story by Ruth Nicolaus
Eli Paxton is the middle child, sandwiched between an older sister and a younger sister
But he doesn’t mind. If the girls, Molly, who is sixteen, and Peyton, who is eleven, gang up on him, he walks away and finds something else to do.
Eli, who is thirteen years old, lives on the Paxton Ranch between Tryon and Mullen and competes in the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, breakaway roping, team roping (heeling for Owen Thorberg), and the ribbon roping (roping for his sister Peyton.)
He has two roping horses. Ed, the older, is in his last year of rodeo competition. Ed has been around a while. Clutch, his second horse, is like Ed and can do all three of Eli’s roping events. In the wings is Eli’s third horse, Barbosa, a four-year-old who is being trained by both Eli and his dad. Clutch and Barbosa are home-raised.
An eighth grade student at Mullen Public School, Eli enjoys science class but English is not his favorite. His favorite teacher was his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. McDowell, because “she had a pretty consistent schedule and didn’t change things all the time.”
He plays football, wrestles, runs track, and is involved in FCCLA and FFA.
Eli likes to hunt coyotes and deer, as well as fish for blue gill and bass at the pond on the ranch and at Merritt Dam.
The best food his mom makes is lasagna; his favorite beverage is apple juice. He loves Take 5 gum and rhubarb pie, especially when the neighbor lady Susan Childers makes it. The best trip his family took was to Yellowstone Park a few years ago. He loved to see the bears, elk and bison, but got tired of waiting for Old Faithful to blow.
If he would be given $1 million, he wouldn’t spend it: “I’d save it and spend it when I needed to.”
Eli looks up to his dad, because “he’s a hard worker and he’s a good teacher,” as his dad has taught him things around the ranch. Eli fixed a lot of fence this past summer; he tears out the old while his dad puts the new in, and his mom takes great satisfaction that her son loves ranch work. “He really does take pride in helping with the ranch,” she said.
His dad, Dusty, loves that his son is also a hard worker, active and interested in what’s going on around him.
Eli did not compete in junior high rodeo in sixth grade; in seventh grade, he qualified for the state finals in the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and breakaway.
When he grows up, he’d like to ranch. He is the fifth generation to live on the Paxton Ranch. He is the son of Dusty and Mindy Paxton.
