story by Lily Weinacht
This summer, 14-year-old Kelsy Odom won her first world title in the NLBRA, coming home with not one but two world titles in the junior division in breakaway roping and ribbon roping with Chase Applewhite. The cowgirl from Beebe, Arkansas, explained that her nerves got the better of her the first day of the NLBFR, but she was able to regain her focus after that. “We prayed before every run, and that helped a lot. God was with me the whole time and I did good in the rest of my events. I was so nervous roping my first calf at Nationals because usually I can let my first run get into my head, but after I got my first calf roped, I knew my other runs would be good. My third run was a little nerve wracking because I was high call back, but Ricky Bobby worked perfect, and I drew a good calf and ended up winning the short-go!” Kelsy also won reserve in the all-around and trail course, and she finished seventh in the world in the team roping with Chase Applewhite.
“I’m motivated by wanting to see how far in life I can get, not only with getting the Little Britches national title, but seeing if I can go to the NFR,” says Kelsy. While she competes in all of the girls events and is advancing to the senior girls division this fall, her favorite event is trail course. “It has a lot of horsemanship in it, and it teaches me to be a better rider,” she explains. Kelsy was inspired by her dad, Eric Odom, to start rodeoing, and Chase Applewhite’s step-dad, Chucky Hartlik, has also coached her in roping. Eric roped in high school, and Kelsy started her career at 3, riding her miniature pony, Applesauce. “I’ve been doing Little Britches since I was five. We heard about it from some friends and I bought a pony, and that’s what got me going.” Kelsy competed in the AJHRA last year but plans to focus on Little Britches this year.
She rides three horses for her events, barrel racing on Turk, pole bending on Easter, and competing in breakaway, trail course, goat tying, and team roping on Ricky Bobby prior to retiring him after the NLBFR. “Turk has a big heart, and he gets really pumped whenever there’s a big crowd. I’ve only had him for about a year and I’ve had Easter for six years. He’s the best horse, and he’s won me all kinds of stuff. This is Ricky Bobby’s last year to rodeo because he got in a bad accident, so he just gets to be a horse now. He ran under the goose neck trailer and broke his shoulder and tore open the skin. We fixed him up, and he’s a miracle horse. We bought another horse, Pretty Boy, that rides kind of like him.” Kelsy also takes her miniature Australian Shepherd, Cash, to rodeos. “He’s one of a kind. He’s always been real playful, and he can tell when you’re down and always seems to cheer me up.”
Kelsy and her parents, Eric and April, make their home outside of Beebe on their 225 acre farm. They raise cattle, and Kelsy helps work cattle and feed all the animals. She also has an older brother, Landon Tarvin, who roped for several years. He inspired her to be involved in FFA now that she’s a freshman at Searcy High School, and Kelsy is looking forward to learning horse judging, and showing animals. In her free time, she enjoys reading the Bible or listening to music, and she goes riding with her friends or they swim their horses in ponds.
“My goal is to be one of the first girls in team roping to go to the NFR,” she finishes. “I want to thank Chase Applewhite and Gus Howell for always making sure my calf is ready to come out of the chute with a good push, and I’d like to thank my best friend, Katyn Medlin, for coming to support me at the National Little Britches Finals. I also want to thank God for always having his hand on me.”
