By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
An experience of a lifetime is what Martin’s Summer Weldon said she had recently at the Junior High School National Finals Rodeo in Gallop, N.M.
Weldon stepped out onto the nation junior rodeo stage and finished sixth in barrel racing due to a good second run after some nervousness in her first run.
“My first run was not the best because you are so nervous with everyone watching you,” she said. “My second run was very good though. I am very happy with my second run.”
She also competed in pole bending, but she said she did not perform as well as she wanted to.
She said the 14 days she was away will not soon be forgotten, nor will she forget meeting so many people. There were 950 students from across the country competing in the rodeo.
“I had a lot fun,” she said. “I met people from all over the country.”
It was not all rodeo for Summer and the contestants, though. Beth Weldon, Summer’s mother, said the rodeo had plenty for the contestants to do outside of competing in the rodeo such as dances, tug-of-war, and volleyball matches. The rodeo also had a trade show with vendors from across the country.
The elder Weldon said it took three days of traveling to get there and three days to get back.
She said the hardest part was not just the driving, but having to pull a horse trailer with the two horses the younger Weldon used in the rodeo.
“We had to stop every 4-to-6 hours to get the horses out of the trailer so we could water and exercise them,” the elder Weldon said. “We would usually stop at the halfway mark on each day and then go on for the rest of day. We stayed in Oklahoma, then Texas and then went the rest of the way to New Mexico.”
Summer said the New Mexico environment was very pretty, but like a desert. She said she had to adjust to the higher altitude, but her horses did not seem to have a problem with it. She did say she loved not having any humidity to deal with, which was good for the horses because they did not sweat very much.
The first order of business for the contestants upon their arrival was a dance on the first night. The following day was mainly made up of meeting and the third day was all rodeo.
Summer said once they got back to Martin, it was time to take a break, not only for herself, but also for the horses. But, it will be a short-lived for all of them.
Summer will be competing adults in another rodeo this weekend at Land Between the Lakes.
Summer will be enrolled as a freshmen this fall at Westview and has high hopes on competing in the High School National Finals Rodeo next year in Wyoming, where it will not be each class competing against each other but instead will be all combined, which means the competition will be much tougher.
Summer is not only a gifted athlete in the rodeo circuit, she was also the Tennessee Junior Rodeo Queen last year and has high hopes to become the rodeo queen at the high school level with a chance to compete on the national stage.
“At the high school level, if you become the state queen, you get to go for the national title,” Beth Weldon said. “Hopefully she will run for Tennessee High School Queen next year and win. Then if she does, we will be in Wyoming competing for the nation title.” Published in The WCP 7.17.12