Go-To-Girl: Carra Outlaw
Now tied for second, Outlaw was tied with Jo Ann Merritt for the top spot when she won the WPRA All-Girl at the Patriot in February and took home a cool $10,000.

Number and End

4-Elite Heeler

All-Girl Power

I usually just meet up with my partner, Jayme Marcrum, at the ropings. We’ve known each other for a long time, probably since ’85 or ’86. I used to head and she used to heel back then. I quit for a while after I had my kids, and then I started heeling and bought a heel horse when I came back so I could rope with my dad. So, it’s just kind of switched up and me and her have been roping the last two or three years together at a lot of the All-Girls and some of the #9s, when we can.

The Patriot

It’s been a big win. Back in ’98, I won the All-Girl at the US Finals, but this was definitely a big win for me. To be 51 years old and to still compete with the young girls—and there are a lot of good ropers nowadays, and a lot of good heelers, and just to be able to rope at my age and win something is pretty exciting for me. That was a wonderful thing to win and you know it was a big roping to win for an all-girl, especially.

One Margarita…

We bought a stud when we started back roping after I had the kids, and we raised all of our horses and trained them. I’ve been riding my mare, Margarita, for the past four or five years after her sister got crippled, so I started riding her. She’s kind of my #1 horse right now.

On the Run

We like running horses. I mean they have a lot of cow in them, but the main thing is that Outlaws gotta have something that can run. And to have a good mind, you know, to compete. My dad found our stud. He was just kind of the breeding we liked and I sold all my cows and bought some mares and that’s how we started our horse business. And since we have four people, it was kind of hard to buy all of our horses, so we had to make them. We’ve been lucky. We’ve been very fortunate and very blessed to be able to have horses that we’ve raised and can rope on. My dad has two of my horses that I bred and raised and he ropes on them and they’ve been great for our family.

Family Affair

I rope with my husband, David; my daughter, Jordan, 21; and I have a son named Jace, 24, and he ropes, too. We all rope. I rope with my daughter and my husband, and when I can, I rope with my son, and we just do that as a family. I’ve always done that. My whole family’s roped. My dad, [Ralph Carter], is 83 this year and he won the #9 World Series when he was 80, so it’s just a family event. My brother ropes, and so, you know, I think rodeo is a strong event for families.

Making it Work

When we all can go, we’ll go. I don’t get to go a whole lot. My husband is a furniture salesman and he travels a lot and we’re opening a new storage unit business, so we go whenever we can go. And, I like to be able to go and take my dad because he can’t really travel by himself anymore, and my kids can go when they can get off. We don’t normally go without each other. We’ve just always really been like that.

Straight Out the Gate

I grew up in Oklahoma and I started roping when I was about 16. My dad and brother roped forever and I always wanted to rope. I rode when I was little and we rode other horses for people, and I finally talked my daddy into letting me rope. The first place I got to go to was a team roping and I won that first roping, so from that point, I got to go rope. I’d only been roping a week. I had roped the dummy forever, and I rode horses forever, but my dad let me go to that roping and I won it with my brother, so, from that point on, I got to go and rope.

That Team Roping Life

It’s really been a blessing to have these horses and to be able to rope as a family. That’s what’s most important to me.

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