Eric Fabian and Derek Carey took home the First Frontier Circuit Finals average title Jan. 11, 2025, en route to the 2024 First Frontier year-end heading and heeling titles.
The New Yorkers roped three steers in 20.8 seconds in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to secure the aggregate title and finish the year with $14,923.64 a man. One of the most recognized teams on the East Coast, Fabian now has four year-end titles and a staggering six average titles. But for Carey, who has three average titles, the year-end has eluded him. Until now.
“It is a sigh of relief because it’s always been a goal, and I might not have tried the hardest to do it every year, but it’s just always been a goal,” Carey, 38, said. “Just rodeoing back here, to me, that’s the top of what you can do. So, I finally did it. I did it with Eric, which means a lot for as long as we’ve roped, so it’s a pretty good feeling.”
Fabian and Carey’s season
Fabian and Carey’s run of success has been the product of a partnership that’s span over the last decade. Despite having second partners throughout the years, Fabian and Carey have figured out a run they’re comfortable and successful with.
“We aren’t very stressed when we rope, we enjoy it,” Fabian said. “If I miss, he says, ‘Great sticking,’ and we laugh and ride out; it’s just very laid back. We know exactly what the other person’s thinking, and we’re friends in and out of the arena, and regardless of how it goes, we know that’s not going to change. And as a good friendship, our partnership makes sense. It’s not like we rely on this for a living–we both have our own jobs and just enjoy roping and have been successful together.”
Both having careers outside of the arena—Fabian is an elementary physical education teacher, basketball and track coach, and Carey works in construction—stick closely to the circuit trail. Year after year, Fabian and Carey notice the year-end race remains tight until the end, giving them more of an incentive to enter as much as possible.
“It really just comes down to the finals,” Carey said. “I think we’ve skipped some rodeos there at the end of the year, and Eric had said to me, ‘The standings are getting pretty tight, everyone’s close. Maybe we should go to these last couple.’ And we’d say, ‘Oh, what the heck? Let’s go.'”
Down to the wire
Fabian and Carey entered Harrisburg fourth and fifth in the standings, just under $2,000 behind the season leaders. Having known the heartbreak of losing the year-end title, Carey knew it would all come down to the third round.
“I know from my history of all the circuit finals that it comes down to Saturday night, and you don’t know what’s going to happen until the last team ropes,” Carey said. “Everyone always says, ‘Oh, it’s your year, Derek. It’s your year.’ And I always say, ‘We’ll see when the last team ropes.'”
Round 1 saw the team finish second with a 5.6 for $1,885 a man, and a 7.9 in Round 2 pocketed them both $942. As Carey suspected, the year-end race came down to Saturday night, this year with more pressure on Fabian as only $5 separated him from the No. 1 man in the standings.
“Our game plan going into it was just try to make as fast a run as we could keeping our consistent run and not be reckless,” Fabian said. “And it was funny, we had a steer that wanted to come left and my whole rationale behind it was don’t be late and don’t get stuck in behind him. Then here I was, a little off the barrier and stuck in behind him going over to the left wall. But it worked out.”
Fabian and Carey won fourth in the round with a 7.3 for $628 a man, clinching the average for $3,770 apiece and the year-end titles.
On the head side, Fabian rode his 15-year-old mare in her return to the circuit finals. Two years ago, the mare had to have colic surgery right before Harrisburg, and his young gelding got thrown to the wolves until her return.
“This year I was back on my mare, and I’m just very, very comfortable on her,” Fabian said of the mare registered Cibique Bully Kat. “She is very forgiving and just lets me do my thing without worrying about what she’s doing. I’ve roped a lot of steers and typically my catch percentage is pretty high on her. So, she’s a good team player.”
Carey was also on his main mare, a 14-year-old registered Big Bankroll, who’s been with him the last six or so years.
“She just never takes anything away from me,” Carey said. “From day one, she’s always been willing to do whatever I ask her. I trained her, and she’s just really been solid.”
Welcome, 2025
For the team, 2025 won’t look much different from previous years.
“It’s exciting, but really the same, not a lot changes,” Carey said. “I got a new buckle, so that’s a good feeling. I’m done for now–I just pulled the shoes on my horse, and she’s done until March. Time to relax and when the season starts again, we will get after it.”
Fabian is already looking forward to the new season and getting to take his family on a vacation to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs this July.
“I have two kids now–I have a 3-year-old and a soon to be 1-year-old next month,” Fabian explained. “And my wife, Emily, she breakaway ropes, and we travel together pretty much to all the PRCAs now that have breakaway, so that’s great. It’ll pretty much be mostly just the circuit stuff. She and I both qualified for the NFR Open this year, so we’ll make that trip; we love that.”