Tennessee’s Quinton Parchman sits fourth in the 2024 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year race, but his year hasn’t been smooth sailing. Though the 29-year-old has $29,061.81 won on his rookie season, Parchman had to shift his focus from hitting the open road to prioritizing the circuit front.
The Team Roping Journal: You’re a two-time IPRA world champion (2017 and 2019). Were you amateur rodeoing this year as well or just ProRodeoing?
QP: We’ve been to a couple of amateur rodeos. It’s the Lone Star Rodeo Association, they co-sanction with the IPRA. But I wouldn’t say we’re actively trying to make the IRA Finals, but with the WCRA and their format, we’re trying to qualify through that at Rodeo North Carolina.
TRJ: How did you get into roping growing up in Tennessee?
Quinton Parchman: My dad got into team roping in the late ’80s when he met Bobby Masters and Chad Masters. Chad was really young at the time, obviously, but my brother Kelsey and Chad grew up roping around each other, so as I was growing up, I was always around it and those guys. I was just born into it, I guess.
TRJ: Chad’s a two-time world champion, that’s not a bad group to be around.
QP: Oh, I know it. They weren’t but maybe 30 minutes down the road from us. We’d either rope at their place or they’d come rope at our place—we’d always swap back and forth.
TRJ: You were on your PRCA permit a few years ago. At 29, what made you decide to focus on ProRodeo this year and go for the Resistol Rookie of the Year title?
QP: It was a timing thing for me. Ever since I got done with my permit, I never really felt like I was prepared or that I had the horses under me that I needed. I wanted to make sure the time was right before I bought my card, and I had two pretty decent horses this year. One was a little younger and one was what I consider my good horse. It was all about timing. I definitely took my time; I didn’t want to be a 29-year-old rookie, but I’d rather be prepared.
TRJ: You claimed the Great Lakes Circuit this year and stayed closer to the circuit front. Was that always the plan?
QP: That wasn’t the plan, but my good horse went down during the BFI. I started to figure out something was wrong there. That was the end of March, beginning of April, and she’s been down ever since. This October I should have her back. It definitely put a damper on what we were trying to do.
TRJ: That’s a tough blow, especially as a rookie. How did you handle that this year?
QP: At the time, I was trying to sell the younger horse I had when [my good one] went down. I was in a little bit of a panic to find another one. I knew I wasn’t going to get her back in time to rodeo as much as we’d like, so I borrowed a horse here and there and rode my younger horse at most of them. I just planned on getting through it; I knew it wasn’t going to work out how I wanted, so I tried not to be too hard on myself.
TRJ: Despite the challenges, how have you felt about your rookie year? You’re also fourth in the Great Lakes Circuit.
QP: I roped with Garrett Smith; he is one of my good buddies, so I was pretty excited to be able to rope with him this year. We’ve amateur rodeoed as second partners a little bit, but we’ve never been first partners. We started out the year really good but then we both had some horse troubles midway through and toward the end of the season. I wouldn’t say we performed how we’d expected, but I don’t think everything went as planned, either, as far as what we were riding and what we were dealing with.
TRJ: Do you feel learning the ropes your rookie year a little closer to home was beneficial in any way?
QP: For sure, but I think the Rookie of the Year award is a very prestigious thing in the PRCA, and you only get one shot at it. So, if I had to tell somebody who’s looking to buy their rookie card, if you want to learn the ropes, maybe do that on your permit or buy an amateur card with either the IPRA or the UPRA. That way you can get more of a feel of what it’s like to actually rodeo. You can stay on for months at a time at the IPRAs, and that helps you deal with not getting to practice every day but still trying to win. I think that’s more of a mental thing. If you were to do the UPRA rodeos in the summer, they have a ProRodeo feel to them. I think when you buy your (PRCA) card the first time, you definitely need to go all in and try to win it.
