2015 CPRA Second Round Win with Joel Galvan

Joel Galvan's Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association buckle.

Heeler Joel Galvan from Charlotte, Texas, proudly wears his 2015 Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association second go-round heading buckle on the end of his belt.

“I wear that buckle because it was the last buckle I won heading before I went straight heeler,” Galvan said.

Although Galvan, who was heading for Cuarto Hindes, didn’t have the best finals, they still were fortunate enough to qualify after staying close to home throughout the year.

“We work for a living so we just kind of amateur rodeoed around the house. We won quite a bit together, and we roped pretty good together. I think we went into the finals fifth. We didn’t have a real good finals, but we ended up winning the second round.”

The second round started out on the softer side, which made it to where Galvan, who now heels for Chase Wiley, could go knock down a run to hopefully place in the round.

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“We had a pretty good steer. I think we ended up being 5-flat or something like that.”

Galvan was heading on a horse he raised named Cheese, who was 13 years old at the time.

“I was riding a yellow horse that I raised. I ended up selling him right after the finals to my cousin Andrew, who was starting to head. I sold him and put a down payment on my place, bought a heel horse and the rest is history.”

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During the last few months of the 2015 rodeo season, Galvan was already starting to switch over to the heel side when he was preparing for his last finals in the heading box.

“I was already kind of starting to heel for Landon McClaugherty at the winter rodeos. I’ll put my name down heading at the jackpots but I haven’t entered a rodeo [as a header] since.”

If there is any buckle that would eventually swap out his last heading buckle, it would “probably be a Finale roping.”