story by Lily Weinacht
Marlee Quarles lives in the very top of the 177-mile-wide Texas Panhandle near Pampa, Texas, making it an easy drive into Kansas for her KJHSRA rodeos. This is the 13-year-old’s rookie year in the KJHSRA, which she learned about from her friends that she competes with in the NLBRA. “All the people go out there and try their hardest to win, and they all just work together,” says Marlee. “Everyone is a good sport there, so we tried their rodeos this year and we really like them.”
She competes in the barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, breakaway roping, and team roping as a heeler with Kiley Slavin. Marlee is sitting in the top ten of all her junior high events, while she also competes in ribbon roping and trail course in the NLBRA, and recently finished the Young Gun Series in Dodge City, Kansas. “Poles are my favorite. My horse is pretty consistent and he loves to work poles, and I think it’s fun weaving back and forth through them.” George, Marlee’s barrel and pole horse, knew barrels but had only been started on poles when she got him. She also trained her breakaway horse, Bowzer, for trail course, while her roping horse, Nellie, knew her events when the Quarles bought her. “I got her last summer, and we’re getting along,” says Marlee. “My dad has cattle, and then my granddad raises goats for goat tying.”
Horsekeeping goes back in Marlee’s family several generations to her great-granddad, Don Knutson, who raised racehorses in Texas, while Marlee’s mom rodeoed in high school. Marlee, who has been unswervingly focused on horses since she was a baby, decided to forego other sports so she could concentrate on rodeo. She rides at least two horses every afternoon for as long as there’s daylight, and her parents, Chad and Amy Quarles, help her by holding goats and running chutes. She also works each week with her family’s friends Mandy Pool and Amy Dillingham. “Mandy Pool helps me almost every week with my riding and breakaway, and Amy helps me with goat tying. They tell me, ‘Always keep your head up and don’t give up on them.’ I have great horses, and I just want to keep them going, and I want to rodeo when I grow up.”
Marlee and her parents make their home several miles outside of town, where they recently built a house and arena. “It’s quiet, and the sunsets are really pretty out there. I like to ride with my mom sometimes in the pasture, and I have a friend that comes and ropes with me sometimes. We team rope and breakaway rope together.” Marlee also enjoys her classes at Pampa Junior High School, where’s she’s an eighth-grader. “I like science because it tells you about the body. We’re doing animal science, and we’re doing a project right now where we pick an animal and learn about its body.”
She took a short break from school in February to go watch The American with her parents in Arlington, Texas. “The team roping was my favorite,” says Marlee. “They work hard to get there.” Her own accomplishments include winning the team roping saddle in the Central Oklahoma Little Britches Rodeo Association last year, and the all-around saddle at the Kim Colorado Little Britches rodeo. Marlee competed in the NLBRA finals in Guthrie, Oklahoma, the last two years, and she’s excited to see how far she can go her first year of junior high rodeo. “I want to stay consistent in my pole bending,” she finishes, “and end up a better roper.”
