When Clayton Van Aken was 4 years old, he picked up a rope and started throwing it around a practice dummy. He got so good at it that he won his very first belt buckle that year. What made him try it?
“My dad was doing it,” is his simple explanation.
Although he worked on his roping skills from a tender age, Clayton didn’t ride much until the ripe old age of 8, when he started team roping. Now the teenager from San Diego County’s Descanso doesn’t see any reason to stop.



“I enjoy the competition,” he says.
A freshman at St. Augustine High School in San Diego, Clayton is already a seasoned veteran of competitions. A member of the California High School Rodeo Association (CHSRA), the California Junior Rodeo Association (CJRA) and the United States Team Roping Championships (USTRC), he travels regularly to compete at events on these circuits.
And his love for competition has rewarded him greatly. He was the state Team Roping Champion in the Wrangler Junior High Division of the CHRSA. This earned him a place at the National Finals in New Mexico, where he finished in the top 20 teams. Over the years, he and his roping partners have won over $25,000 each in cash and prizes (saddles and belt buckles). Since January, they have won about $18,000.
Team roping involves two riders and one steer. It began as an easy way to catch a steer so he could be branded or doctored, and evolved into a competition as the cowboys tried to see who could do it fastest. The steer is given a head start out of a chute and the team of ropers must each rope an “end” – the header roping the horns and the heeler roping the two hind feet. The clock is stopped when the ropes are taut and the horses are facing the steer. It’s an exciting event to watch, as sometimes this is done in less than five seconds!
Clayton recently returned from a weekend in Winnemucca, NV., where he and partner Jim Neal competed at the USTRC Regional Finals. He was very excited to share the details of his go.
“They pick the 20 fastest teams for the short round,” he explains. “We were the first ones to go, and we won with a time of 36.35. So we each got $5,000 and a saddle.”
Clayton works with several roping partners. For USTRC, he can work with adult partner Jim Neal. At the junior high school level, he ropes with Dalton Mosser and for the CJRA, he works with Jordan Warrack.
Working with any of these teammates is a long commute. Jordan lives in Antelope Valley, and Dalton and Jim live in Ramona. Jordan is the furthest from Descanso at three hours’ distance, but even Ramona is an hour away from the Van Aken ranch. Fortunately, Clayton and his teammates work so well together that they can practice individually, then blend their skills when it counts.
As for his four-legged partners, Clayton has a couple of those, too. Buck, an 11-year old grey gelding, is an excellent heading and heeling horse. Nicky, a black mare, is good at heeling. Clayton is comfortable with either of those positions.
Although he’s been doing this for a while, he admits that roping can be hard. “Throwing a heel loop is probably the hardest move,” he says. “You have to have a good horse, and know where to put the loop on the ground so the calf will step into it.”
The other hard thing about team roping can be losing – by a little. “Losing by a lot doesn’t hurt, but losing by that tenth of a second is hard to take.”
After deducting entry fees and costs, most of Clayton’s winnings are put into the bank for college. He plans to be an agriculture major and sees himself either owning his own ranch or managing someone else’s. Math is his favorite subject and he is already working out how to meet the needs of his high school classes while traveling to rodeo competitions around the region. He also likes playing football and baseball, but doesn’t know if he’ll have time to do it all and keep up with his school work.
When asked about Clayton’s strengths, his mother says, “He tries hard at anything he does.”
If the past 10 years are any indication, Clayton will be able to do it all and do it well.