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By Jim Cornelius
News Editor 

Youth rodeo star headed to finals

 

Last updated 6/12/2019 at Noon

Jim Cornelius

Adriene Steffen will head to Huron, South Dakota, later this month to compete in the National Junior High Finals Rodeo. It is the third year that the Sisters eighth-grader has qualified for nationals, and she will compete in multiple events: Goat-tying; Breakaway Roping; Team Roping; and Ribbon Roping.

She’s going as Oregon’s reserve all-around champion and as champion in Breakaway Roping.

“I definitely have added events,” Steffen told The Nugget.

Youth rodeo is an intense round of competitions that tax the logistical capacities and endurance of the families involved, since it requires a lot of travel and hours and hours of practice. But it’s all worth it, Steffen says.

“It’s just something that keeps you coming back for more,” she told The Nugget.

The finals, which run June 23-27, up the intensity level.

“It is (intense) but it is so much fun,” Steffen said. “You get to know the kids so much better; they get to be like family.”

Steffen is taking two of her three horses to finals. Nineteen-year-old quarter horse Fancy used to be her brother’s college rodeo horse.

“I kind of stole her off him,” Steffen admitted. “I’ve taken her all three years to nationals.”

For the past two years, she’s also taken Summer, a 17-year-old palomino mare.

“I do two or three events off of her,” Steffen said.

This rodeo season posed some challenges for the young rider. The late and intense winter storms that hit at the end of February and beginning of March delayed her training.

“I had maybe a week this year,” she said. “I was panicking. After the first rodeo, I felt much better.”

She’s got somewhat limited training time to prepare for the national rodeo, too, because Sisters gets out of school so late in the year.

“Everybody I rodeo with is not in school and I’ve got to wait all the way through June 17!” she said.

But there’s no question that Adriene Steffen will cowgirl up and get the job done in her third trip to the big show.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

 

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