story by Riata Christiansen
The twins from St. George, Utah are basically diehard team ropers. The two of them couldn’t live without roping or without one another. Cameron is the younger of the two, but only by a minute. The two vary quite a bit in stature, but they still act like the twins they are. They are thirteen years old and, being eighth graders, competing in their last year of junior high school rodeo. They attend Desert Hills Middle School, and claim that lunch is their favorite subject.
When they were younger, they roped the dummy together and rode a lot of horses. When the time came, they were more than ready to jump into the fast paced and challenging sport of rodeo. Today they both compete in the team roping, breakaway roping, ribbon roping and goat tying. Team roping holds both of their focuses’, probably because they have been doing it for so long. Cameron ropes the “slicks”, and Caden finished up with the “sticks”. Both of their horses are solid in the arena, and help them to be as successful as they are.
In May, they finished third in the state in team roping. Thanks to their high finish, they took a trip to Lebanon, Tennessee, for the National Junior High School Finals Rodeo. This year, they hope to take home the state championship and make another trip east for nationals
Because it’s so warm in their home town St. George, they wait until evening to practice. After school and homework, they head down to the barn. They start with some dummy roping, then rope some live breakaway calves and team roping steers. They finish up with some more dummy roping. When all is said and done, they rope about 5-6 hours a day. The hard work has made swinging a rope purely muscle memory. A good deal of their motivation comes from their dad, who helps them in the practice pen and at the rodeo.
They both live by the John Wayne quote, “Faith is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” This is pretty evident in the cowboy lifestyle they live and breathe. As a family, a lot of their time is spent on the road to high school or junior high school rodeos. They also like to go hunting rabbits together. Their mom and dad, Chad and Natalie, are their biggest supporters and work hard to make rodeo possible for the boys and their older sister, McKinley. Now a senior, McKinley is a successful rodeo athlete, and has made two trips to the National High School Finals Rodeo, once as the Utah High School Rodeo Queen, and another in the breakaway roping.
Caden and Cameron’s favorite rodeo to compete in is their own state finals rodeo. This is because everyone works and tries harder while they are there. If they could give a piece of advice to someone just starting in the rodeo world, it would be that hard work pays off. Their persistence and success is evidence of that very fact.
