. I also do a bit of hunting and fishing.” Blake’s travel partner to rodeos is his three-year-old son, Walker. “He rides sheep and does ribbon pulling in the West Georgia Junior Rodeos, and he’s my biggest fan,” says Blake. “I have him every other weekend, and he goes on the road a lot. He’s not big enough to be behind the chutes with me yet, so my buddies or the secretary will watch him will I ride.
“I want to help spotlight the SPRA and help them grow,” Blake finishes. “My goal is to rodeo until I can’t anymore, and I like the fact that now I can rodeo because I want to, not because I have to. Before we got these stores, I was rodeoing to pay the bills, and now I’m enjoying it more than anything. Ultimately, everything revolves around my son and building a respectable name for him to carry on one day.”