– Every Farmer has a Holli Tays –
Running circles around the competition
Sequatchie Farmers Co-op’s Holli Tays is racking up wins as a champion barrel racer
By Page Haynes
– Every Farmer has a Story with Alan and Ruth Burton –
Running circles around the competition
Sequatchie Farmers Co-op’s Holli Tays is racking up wins as a champion barrel racer
By Page Haynes
Holli Tays sometimes lives life timed to the hundredth of a second. In the blink of an eye — specifically 14 to 18 seconds — years of training, thousands of dollars, and a whole lot of grit either culminate in a championship or a 5-second penalty for a tipped barrel.
Though weekly she may greet customers, answer questions, and handle transactions behind the counter of Sequatchie Farmers Cooperative, on the weekends assistant manager Holli is a specialized rodeo athlete, guiding her horse to navigate a three-barrel cloverleaf pattern with intense speed and precision control.
Recently, the accomplished barrel racer qualified seventh in the nation for the International Finals Rodeo (IFR) in Guthrie, Oklahoma, competing against the top 15 contestants in the sport. She has won multiple International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA) championships over the past two years and, in February, was named the 2025 Lone Star National Finals barrel racing champion in Shelbyville. She’s earned more than 30 championship rodeo belt buckles, having won five or six in 2025 alone.
Holli’s been rodeoing almost her entire life. She began riding at age three on her pony, Lady Bug, and started competing in youth rodeos only a year later. As a first-generation rodeo competitor whose parents, Donnie and Beth Covey, had no connection to horses, she became interested in the sport after one of her dad’s good friends started his son in roping lessons. She progressed through youth, junior high, high school, and college rodeo circuits.
In addition to the prestigious, heavily engraved belt buckles, she has won at least two championship, hand-tooled, custom-crafted saddles.
“I won my first saddle in 2016 as a high school freshman, taking the high school competition that year in Georgia,” says Holli. “That competition led to the nationals in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and I placed 22nd in the nation in high school barrel racing. I received my second saddle in 2019, as a high school senior, when I won the state high school rodeo championship in Tennessee, which again qualified me for nationals in Wyoming.”
“Rodeoing has provided many new experiences and opportunities for me.” — Holli Tays
After high school, Holli received a rodeo scholarship to the University of Tennessee at Martin. She rodeoed for them for four years, placing in the top 10 several times while competing in the Ozark Region in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association before graduating in May of 2023. Afterward, she earned her master’s degree from the University of West Alabama and rode for their college rodeo team. She currently focuses on IPRA-sanctioned events throughout the Southeast, with occasional competitions in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.
What drives her to continue to compete in the rodeo competitions?
“I look forward to just seeing what my horse can do,” says Holli. “And I’m very competitive, so winning money is probably my biggest motive because if you’re not winning money, you’re just going backwards. Not every weekend is going to be a great weekend — that’s part of it — but I like to see how much money I can win.”
Holli says she won approximately $30,000 in amateur rodeo earnings last year and has become so involved in rodeoing that in September 2025, she began working part-time at Co-op while competing at rodeos almost every weekend within a two-to-three-hour radius of her home.
Holli travels to rodeos primarily with her husband, Ethan, a team roper who has made the IFR twice, and her younger sister, Ali Covey, a breakaway roper. Her primary competition horse is George, a 16-year-old Quarter Horse that’s known for his consistency and reliability across all ground conditions. She and Ethan maintain 10 horses total, six of which compete regularly. They purchase all their alfalfa cubes, beet pulp, and Pinnacle Balancer feed (#336PE) for their horses from Sequatchie Farmers Cooperative.
“I love rodeoing because it’s very competitive,” says Holli. “You can win one weekend, and the next weekend you may hit all three barrels; there’s no guarantee. And if you have a bad event, you want to go the next weekend to make up for it. I get to travel to different places and meet a lot of great people. Rodeoing has provided many new experiences and opportunities for me.”
Holli Tays, assistant manager at Sequatchie Farmers Cooperative, recently qualified seventh in the nation for the International Finals Rodeo in Guthrie, Oklahoma. She has won multiple International Professional Rodeo Association championships over the years and, in February, was named the 2025 Lone Star National Finals barrel racing champion in Shelbyville. — Photo credit: Dalton Swafford
By Page Haynes,
Contact phaynes@ourcoop.com