‘Noodle’ Miller makes his mark in rodeo

Published 3:00 pm Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Hanley “Noodle” Miller recalls that when he was just a kid, he “always liked horses and cows” — and he packed a rope around “everywhere I went.”

Horses. Cows. A rope usually within reach. Where could this be going?

For Miller, it’s led to a promising career as a rising young rodeo athlete in tie-down roping.

Here’s what happens in tie-down roping: A calf gets a six-second head start, and then rider and horse head off in pursuit. The rider has to throw a rope loop over the calf. The horse is trained to stop at that point. The rider dismounts, sprints to the calf and throws it in a maneuver called “flanking.” After the calf is flanked, the roper ties any three legs together with a short, looped rope that has been, up to this point, clenched in the rider’s teeth.

A good run might take eight or nine seconds, Miller said. Seven seconds is a really good run. But take an extra second or two, and you’re out of the running.

The 17-year-old Miller, a student at Joseph Charter’s online school, is capping an outstanding fall rodeo season with appearances this week in Las Vegas, where he’s competing in the Junior World Rodeo and Vegas Tuffest Jr. events.

His high school fall rodeo season included three events, and he did well at all three. At Cottage Grove, he placed fourth in the first rodeo and second in the second go-round. In both Sisters and Condon, he placed second in the first rodeo and first in the second go-round.

He’ll hit the circuit again in April and is planning to compete in rodeos in Klamath Falls, Hermiston, Prineville and Burns, with his eyes on the June state finals in Prineville — and, ideally, qualifying for the national high school finals, to be held in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

He competes with his sorrel horse, K2, and one of things Miller finds appealing about tie-down roping is that the event requires that the horse and rider work as a team.

“In a lot of the other rodeo events, you’re not part of a team with the horse you’re riding,” Miller said. “You’re riding a bull you might never have seen or you’re riding a bronc you might never have seen or met. So there really is that bond in tie-down roping between the rider and the horse.”

He’s worked with 12-year-old K2 now for three or four years. Miller said the event requires an athletic horse, one with a good head — and one that’s not too big, and K2 fits all those attributes.

Lots of things can go wrong in an eight- or nine-second run. If you don’t catch the calf with your first rope toss, “you can’t win,” Miller said. If the calf falls to the ground after being roped, the rider has to stand the animal up before planking – and that takes a couple of extra seconds, which makes the difference between a good run and finishing out of the money.

And you don’t have time to think, which is why Miller talks about making smooth runs as his ideal: “You just have to go through your steps,” and let muscle memory — trained after years of practice — to kick in.

By this time, Miller, the son of Cory and Dena Miller, has performed at small rodeos and big events, like the ones in Las Vegas. The big events don’t faze him anymore. “It’s just another rodeo.”

He’s encouraged by the growing popularity of rodeo and the growth of outlets like The Cowboy Channel. And he’s eying a professional rodeo career once he graduates. Or maybe he’ll combine rodeoing with running a rodeo-related business, such as training young horses for the circuit.

Horses. Maybe some cows. Who could have seen that coming?