TREENA MIELKE/Rimbey Review
This year’s Alberta High School Rodeo Provincial Finals proved to be the best competition ever for Taylor Smith and not only did the young contestant leave her competitors behind in a cloud of dust, she came away winning a saddle and seven buckles.
“It was a really good weekend,” said the 17-year-old Rimbey native, who competed in Ponoka June 10 to 12.
“This is my fourth year in high school rodeos and my first year when I will be going to the nationals. I wanted to make it work.”
Smith broke the provincial pole bending time, setting a new record with her score of 19.4. She also won the girls’ high-point final and was second overall in the province in breakaway roping and goat tying.
She is the district 2 season leader in pole bending and breakaway and the all-around girls’ champ. Her buckskin horse was also named horse of the year in the district in pole bending and breakaway roping.
Smith’s second place win earned her the right to go to the 63rd National High School Rodeo in Gillette, Wy. July 17 to 23.
The national rodeo features more than 1,500 contestants from 41 states, five Canadian provinces and Australia, and is the world’s largest rodeo.
Smith is looking forward to the nationals and is confident she will do well.
“I have really great horses and have confidence that I will do well.”
An impressive track record on the rodeo circuit has earned the Rimbey teen a full rodeo scholarship to attend college in Portalos, N. M. She is looking forward to the adventure, though she is somewhat apprehensive about moving so far away from home.
“It’s a great opportunity, but I have mixed emotions. I have never been that far away from home before.”
Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie Braithwaite from Bluffton also did well at the provincials in Ponoka, winning fifth in barrel racing. Her fifth-place win earns her a spot at the Canadians to be held in Virden, Man. Aug. 3 to 6.
Braithwaite’s horse, Robin, won the horse with the most heart, and her horse, GTO, which she used in the goat tying competition, won horse of the year.
While Braithwaite was disappointed not to score higher at the provincials, she is looking forward to the Canadians.
“I think I have a pretty good chance of doing well there,” she said.