The kind of people who want to serve their country just also seem to want to help others. A couple from Oklahoma are that kind of people.
Jessica Beck is a Navy veteran who grew up barrel racing in Texas, and has since started heeling and breakaway roping. Her husband, Travis, is also a timed-event guy—a Nebraska native who retired after 20 years in the Air Force. They met at a military rodeo and married in 2012. Now living in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, the Becks have two arenas and do plenty of team roping.
From Military Bases to Rodeo Arenas
Travis, a retired master sergeant and straight 5 on both ends, introduces veterans to roping and often invites bulldoggers and ropers to practice.
“I try to keep at least 10 steers around, so people can come practice or learn to rope,” he said. “A lot of vets got into rodeo because they love horses and want to be part of it, and several want to try team roping.”
He appreciates the chance to practice at all. Because Beck’s service from 1997 to 2017 meant a lot of starts and stops to roping.
“The good thing about retirement was not having to worry about leaving your horses,” said Beck. “Or about starting a rodeo season and not being able to finish it.”
Growing PAFRA and Creating Opportunities
As the current rodeo coordinator for the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association (PAFRA), Beck this season sanctioned four military rodeos in Texas and Oklahoma, and co-sanctioned a few Colorado amateur rodeos.
“I try to get the PAFRA name out there and get our competitors more experience,” he said. “We went to Cowtown in March and Bulverde over Memorial Day, plus Durango over the Fourth of July and Miami, Oklahoma, at the end of August. We try to spread our rodeos out every two months to give people a chance to go home and reload the piggy bank.”
Beck has won several of his own PAFRA world titles from competing in every timed event, and Jessica has hazed for him. They both won all-around titles in 2018-19 and 2021. In 2022, Travis won the heeling and his sixth all-around title, plus the chute dogging at the PAFRA World Finals. This month’s 2025 Finals are in Clovis, New Mexico.
The Becks were stationed in Alaska for three years with their horses. They quickly learned to winter them down south, said Travis, who heads with Cactus’ Mini Thrilla and heels steers with its Future.
“I prefer heeling,” he said. “It seems harder. You can do cooler things on the heel side.”
He didn’t get to rope for years as a training instructor at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, but then got back into it around 2005, when he and an old Nebraska friend won a trailer roping. It was right when he needed a horse trailer, too, he said.
Connecting Veterans Through Rodeo Worldwide
Travis, 47, has been handy ever since he was a three-time National High School Finals Rodeo qualifier as a teen. But he got to test his roping ability in Germany. As an aerospace ground mechanic who got into contracting, Beck was stationed in Berlin at Spangdahlem Air Base for four years. Rodeo USA had started overseas in the 1980s, and the European Rodeo Cowboys Association was still going strong when Beck got to Berlin.
“They’d bring all the horses,” said Beck. “We’d ride the contractors’ rope horses and barrel horses, which kind of leveled the playing field. We competed in Germany, France and Belgium.”
The events were regular two-day rodeos in front of standing-room-only crowds in old German towns or on military bases, said Beck, who mostly team roped there and won ERCA all-around championships in 2001-02. The steers in Germany were plain Hereford muleys, he said, and they used plastic horns that had been sent over from America.
“I’ve got a couple friends in Germany who built roping arenas and do their own thing,” Beck said. “The ERCA went away, but there are a few numbered USTRC jackpots in southern Germany and Italy. I keep trying to talk myself into going back and taking my horse, but it costs a lot.”
In the meantime, Travis helps guide Charly Crawford’s Liberty & Loyalty Foundation. Beck is grateful not only to Crawford for doing an annual military clinic, but also to Cesar de la Cruz for doing free clinics for veterans the past few winters in Arizona.
In 2026, Beck is promising at least six PAFRA rodeos plus the Finals. The rodeos will be in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, with a few in Colorado and Arizona. He’s also looking to host PAFRA events in New Mexico, Alabama, Tennessee and possibly Arkansas.
—TRJ—
Thank you to Equinety for helping us share stories of military members, veterans and first responders in the team roping community.
