story by Michele Toberer
For his first year with the Colorado High School Rodeo Association, Kody Ward was excited to leave Rock Springs, Wyoming as the 2019 NHSFR third place in the world champion rookie all-around cowboy, and 12th place boy’s cutter. “The national finals was an awesome experience. I’ve been to a lot of big rodeos, like Cheyenne and Calgary, but the NHSFR was one of the coolest rodeos I’ve been to. If someone high school rodeos and isn’t fortunate enough to qualify, I’d definitely encourage them to still go and watch and be a part of it. It’s incredible the amount of work that goes into putting on such a great event.”
The 17-year-old junior at Holy Family High School in Brimfield, Colorado, lives in Fort Lupton, Colorado with his parents, Jim and Cheryl Ward, and his younger sister, Loralee Ward, 15. Jim works in reclamation as a contract seeder, reseeding areas such as highway corridors. And Cheryl works for Jim’s brother’s business, Ward Electric. The family got Kody involved in team penning and sorting competitions at a young age, and Jim and Kody both still compete in the sports. “I have always ridden horses and started competing in team penning and sorting when I was 7. My sister started competing in the Colorado Junior High School Rodeo Association and while I was watching her, I saw the cutting and reined cow horse competitions and it looked like something I could do. I had enough cattle sense from the penning and sorting I had done, and it looked like a lot of fun.” Kody was a 2018 Calgary Stampede Champion Team Penner, with partners Joel and Jackson Lesh. He also has won three world champion titles in the United States Team Penning Association; one in 2014, and two world titles in 2015 (in the number 5 as well as the senior youth division).
Kody finished the CSHSRA season in third place in cutting, and although he didn’t compete at state finals in reined cow horse, he finished 10th for the state. Kody also competed in light rifle competitions, finishing as the CSHSRA third-place shooter. With connections from penning and sorting, his friend, Deb Pomelu from Penrose, Colorado, offered her 7-year-old bay gelding, Hustler, for Kody to ride in his cutting competitions at nationals. Deb’s trainer, Josh Barrett, from Ordway, Colorado also worked with Kody through the year to help prepare him for the event. They were all excited to see Kody and Hustler score a 138 in the first round, 145 to take 4th in the second round, and the pair finished in 12th place in the world after the short round. “The biggest difference in cutting and the penning competitions I’ve done, is the showmanship. The grooming is so important to make the horse look as good as possible. What’s helped me from my penning experience is knowing how to read cattle and shadow them.”
Kody leans towards history and chemistry when it comes to high school classes that catch most of his interest. He also enjoys golfing for the school and has been golfing competitively for three years. He is narrowing down colleges at this point as he makes plans for where to attend after he graduates high school, but Montana Tech and Montana State University are frontrunners for now. “I’m still not sure what I want to study, but it will be ag related for sure.”
Kody plans to compete in the same three events this year in CSHSRA. “I’ve really enjoyed being in the CSHSRA this year, it is a really cool association, and even though I didn’t know very many people when I started, now I have a bunch of buddies in the association and it’s like a big family.”
