Of all the skilled ropers who’ve come out of California, few are as tough as 47-year-old Joseph Sanchez.
The 5 header has spent 27 years either serving our country, defending our homeland or working in law enforcement. In recent years, he got his longtime buddy Capt. Steve Girdlestone into team roping and they got the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department to host its own annual Pro-Am Team Roping in Folsom.
“I miss the service all the time, even after 20 years,” said Joseph. “It sucks getting old, but I’m living vicariously through my oldest son Tristan, who’s a Green Beret with the 7th Special Forces.”
A Family Tradition of Service
Military service runs as deep in the Sanchez family as farming does. Joseph’s grandfather “Papa Joe” Sanchez was an Army veteran and so was his dad, Joey Sanchez. They are farmers in tiny Walnut Grove, outside Sacramento.
Joseph started turning steers as a teenager to spend time with his father, who heeled. Then, when he was 20 and on his way to a rodeo, Joseph gave a lift to a bulldogger who was waiting to ship out. By the time Joseph nodded his head for that weekend’s final steer, he’d enlisted, too.
“I sold my truck, gave my horse to my father and didn’t rope for about nine years,” he said. “I wanted to see the world and serve my country like my dad did.”
Sanchez became a Ranger like Joey. He was deployed to places like Afghanistan and Colombia before 9/11 landed him squarely in the Middle East as the U.S. invaded Iraq. Joseph got out after four years, but went right back to Iraq in 2004 as a hired gun for the State Department and Department of Defense.
“It was definitely the Wild West over there,” he said. “At the time, nobody was flying into Baghdad. So, if any high-value people needed to get into Iraq, they’d fly into Jordan or Kuwait and I’d drive down with my team, pick them up and get them into a safe zone.”
Sanchez is blunt about life-and-death situations and the toll they take.
“You just deal with it,” he said. “It’s like if you step off the crosswalk and a car almost hits you—just be grateful you made it and look both ways next time. Or maybe you do get hit. Life goes on.”
He did get hit. An IED struck the vehicle ahead of his convoy, blowing out his tire and sending shrapnel into his left arm.
“I got out with a few stitches,” he said. “Others weren’t as fortunate.”
Back Home, Back in the Roping Pen
Sanchez re-enlisted and spent four more years in the Army. Stationed in Hawaii, Sanchez met Eva, who also served in the Army. In 2009, the couple became civilians and moved back to the Sacramento area, where Joseph earned his pilot’s license and flew Homeland Security contract missions.
“I started roping again and Dad was heading, so I switched to heeling,” he said.
In 2021, Sanchez retired from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency and that’s when Girdlestone started coming over to rope.
“Steve absolutely fell in love with roping,” Sanchez said. “That was when my kids started roping a lot.”
Today, Joseph and Eva’s teenagers “Cuatro” (the fourth Joseph) and Carmela both rope. When 25-year-old Tristan is home on leave, he jackpots with them, too. Cuatro is hooked, Joseph said, and at 16 already drives himself to amateur rodeos. He wins jackpots and made the National Junior High Finals Rodeo, having also won a big roping at the 2024 ACTRA Finals.
A New Kind of Service
Meanwhile, Girdlestone, the rare team roper who learned to ride and rope in his 40s, suggested Sanchez learn to be a cop. So, at 42, Sanchez went through the Academy and became a deputy.
“I’d already kicked in plenty of doors in my life,” Sanchez said. “So I transferred to air operations.”
As a pilot, Sanchez flies rescue, surveillance and prisoner transport missions.
Last November, Sanchez and Girdlestone competed at Charly Crawford’s American Hero Celebration in Decatur. Though they missed on their third steer together, each made the short round with other partners.
Their significant others flew down and both couples enjoyed the entire Imus Ranch NFR Showdown in Fort Worth. This year, they’re even more excited to take 77-year-old Vietnam vet Joey Sanchez to his first Horns ’n Heroes clinic.
—TRJ—
Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.