It’s not often that rodeos add a new event to their repertoire, as the standard seven contests have served them well over the past century or so. But the St. Paul Rodeo will break ground at this year’s Fourth of July event with the addition of women’s breakaway roping.
The Women’s Pro Rodeo Association-sanctioned event is a modified style of tie-down roping.
“In the breakaway, the cowgirl, on horseback, nods her head when she’s ready and the calf is released from the chute,” a release from the rodeo said. “The cowgirl ropes the calf, stops her horse, and as the calf runs, the end of the rope, which is attached to the saddle horn, breaks away, signaling the end of the run. Good breakaway runs will be two or three seconds in length.”
Mother-daughter duo Jodi and Josie Goodrich — both residents of Stanfield, a town near Pendleton in the northeastern corner of the state — are especially looking forward to the inaugural event. Although both are seasoned barrel racers, they have committed to only competing in breakaway roping in the St. Paul Rodeo.
“It’s really exciting for us, because (St. Paul) is one of the biggest rodeos in the nation and everybody that rodeos comes here,” Josie Goodrich said in a release. “The fact that breakaway ropers get to be a part of it is exciting.”
Mom concurred: “It’s huge, and it sets a precedent for other rodeos, to hopefully follow suit next year.”
Josie Goodrich competed in both barrel racing and breakaway roping in high school and as a student at Washington State University. In her pro career, however, she said she will concentrate on the roping discipline.
“I feel I can control my success more in the breakaway,” she said. “Barrel racing is dependent on how good your horse is. You need a good horse in the breakaway too, but you need to be just as good yourself. Breakaway is a little bit more ‘me’ focused.”
Rodeoing is a family affair for the Goodriches, who travel together around the Northwest to compete.
“It’s been really awesome,” Josie said. “We share the same horse, and one of us ropes, then we change the stirrups, and the other ropes. … As soon as one of us is done roping, then we’re helping the other one, doing all the things to make the other person’s run go smoothly.”
Josie’s hopes a good showing in St. Paul will jumpstart her pro rodeo career and allow her to compete on a bigger stage.
“This summer I’ll rodeo outside the (Columbia) Circuit (the rodeos in Oregon, Washington and Idaho), and see how well I do and how far it takes me,” she said. “For the next couple years, that will be my goal, to chase rodeo.”
And Jodi and Josie aren’t the only Goodriches to compete in rodeo: father Brad and son Gator are tie-down ropers as well. Brad Goodrich has won the tie-down event and all-around titles several times.
Meanwhile, a youth looking forward to her chance to be a professional breakaway roping competitor has been putting in her time in different parts of the annual local event.
St. Paul native Sophie Price, 10, has been competing for the past four years in Northwest Youth Rodeo Association barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying and breakaway roping events.
“Someday I want to be a world champion breakaway roper,” Price said.
When she’s not to competing, she’s helped park cars and is working her way up to manning a concession stand as a rodeo volunteer. Not old enough to compete with the pros quite yet, her next aspiration is to carry a flag on horseback during the grant entry into the rodeo grounds at the beginning of each day’s event. If successful, she will follow a path plotted by her mother, Jennie, who was a 2002 St. Paul Rodeo princess, and her aunt Julie (Drescher) Smith, a 2011 rodeo princess and 2015’s Miss Oregon Rodeo.
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