story by Lily Weinacht
Team roper Corey Owen found his niche in the rodeo world when he was 18. He grew up playing school sports and had horses, then discovered he could combine the best of both worlds when his friend Micah Gaines introduced him to team roping. “I spent countless days roping the dummy and improving my roping, and after a year and a half, I decided I wanted to start roping competitively, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I keep trying to get better and better and move up as I go.”
Currently, the 25-year-old from Ohatchee, Alabama, is sitting 13th in the SPRA team roping header standings, with high hopes of qualifying for the SPRA finals for the first time. “I went pretty hard this year, and I started off really well and placed in four or five different rodeos in the area. As the summer came it didn’t go so well, but I won another check or two in the fall and I’m riding it out to see how I fall in there (the standings),” says Corey. He also won the team roping at a timed event in Lafayette, Alabama, earlier in the year. “I won third in Jasper, Alabama, and I placed at Rockmart, Georgia. I liked it because the setup was kind of like Salinas, with a really long score and both the header and the heeler coming out of the same box.”
Corey is also a tie-down roper, and he competed in both tie-down and team roping for a year on University of West Alabama’s rodeo team. “Team roping was the easiest thing to get in to, because there’s probably five roping pens within 45 minutes of my house, and they’re all owned by team ropers. I’ve always played sports, so I like the teamwork aspect of team roping. I’ve always been a team player and been about helping out your teammates, or your roping partner. It takes two and you have to work together. I’m going to try and calf rope some next year and do two events.”
Three people in particular have helped Corey since he started roping. “Phillip Kelce is the one who taught me how to rope. He trained my first horse and helped me tremendously, and pushed me to be better. Kenny Ellison is another one, and he really knows how to fine-tune people get the best out of them, and Terry Denard helped me with judging on the barrier and getting my horse to work sharp and be good in the field. Bay is the horse Phillip trained for me, and she works outstanding in small setups,” Corey adds. “She has taught me more than I’ll ever forget in roping, and she’s worth a million dollars to me. I have a gray gelding I call Gray that’s 12 years old, and I’ve had him a little over three years. I spent the last two years getting him really solid broke. This is the first year he’s really been rodeoed on, and he’s taken to it great. He’s helped me a lot as far as some of the bigger pens with the longer scores.”
Along with his horses, Corey’s traveling buddy is his 16-month-old son, Cash. Friends at rodeos watch Cash while Corey ropes, and his son is already fascinated with ropes and animals. He likes to go with Corey to check their cows and horses, while Corey also raises roping steers and leases them out, and occasionally rides outside horses. Between rodeos, Corey works in the gas and oil industry, and he also enjoys hunting and fishing if spare time crops up.
“I didn’t buy my USTRC card this year since I’ve been focusing more on rodeos, but within the next year, I’d like to be a 6 or a 6 Elite with the USTRC TRIAD numbering system,” Corey finishes. “I’d like to go in to the SPRA finals sitting fifth or higher, and eventually win the year-end.”
