Cassie Chapman’s voice is full of love and thankfulness when she speaks about her family, her husband, and her roping. A tough breakaway roping competitor and current Director of Breakaway Roping for the International Pro Rodeo Association (IPRA), Cassie is no stranger to the IPRA or the world of rodeo.
In fact, she is a third-generation rodeo athlete, with her grandparents on both sides being involved with horses. Her paternal grandpa competed in all the men’s timed events and was very involved in the IPRA, including serving as a pickup man at International Finals Rodeos 3 and 4. His wife, (her grandma), ran barrels and was a photographer for the IPRA. Plus, her paternal great grandmother was a trick rider. Her maternal grandparents were heavily involved in the Ohio Quarter Horse Association. This tradition carried down to her parents, as Cassie’s father roped calves, team roped, and bull dogged. Her mother rode horses as well but did not compete much and took a step back when Cassie was born to focus on her children– Cassie is the oldest of three children.
Roping is such a part of their heritage that on the night Cassie was born her dad was roping in Dayton, Ohio at their hometown rodeo. He went and roped his calf and then came back to the hospital for his first child’s birth.
As she grew up, Cassie learned to rope from her father and her grandpa. She got involved with high school rodeo and was fortunate enough to rope on her dad’s rope horse throughout high school.
When it came time for college, she started her journey at Rogers State in Claremore, Oklahoma. She competed there for a year before transferring to Southwestern Oklahoma State. Cassie was on their rodeo team and competed in goat tying, barrel racing, and breakaway roping. Her focus to roping was narrowed down naturally as she tore up her knee goat tying and didn’t have a powerful enough horse to continue barrel racing at the higher levels. So, she switched her focus to the breakaway, which was her true love all along.
After high school rodeoing in the North, she found the transition to collegiate roping and roping in Oklahoma in general to be a steep one. She was grateful for the opportunities she previously had to learn alongside rope horse trainers and her family and get a good foundation in horsemanship. Yet even still she had to take her horsemanship to a greater level in this new arena. When competing at Southwestern, the assistant coach Jenna Lee Adams became a great friend and a major influence on her roping. The ticket then and now is the same: getting more speed.
Today, Cassie lives in Georgia with her husband Zeb Chapman, a fellow calf roper and rope horse trainer (read his story here). She teaches first grade at a local elementary school and uses her summers to continue to compete. While she has previously held her WPRA (Women’s Pro Rodeo Association) card, she sticks with more local opportunities now because of her job. These include competing in the IPRA, the NCA, and the NCPRA.
With over 20 years of roping under her belt, she is able to reflect and adapt her style to try and be faster and more competitive. Cassie has found a great partner in her current horse, a 12 year old mare named Chex. In 2021, Chex was the IPRA Horse of the Year, and is just plain fun to rope on. Cassie also relies on King Ropes 3 strand poly rope. After using them for a long time and trying other things to see if she roped better, she comes back to them as her mainstay.
Perhaps one of her favorite arena memories is from her first trip to the International Finals Rodeo as a competitor (the IFR). She was competing on an old horse named Peaches that she rode through college and that her dad had ridden as a four year old at the circuit finals. While Peaches belonged to a family friend at the time, Cassie bought him, and he helped her win the very first round she ever roped in at the IFR. This dynamic duo also took second in the second round. Peaches is now 31 years old and enjoying retirement turned out in the pasture behind Cassie’s house.
Cassie and her husband Zeb share a great love for rodeo. It brought them together and is now a part of their daily life as they learn together and rope together. She is quick to say how amazing he is with a horse and how proud she is of all he has accomplished.
That’s one of the beautiful things about sharing passions, and Cassie and Zeb continue to make the rope horse world better.
all photo credit to respective photographers.
