Glen Freels may have grown up near the city, but there was no keeping the cowboy inside him from emerging.
Glen grew up in a suburb of Atlanta but found himself spending every break from school with his uncle Mickey Freels in Tennessee. Although his dad roped a little, Glen had no horse experience, but his uncle Mickey was a calf roper and began to show Glen the ropes. Glen quickly became hooked.
When he was around seventeen years old, he started entering some of the International Pro Rodeo Association (IPRA) rodeos alongside his uncle, as well as entering some of the smaller local associations throughout Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. He would meet up with his uncle on Thursday or Friday and off they would go for a weekend of rodeo. As a calf roper, Glen has always used a grass rope. While they mainly roped calves, they figured they were already at the rodeo and might as well rope some steers too. Glen was a heeler, and they wound up having a good bit of success in the team roping while also making the year end finals in calf roping. From high school onward Glen also got involved with steer wrestling, and only switched to solely hazing in the past few years due to numerous injuries to his knee.
When his uncle Mickey decided it was time to hang up his hat from roping, Glen got a few different traveling partners, the first of whom was Ryan Jarrett. Ryan and Glen became great friends, and still are today. Ryan has since gone on to become a professional rodeo competitor and multiple time National Finals Rodeo qualifier in the Calf Roping.
Today, Glen and his wife Ashlee (a breakaway roper) live in Cedartown, GA, and share a palomino mare named Elsa. They also get to share their love of rodeo with their family. Their daughter, Oaklee, is eight years old and loves to exhibition barrel race. Their son Slayden is six years old, and Glen’s older son and Ashlee’s stepson Gage is fifteen. Gage also loves to rope. The kids have friends at every rodeo they pull into, as do their parents, and it is this strong rodeo family that Glen cherishes as a special part of the industry.
When the kids were younger, Glen and Ashlee would go to Canada and compete in the celebratory atmosphere of the rodeos like the one held during the Festival Western de St-Tite. While a long haul, the added money and amazing fans make it a lot of fun to compete in. The Freels would leave after Ashlee got off work on Friday and drive all night, hitting several Canadian rodeos and returning in time for Monday morning work.
In fact, they’ve been thinking about doing it again, although they are thankful that the local rodeos in Georgia are growing with better added money, making it easier to compete close to home.
While the roping is taking off in the Southeast, steer wrestling is not yet growing with the same vigor, and Glen notes it’s hard to get excited about it and involved as a young person because there aren’t many good steers to run or good bulldogging horses around. Most stock contractors are focused more on the quality of their roping stock. Hopefully, the numbers of young steer wrestlers will one day rise like the ropers are.
In the meantime, the Freels family continues to be a vital part of the roping community in Georgia and beyond, showing what the love of calf roping looks like and working to keep it thriving for the next generation.
