Review staff
A Rimbey-based rodeo participant has reached the pinnacle of his sport – and he’s only 14-years old.
Levi Lloyd captured the Chute Dogging World Championship in Gallup, New Mexico earlier this month with a time of 2.6 seconds in the final of the Wrangler National High School Rodeo Association’s Junior High Division.
As one of the top four finishers in the Alberta Wrangler division, Lloyd won the right to participate in the World Championships, in which he won a number of prizes including a new saddle, buckle, hat, boots, an assortment of clothing supplied by the sponsor and a $1,000 scholarship.
“I’m very happy with the win. I won the season leader for chute dogging in Nanton a while back, but this was my biggest win so far and I’m really happy about it,” Lloyd said of the victory.
The youngster arrived in New Mexico as the division’s season leader and remained at the top of the leader board throughout the competition with times of 2.2 and 2.3 seconds in the semi-finals leading up to the championships.
“The trip down there was really, really fun,” he said. “We went down with a bunch of people and it made the trip way shorter. Participating down in the United States was a great experience I thought.”
As for the future, Lloyd said he’d like to continue competing in rodeos and possibly make a it career option although he admitted that at such a young age, he doesn’t know just yet what he’s going to do with the scholarship.
“Hopefully, I’m going to start jumping off a horse for the next month or so with the real bull-dogging,” he said of his short-term goals. “I’ll be going into high school rodeos now and there’s a bunch of them that we’ll all be going to.”
The event featured 150 contestants from all over the United States, Canada and Australia.
There’s a bit of pedigree in the family as well as his father Todd, who joined him on the trip along with the rest of the family, is a steer wrestler.
Other Albertans participating in New Mexico included breakaway roper Logan Bonnett, chute-dogger Colton Foster and barrel racers Tara Wilkinson and Darby Wilkinson.