Cousins keep success in the family

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Sports

February 5, 2013 - 12:00 AM

In winning a grand champion belt buckle for his horsemanship, 9-year-old Tyler Boeken had to overcome a familiar opponent — his cousin, Destiny Henry.
Henry, also 9, wound up earning a reserve champion belt buckle for taking second in the Eastern Kansas Time Event Circuit.
There, the cousins competed against 16 other competitors in a series of 12 rodeos from April through October.
“This may never happen again,” said Teresa Henry, Destiny’s grandmother. Despite their similar ages, Boeken will focus more on roping events as he gets older.
Boeken and Henry competed in a series of tasks, from goat tying and barrel, pole and flag racing.
Boeken, son of Matt and Mandy Boeken, Gas, earned 392 points in all to win the grand champion buckle. He did so aboard Tank, a 9-year-old hickory and colonel freckles breeding quarter horse.
He took first in goat tying, first on barrels, second in flags and third in poles.
Henry is the granddaughter of Tim and Teresa Henry of Iola (see related story, A1). She earned 372 points aboard Pepper, a 12-year-old gray quarter horse.
She took first in poles and flags, second in goat tying and fourth in barrels.
“They’re very competitive with each other, each wanting to do better than the other,” Tim Henry said. “And this competition went back and forth every week. You never knew who was going to do well from one week to the other.”
Henry and Boeken competed against another cousin, Paige King, daughter of Buddy and Angie King, Farmington, Mo., who lives with the Boekens during the summer to compete.
The cousins also competed regularly in the Mid Eastern Kansas Workhorse Association.
Boeken and Henry work regularly with their horses under the tutelage of Barney Barnett.
“We call them ‘Barney’s Buckaroos,’” Tim Henry said. “They’d work with those animals every day, and they’d ride four or five days a week. These kids worked hard.”

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