story by Ruth Nicolaus
The Louisiana High School Rodeo ranks have gained two more members this year. Keely Henry and Kincade Henry, sister and brother from Mt. Pleasant, Texas, have joined the Louisiana association.
Keely, who is seventeen years old, competes in the barrel racing and the breakaway roping. For the barrels, she rides Nikki, a seventeen-year-old sorrel mare who was previously owned by her aunt and is serious about her job. “She knows when I get on her and get ready, it’s business,” Keely said Her breakaway horse is a new purchase, a sorrel named Bart, who is fun. “He’s really goofy acting, and he makes it fun.”
Kincade competes in the tie-down roping and team roping, heeling for Macon Murphy. For his events, he rides Paco, his tie-down horse, a bay who is nine years old, and T-Man, a dun, for the heeling. Paco is not a big horse but he has a “big ol’ heart,” Kincade said. “He tries hard and he works hard.”
The siblings are students at Chapel Hill High School in Mt. Pleasant, where Keely is a junior and Kincade is a sophomore. Keely is the chapter reporter for the school’s FFA chapter, reporter for student council, a member of the National Honor Society, and co-president of the rodeo team. Both are members of the FFA and on the A-B Honor Roll.
Keely has competed at state finals her eighth, ninth, and tenth grade years. Last year, she finished eighth in the barrel racing in region four in Texas. Kincade competed at state finals last year and finished seventeenth in the average at state finals.
When Keely grows up, she’d like to be involved in agriculture. When Kincade is an adult, he’d like to be a pro rodeo tie-down roper. They have an older brother, Jace, who graduated from high school last May.They are the children of Chad and Melody Henry.
