DECATUR -- It's a safe bet that there isn't another 3-year-old boy in Decatur that needs as much roping room as Braxton Hindman.
At 30 pounds, the youngster has become an online sensation thanks to a video his parents posted to Facebook last week. It has racked up some 12 million views.
"It's crazy. We switched it from private to public view, and it just took off," said Jake Hindman, the boy's dad.
But don't think for a second that Braxton can't explain for himself why and how he loves to rope.

As News 8 saw firsthand on Thursday afternoon, the little cowboy is one big personality.
"I'll show. I'm gonna show ya," he said when asked about his favorite part of roping.
Braxton usually practices on dummy steers, calves, and goats.

His dad says since the moment the child could stand upright, he has been fascinated by all things cowboy -- especially roping. "He has toys, but he doesn't want to play with anything. He can take this rope and entertain himself for hours," Jake said. "He was barely walking, and he could swing al

most as good as he does now."
Jake is a top-notch roper himself who used to do calf and rodeo roping competitively. He says they never even pushed their son toward picking up a rope, it just kind of happened.
"If you do it as a passion, you love to see you kids take over and go that route," he said.

Brax is also captivated by "ropin' tricks," as he calls them.
"This is how you trick rope. Keep it going, keep it going. Drop it! Watch!" he said as he demonstrated some tricks on Thursday.

His parents say they're going to wait at least another year until letting him try some actual calf roping. He is just now learning to ride a pony.
They hope he sticks with it as he grows older.

"We'll support him no matter what, but it's a lot of fun," Jake said. 

Copyright 2016 WFAA

The original article by WFFA can be found here:

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/decatur-three-year-old-becomes-cowboy-roping-star/302138307