by Lily Weinacht
Colton Lewis of Dodge City, Kansas, clinched his third year-end bull riding title with the KPRA in 2017. The 27-year-old didn’t break out his bull rope last season until Fourth of July weekend, but his competition went off with a bang. “I planned on hitting some of the bigger rodeos and I had a hot streak. I thought I might as well go for it (the year-end) and things worked out well,” says Colton. “Rodeo is just what I love to do, and I guess I don’t know any different. It’s what I did growing up and what I continue to do.”
While he comes from a family of ropers—he’s an adept header himself—Colton broke out of the timed event mold, gripped with the urge to ride bulls as a young boy. “My uncle bought me a bull rope, and it’s been game on ever since. It was something that wasn’t supposed to lead to anything, but it did. I don’t think my parents were terribly excited about the idea, but they dang sure supported me and took me all over rodeoing. They had practice pens in my home town twice a week, and my parents hauled me to those two nights a week, and on weekends we’d go rodeoing. I didn’t ever go to school for it until years down the road. If it wasn’t for my parents keeping me going, I would never have continued it.”
Colton competed in gymkhanas and the NLBRA, along with junior high and high school rodeoing for Colorado. He went on to college rodeo for Dodge City Community College, just one spot out of qualifying for the CNFR two of the four years he college rodeoed. Colton also joined the KPRA, balancing it with college and PRCA rodeos, and has held his card with the association the last five or six years. “The money they have now is pretty hard to pass up, especially with the finals and all the money added. A guy can win a pile of money and stay pretty close to home.”
Although much of Colton’s KPRA success has been in the bull riding, he says it’s the event he puts the least amount of time into. “I rope a lot—I’ve put more practice and effort into roping rather than bull riding now. As a kid, I tried putting as much into bull riding as I could, but I rope every day.” Colton also ropes at World Series and USTRC ropings, along with local jackpots around Dodge City. His main horse is Freckles, a 16-year-old gelding Colton raised from a weanling and trained. “He’s coming off an injury from last fall and I cracked him back out the other night and he did awesome. It was like he didn’t have a day off. I have about six horses I’ve raised and started myself, but Freckles is the one for the big shows.”
Also a full-time farrier, Colton primarily shoes rodeo horses, along with some cutters and backyard horses. His dad shoed all their horses growing up, and Colton went to farrier school one summer between college semesters and has loved it ever since. He’s also in the middle of buying a house in Dodge City, putting his roots deeper into Kansas cowboy country. “Since I’m getting ready to move, it might be a late summer start for the rodeo season,” Colton finishes. “But I want to be the best I can and keep roping.”
