story by Lily Weinacht
“I’d rather rope than breathe,” says 18-year-old Cade Van Soelen. “I get accused of wanting to rope more than doing anything else quite often, but it’s my passion.” The team roper from Durango, Colorado, has spent much of life thus far on horseback, starting with helping his family run their outfitting business, which his parents owned and operated for 23 years until it was sold in 2008. He and his brothers, Seth (27), Rusty (24), and Riley (20), spent seven months out of the year on the mountain, but when they sold the business, it was time to rodeo. “When Rusty got into high school, he wanted to rope and rodeo, which was completely new for my family. I started when I was in seventh grade, and when Rusty went to college, I had to learn what I could. YouTube is a wonderful thing – you can learn a lot from it,” he says with a laugh. “I would watch re-runs of team roping videos and just observe.
“Roping came natural, and my mom’s most famous quote is ‘Real cowboys rope’. She’s definitely a fan of roping and didn’t want us to ride roughstock. I get bucked off my honest horses – I don’t need to go pay money for it!” Primarily a header, though he ropes calves when he can borrow a horse, Cade has roped in the CJRA, CJHSRA, and CSHSRA. “This year I roped with Ryley Beach, and I’ll be roping and rooming with Lance Stevens in college, who was my partner my junior year. We competed in the NHSFR together, and I roped with Cheylin Corman at the NJHFR my eighth grade year. I also roped my freshman year with my brother Riley.”
Cade and Ryley Beach competed in the IFYR in July and finished third overall. “It was a lot of fun, and definitely a rodeo I would’ve enjoyed going to more, but up until this year I didn’t feel I had the horse power.” Cade’s been roping the last eight years off an 11-year-old palomino, Rio. “He’s pretty slow, but he’s honest, and I made the best of it. I learned a lot from him, especially how to score well and reach, because if I didn’t reach, we weren’t going to catch up again.” This spring, Cade purchased a bay gelding, Sancho. “He’s a lot higher caliber horse than I’m used to, and I’ve figured him out now that the high school rodeos are over. There’s an old cowboy song where the guy talks about his horse, Sancho, being worth his weight in gold. He’s 14.3, maybe 15 hands if he’s had a good shoeing job, but he darn sure has a big heart of gold.”
Having finished his senior year, Cade is attending Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, this fall. He was homeschooled at Cowboy Christian Academy to have more flexibility with his rodeoing and family business. “We did 4-H and FFA, skied, and played piano, but aside from that, we weren’t in town much,” Cade says. “My brothers and I definitely got a different perspective on life than other kids our age. My parents, Tom and Cheri, weren’t born into the country lifestyle, but they chose it and made it for us boys. We were one of the top outfits in our area, probably because of the food – my mom is an excellent cook.” Since selling the outfitting business, Cade’s family increased their cow herd and added a purebred herd of Irish Black cattle. Three years ago, they partnered with another outfitting company and now run their hunts. Cade uses any other time to ride one of his family’s many colts.
His latest goal is to win the CNFR. “Long-term, my hope and desire is to be one of the best, and succeed at the professional level. But I have to brag on my parents a little bit – my mom for encouraging me and hauling me to all the rodeos, and my dad for allowing me to rodeo. There’s always work to be done, but he let me chase my dreams and worked his tail off so that my brothers and I could have those opportunities. And Rusty calls and encourages me at the rodeos, and he’s always been my number one hero for that.”
