Breakaway Benefactor: Erin Johnson
Between Covid-19, the election, and everything in-between, 2020 made history to say the least. Last year will go down in history as one of the craziest, most chaotic, and heartbreaking years not only in our country, but across our world. Despite all the bad that happened in the world, there were still glimmers in the dust. In the rodeo industry, breakaway roping was one of these glimmers for ladies across the country. The Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA), and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), had been working together for the last year to promote breakaway roping and grow the sport. Breakaway roping made history in 2020 as it was added in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR). The Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR) was held December 8–10, 2020 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The top 15 breakaway ropers in the nation competed for a $200,000 purse and the first ever world championship at this three-day event. Comparatively speaking, these ladies were able to compete at the biggest stage of rodeo, which would essentially be equivalent to the Super Bowl in football.
The first ever cowgirl to run a calf at the NFBR and simultaneously make history is a gal by the name of Erin Johnson. Erin and her husband Darnell have three children: son Denton, who is nine, and daughters Evin, age six, and Annie, age four. The family of five live in Fowler, Colorado on their small farm/ranch. Each of them also ride horses and rodeo. For Johnson, rodeo runs in the family. Her mom competed in Little Britches Rodeo and accumulated boxes of buckles from her accomplishments in the arena. “She was a great goat tier and pole bender — she breakaway roped and ran barrels a little bit but I think the goats and the poles were her strong events,” Johnson said. Her dad also rodeoed, but not until after he got done playing college baseball on a scholarship. He started his rodeo career after he had finished his baseball career since there was no age limit in college rodeo back then. “I know he just always loved horses, grandma said he had always loved them since the time he was a little boy,” Johnson said. “He came to Pueblo and worked hard at it and was self-taught. But that was really the extent of the rodeo background in our family.”
Johnson grew up in Burlington, Colorado on her sixth-generation family ranch just north of the Republican River. Her and her family ran about 300 pairs of cattle and also did enough farming to make the ranch self-sufficient so they did not have to buy feed for their animals. Johnson claims that she had an awesome childhood there and learned a lot about livestock and the western lifestyle growing up there. “We did all kinds of things, mom always had us doing stuff, Johnson said. “We showed cattle and horses in 4-H, I crocheted, did electrical projects, sewed, etc. I think a lot of that would surprise a lot of people!” Johnson was homeschooled from the middle of her third-grade year through her seventh-grade year. “We learned a lot of stuff — I really would not trade that for anything in the world,” Johnson continued. “We had a lot of independent free time, so my brother and sister and I were kind of like little hoodlums on the ranch. We had ponies and we would ride them bareback all over like little wild children.” Johnson goes on to explain how that is actually how she learned how to ride horses and that she rode them bareback until she started showing in 4-H.
At the age of eight, Johnson got her first saddle. From that point on, her rodeo career began. “I can remember dad teaching me how to swing a rope when I was about eight or nine years old. He had me rope a bucket on the ground, so that’s how I started,” Johnson said. When she was in about eighth grade, her dad let her start team roping a little bit. Her parents split and so she ended up moving to south eastern Colorado. Johnson would ride her horses across the pasture to her neighbor’s place to ride, rope, and practice. That is where she first started getting into breakaway roping, and she was a junior in high school at that point. Fast-forward a couple of years, Johnson decided to go to Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. She took her horses along with her because she had one year of Little Britches eligibility left. “There were a few Little Britches Rodeos, so I went to one of them, but I got to practicing with the college rodeo kids up there and they just talked me into going to the college rodeos, and I am so glad I did. I didn’t have a super fabulous college rodeo career, I was still in such a learning curve at that point, learning the mental aspect and how to win. My roping was pretty good, she said, but my head and the pressure got in the way a lot.” Johnson rodeoed for the Eagles for two years before transferring back down to Pueblo where she finished college rodeoing. She made the short round a few times and her collegiate years was where she started getting more competitive. Right after college, she started amateur rodeoing where she “finally put it all together.”
Erin’s first year of CPRA rodeo was in 2000, when her roping started to mature. She competed at nearly every CPRA finals, just missing a few years for pregnancy and babies. She won the CPRA breakaway title seven times (2003, 2005–06, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2018) and runner up six or seven times as well. Since then, Johnson has also won the WPRA breakaway world three times, (2011, 2012, 2015), runner up in 2010, and runner up in the tie down once too. “It’s such a short season for us in Colorado — I love the hectic, try to get to everything you can. That’s what I loved so much about amateur rodeoing,” she said.
In 2020, a lot of the rodeos started getting canceled after Covid hit. Erin and Darnell decided to take a step back and ultimately stay home. “Everything else always seems to take a second seat to rodeoing in the summer,” Johnson said. “With them canceling all the rodeos we decided to take a step back and hang out at home and get some stuff done that we never do. We did that until about August, then I went to Yuma and North Platte. A friend and I went up there to South Dakota and entered all those rodeos and jackpots and I just had a really good week.” Johnson ended up splitting first place at Deadwood, South Dakota and won third place at Rapid City, South Dakota. Between those two wins, she went from 56th in the standings all the way up to 17th in the world. At that time, she had just heard word that there might be some sort of finals for breakaway roping that year. “I started looking at the schedule and asked Darnell what he thought, and he said to enter them! I went to everything else I could, and I had some bad luck and had some good luck,” Johnson said. The kicker ended up being the Dickenson rodeo where she split second and third place which moved her far enough up to make it to the finals. Erin ended the 2020 season 15th in the world.
Johnson has a great piece of advice for rookies and breakaway ropers across the board: “It takes a lot of people to be in your corner. It doesn’t matter how good you rope really, there’s always someone that ropes better. You are going to get beat and sometimes it’s hard to feel like you really belong and that it’s worth it to keep going and putting your money down and spending all that time. It dang sure takes some dedication, you have to do it because you love it. Even the people that love it need a little encouragement sometimes!”
Erin continues to be a role model for little girls and boys including her three children. She loves taking her kids places and getting to show them things on the rodeo road. She gets to teach her kids not only how to rope like her father did, but also some very important life lessons along the way. Johnson continues to give back to the younger generation and the rodeo community. She recently put on a breakaway clinic and donated all of the proceeds back to the CPRA scholarship fund. “Obviously, the best part about rodeo, and I think 90% of competitors would say this, is the people. The friends you meet along the way and the people you look forward to seeing — that’s the best part,” Johnson said. Erin Johnson is a breakaway roper that will go down in history and is continuing to use her knowledge and heart to serve others and promote the sport of rodeo.
