Bareback Branch

Last updated - 03/09/08

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World Champion, Mike Cooley, and his wife Paige practice natural horsemanship and are one of the most qualified horse trainers in SC and the Southern

East Coast, implementing Stacy Westfall, Clinton Anderson and Chris Cox training techniques in combination with their own. Mike and Paige have been training horses all their lives and have successfully competed in Western disciplines as well as Hunter events. Mike is the 2002 IPRA Bareback Bronc champion and earned a lot of his expertise out west.

Come and visit Mike and Paige Cooley here in Belton, SC and bring your horse to get started with a solid foundation or tune-up, or let Mike train your horse in reining, for cow and farm work, for the rodeo or get your next competition horse for roping, team roping or penning from Bareback Branch.

Turn to Paige for all your eventing needs, jumping and dressage training. Paige has shown horses in higher level jumping and dressage and can take your horse the next level. She also has competed in team roping events and is an outstanding horseman herself.

Bareback Branch is a training and breeding facility located between Charlotte and Atlanta in South Carolina, convenient to I-85.

Bareback Branch stands two stallions of the high quality bloodlines available to date. We are able to fulfill all your breeding and mare care needs. Mike and Paige also raise and train their own babies to be solid and honest partners for any discipline. There are currently and several trained horses for sell. Check our our horse page for currents sales.

IPRA February 2008 Schedule

New articles...

Olympic Equestrian Facilities Inspection

In ranch sorting there are two identical pens generally from 50 to 60 feet in size, separated by a 12-foot opening. Ten head of cattle numbered 0-9 are sorted between pens in ascending numerical order by two mounted riders.

For example if the announcer calls "4", the riders begin by cutting the cow numbered 4 and moving it to the other pen. They then sort 5, 6, 7, 8, etc. s best described as a cross between ranch sorting and team penning.

If a cow is sorted out of order, or if one comes back across the foul line from the other pen it is judged a 'no time'.

Teamwork is the key with two riders working in harmony to cut out the correctly numbered cattle and drive them to the other pen while keeping the wrong numbered cattle back.

The Cow Catch Event© is a timed sporting event for horseman. Each entry will be made up of two mounted contestants.

The object is for the two contestants to sort out one or two cows from a group of five, drive the cattle through a pre-set pattern, and re-pen the cattle in another pen. Entry with the fastest time wins.

One rider may elect to rope the cow with a breakaway rope. Successfully doing so earns a 4-second deduction. Missing results in a 4-second penalty. Roping is optional.

...more on Ranch Sorting and Cow Catch Event©

Check out the horses at Bareback Branch. Weanlings, Yearling, 3 year old and finished horses for any discipline are available for any level rider.

A 3 day join-up is available for all new owners to bring horse and rider together before taking the new addition home. Call for more info.

For more horses click here.

Mike specializes in colt starting and has round penning down to a science. A solid foundation and good ground manners are vital to any good partnership between horse and rider.

Paige works on the fine tuning to get show horses ready for the real deal.

Don't give up on your problem horse...give Mike and Paige a try.

For more on training click here.

Michael Cooley always had shown signs that he could be a future IPRA bareback riding world champion.

The question surrounding Cooley was if he could stay healthy for one year to make such a pursuit a reality.

Cowboy's hands resting on saddle Well, in 2002, Cooley stayed relatively injury-free and sustained his momentum clear through the 33rd Annual International Finals Rodeo in January at the Ford Center. The result was his first IPRA bareback riding world championship.

A world championship seemed to be Cooley's destiny after he won a share of his second straight bareback riding average title at IFR 32 more than a year ago in Oklahoma City. When asked if he could possibly compete for a world title someday, Cooley was quick to answer.

"This next season I want to try and win the world," said Cooley at IFR 32. "That's my goal, but there's a lot of new, tough competition coming up as well as a lot of old competition that's still tough. It just depends on who decides they want to go hard."

Cooley went hard all year in 2002 and devoted most of his time and energy focused upon winning the gold buckle. A former rodeo standout at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Okla., the 25-year-old Cooley stayed healthy and the results were obvious.

At IFR 33, Cooley finished fourth in the average with 387 points on five head to secure the 2002 IPRA world title with $42,734.61. His earnings represent the fourth-highest season total for a bareback rider in IPRA history, behind only Arthur Stoner ($49,090.90 in 1994), Brian Massey ($48,941.84 in 1999), and Raymond Cooper ($43,858.50 in 2001).

Cooley is a four-time Finals qualifier. At IFR 31, he was the bareback riding average winner with 321 points on four. He won a paycheck in every one of the four rounds that year (including a first-place score of 81 points in the first go) and ended up the IFR 31 high-money winner with $12,031.25. At IFR 32, he split first in the average with 2001 IPRA world champion Raymond Cooper with 393 points on five.

Prior to his world title campaign, Cooley had finished among the IPRA's top five bareback riders for three consecutive years. In 1999, Cooley finished No. 4 among IPRA bareback riders with $28,202.40. In 2000, he finished No. 4 with $20,618.62. In 2001, he was No. 5 with $20,174.34.

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