Wyoming Cowboy Sets Substantial Goals for the NJHFR

Juddy Farella is a 14-year-old cowboy who calls Cheyenne, Wyo. home, but he Junior High Rodeos in Colorado. Juddy had great success in the rodeos for the 2024 season and qualified for nationals in 4 of the 5 events he works. Farella competes in the team roping, ribbon roping, chute dogging, goat tying, and calf roping.

Juddy is the current 2023 reining Goat Tying World Champion. Farella, son of Nate and Amy Jo Reisdorfer, says, "Rodeo is my passion and I truly love everything about the sport. I was blessed to accomplish one of my goals last year to become a World Champion, it was such a humbling honor."

Coming into the 2024 season with exceptional goals, the world title had Juddy excited for more rodeos. The fall rodeos did not go as planned for Farella after a broken tibia while tying goats in Colorado Springs forced him to take time off to heal the injury. The broken leg led doctors to find a large tumor that was 3/4 the size of Farella's tibia.

Juddy explains, "I was in a cast for two weeks, then the oncologist let us know I had to get surgery on my leg". The surgery left him with a rod the length of his tibia and two screws holding it in place. His injury put him through a long winter of recovery. He struggled to get his strength back and lost an astonishing 20 pounds in a short amount of time.

Juddy says, " The weight did not come back very fast," and the road to a healthy body again was tougher than he expected.

However challenging the recovery road was for Farella, he set a goal to tie a goat in 7-seconds again. This spring he was able to accomplish this goal on three different occasions in the 2024 regular season.

Spring rodeos were successful for Juddy, which has set him up nicely for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo (NJHFR). Though his appearances at the spring rodeos have been successful, Farella says, "Unfortunately one of the screws has come loose and I will probably have to have surgery again."

He plans to power through and, "stick out the pain" through the next five days of rodeo in Iowa. Juddy says his support system helps him stay focused and he stated, "I have great support from my family and friends, and I thank God for that'.

Juddy is the current State Champion in the Calf Roping, the Ribbon Roping - with his partner Brealynn Huwa, the Chute Dogging and is a repeat Champion in the Goat Tying for 2024. He is also the 2024 State All Around Cowboy. He says he is grateful to the sponsors that help him go throughout the year and get him to Des Moines, Iowa.

Farella has not set his goals small, as he hopes to, "be humble, be a great son, stay happy, always have a smile even if I don't do as good as I want to, win the world in all of my events, be a great horse trainer and be a true disciple of God and spread His word."

Farella admits his great mounts and the incredible horsepower contribute to his success and he is extremely grateful to have "Skittles" - his Calf Roping and Ribbon Roping horse and "AJ High Dollar Lexus" simply known as Lexus - his Goat Tying horse in Des Moines with him at the finals.

Juddy has a busy schedule throughout the next five days, and Sports Illustrated Rodeo Daily looks forward to following him and the other qualifiers as they compete for 2024 world titles.