First high school rodeo event of the season took place in Merritt

MERRITT – The Nicola Valley Rodeo Grounds was host to the first event of the year for High School Rodeo.

“It feels so good, all of the horses are fresh and we are all ready to ride,” said Myranda Mackenzie, B.C. High School Rodeo Queen.

There was all sorts of events to kick off the season.

“We started on Friday with the cutting and cow horse and that went really well,” said Macey Freemantle, B.C. High School Rodeo Vice-President. “Saturday we started with the Jr barrels, Sr barrels, breakaway, ribbon roping, steer wrestling, and then shoot dogging.”

Both athletes echoed each other in saying it was a great first event.

“It’s been really good,” said Mackenzie. “The rain has been off and on but other than that everyone is getting really good times and nothing terrible happened, all of us are good and safe.”

From the High School rodeo circuit, there are a couple of different avenues these competitors can pursue.

“You can do college rodeo or you can hit the pro trail,” said Freemantle.  “As a high school rodeo student I can also hit the amateur road, so like the British Columbia Rodeo Association (BCRA),I can compete there with higher caliber and older people. I can also pro rodeo if I want to because at the age of 16-17, I believe, you’re allowed to pro rodeo.”

“From high school rodeo we compete in our south and north regions, so we are in the south region,” added Mackenzie. “You compete four rodeos and then if you have enough points you go to the provincial finals, and then from there, if you get top 5, you go to Wyoming for the national finals and top 6 you go to the Canadian finals, which is in Manitoba this year.”

Each Kamloops-residing high school rodeo athlete details their highlight of the weekend starting with a personal best.

“I roped a 1.9 second in the breakaway,” said Freemantle. “I’m still on cloud 9, that’s my fastest time out of all of my breakaway roping and I won it.”

The other was just ecstatic to be back competing.

“I just had ACL surgery so being back and rodeoing in general is a really big highlight of my year starting off,” exclaimed Mackenzie.