Martha Josey

World Champion Barrel Racer, Olympic Medalist & Clinician
1938-Living

“Martha has always – always – dressed the part, no matter where it was.  It could be in the hottest, dirtiest, most dusty arena, and she’s going to dress like a cowgirl.”  Photographer Kenneth Springer

Known as the Queen of Sequins, Martha Josey learned at an early age that if she was going to be a champion, she needed a mental strength, fortitude, and showmanship that separated great athletes from good ones.  She also learned from her basketball coach that “practice does not make perfect – perfect practice makes perfect.”

At 10 years old her father died of a heart attack and moved with her family to her paternal grandmother’s two-bedroom brick house on 200+ acres in the Piney Woods between Marshall and Karnack, Texas.  Martha attended her first rodeo as a sophomore in high school and started competing with Jimbo, a Quarter Horse stallion her father raised.  In 1960, Josey found a horse with as much desire to win as she did.  C. B. Reynolds, a man who knew her father, asked her to show a horse that he wanted to sell for $5,000.  When Martha realized Cebe Reed was the horse for her, she got Mr. Reynolds to agree to sell him for $2,500.  “In a tale that is now told and retold in Martha Josey lore, she cried while admitting to her mother that she had agreed to buy Cebe but didn’t have the money.  Her mother told her she had just sold a mineral lease on their property – for $2,500.  Cebe was hers.”  Texas Monthly February 2021. 

Martha married R. E. Josey in 1966 after meeting him in Hillsboro, Texas at a barrel race.  The young calf roper saw Martha get out and unload Cebe.  R.E. turned and asked a buddy about “the brunette with the chiseled gelding”.  Martha and R.E. joke to this day that he fell in love at first sight – with Cebe.  In 1967 the couple opened Josey Ranch with a class of 33 students near Marshall, Texas on her grandmother’s land.  The income from that first class of Martha and R.E.’s rodeo school, to teach barrel racing and roping, was just the amount needed for Josey to hire a professional photographer to shoot promotional images for brochures and ads.  Martha had inherited her grandmother Mattie Castleberry’s inventive marketing savvy for promotion.

Martha Josey “develops sponsorships with the makers of horse health and nutrition products, and ranch equipment, proudly wearing their logos for the cameras as she films product endorsements. A Purina horse feed banner hangs at the entrance to Josey Ranch.  She sells her own brand of bits and saddles and attached her name to a now-defunct line of signature Western wear.  But most of her success has come from the rodeo school.”  Texas Monthly February 2021.  In the years since it started in 1967, Josey Ranch has hosted more than 200,000 students.  Martha’s closest challenger for the barrel racing world title in 1980, was Lynn McKenzie, one of her former students.    

Martha and Cebe Reed won 52 races in a row.  Martha and Sonny Bit o’ Both won both the American Quarter Horse Championship and the World Barrel Racing Championship in 1980, a twin record that has never been matched.  Martha and Joe B Jammin achieved AQHA Reserve Champion & Wheaties Box Champion.  Six of her eight horses carried her to the finals, with two being champions at the same time.  The intense focus and mental strength that Martha learned as a young girl gave her the fortitude to come back after a couple of debilitating injuries she suffered in both 1981 and 2004.  Close to death in 1981 and almost paralyzed in 2004, Josey’s “never quit” attitude helped her get back to competing.  Nowadays Martha concentrates on her camps and clinics at Josey Ranch.  In spotting for the girls that will succeed, Martha says that talent and ability are not the only signs of a future winner – desire is key.  

Martha was born March 11, 1938, in Gregg County, Texas to Robert Jonas and Martha James Arthur.  Martha married R.E. Josey in 1966 and established Josey Ranch in 1967. Martha won her first world championship at 42, last qualified for the NFR at 60, qualified for the NFR in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, is AQHA, WPRA, and NBHA World Champion, an Olympic Medalist, and multiple Hall of Fames Inductee.

“To be a champion, you’ve got to think like a champion. You’ve got to act like a champion.”  Martha Josey