National High School Rodeo - Hanna the Cowgirl

When we say we are going to leave on a trip at 6:45 am, we pull out at 6:48 am. Another Alberta contestant asked us to haul her horse, and they would just bring their camp trailer. So we were supposed to meet them right before we crossed the border. They were 35 minutes late and then they didn't have the horse papers with them so we had to wait another 20 minutes for them. We had an appointment with the federal vet at 8:30 am. Ain't no one too happy when you get up at 5:15 am so you can get an early start because you have a 12-hour drive and then you have to wait an hour for someone else. It all turned out okay, and we made it through the border with no problems.

We took Jill's horse, Salsa, with us since she will need it for college rodeo a month after nationals. We are also leaving Hanna's horse at Les's house until she starts school.

We finally made it to Les and Hollis' house and had a delicious barbecue dinner. Katie (age 3) is the constant live entertainment.  The funny quote of the day...
"Oh my child of God."
Her parents were trying to train her not to say oh my gosh, so that was what came out instead.
Also, she wanted to say the blessing on the food, and she said, "how does it start?" Her dad told her that she knows how it starts. So then she said the blessing. Les said she asks that every meal.

The next morning we again got up at 5:15 am so we could be to the Logan Temple by 7:30 a.m.  Jill received her endowment in the Logan Temple (see another post).

Then we headed back to Les's house, loaded the horses, and headed to Rock Springs to check in for nationals. Right as we were getting to leave, Austin invited Hattie to come with us. Check in. Stall. Scholarship application submitted. Hotel. All settled in.

1600 contestants
2000 entries

Sunday morning we found a Sacrament Meeting to go to before we had to go to the opening rodeo meeting.

For the opening meeting, they went through introductions, rules, directions, etc. The guest speaker was a professional saddle bronc rider who was paralyzed from the waste down from an accident last October. He gave a great motivational talk. Here were his 3 keys to success:
1. When you have trials, be grateful for the little things.
2. Surround yourself with positive people who will help get you through. Hang out with winners.
3. Believe. Believe you can be successful. Visualize your dream. If you believe it, you can achieve it.
Don't let your setbacks define you.

Hanna was up in the Sunday night performance in team roping. The steer ran quite a ways down the arena, and then Talia Powelson, her header, caught and Hanna went to heel and only caught one leg. They were 15.95 with the 5-second penalty. They were happy they caught.

Monday, we watched the morning performance and went swimming at our hotel pool in the afternoon. One of the girls Austin coached at Mountain Crest 12 years ago lives in Rock Springs so she invited us over for dinner. Amanda Jensen Larson and her husband Carey, and their little girl Sydney were great hosts. We had a fun time. We had hula hoop contests and taught Carey how to do the floss dance.

On Tuesday morning, Hanna was up in the breakaway roping. The calf left really fast and Hanna roped it near the end of the arena, and luckily the rope fell the right way when she came tight and she was 6.33 seconds.  I was taking pictures, and I didn't think the rope went all the way over the head. But luckily it did.

Les and Hollis and Katie came to watch Hanna, and so we had fun hanging out and swimming with them. It was fun to have Hattie come with us a for a couple days, although she wore her favorite red Hawaii shirt for at least 4 days out of 5. And we found out she really likes Pepsi, and she doesn't like getting her picture taken.

Wednesday was goat tying day. Hanna made a sweet run and was a 7.2. She ended up first place in the first round. Out of 6 performances of goat tiers, Hanna was first place. She got a buckle and a horse cooler blanket. YES!!!!

Hanna was up again in goat tying on Wednesday night. She had to double gather and was 8.9 seconds. Not as fast as we were hoping for. Now five more performances to cross our fingers through that Hanna will make it to the short go.

Thursday night was breakaway roping again. Hanna roped clean at 5.15 seconds - nice run but not quite as fast as she needed to be. She ended up 25th in the average for the finals.

Friday we watched both rodeos carefully checking off the number of girls left to goat tie to see if Hanna could still make it to the short go. They also gave away scholarships that afternoon. Every senior that applies for one gets $500. We were hoping for another one of the many scholarships that they give away, but not so. That's okay. We did meet a family (Wadsworths) that have a daughter going to Utah State this fall who is going to rodeo also.

On Saturday morning, Hanna and Talia were up again in team roping. We thought there would be no way they would get to the short go because Hanna caught a leg in their first run. But Saturday morning, they still had a chance because there were so few teams that caught two. By the time it was their turn, they had to be a 9.76 or faster. Talia roped it, turned the corner and Hanna had two feet. But Talia was slow to face and Hanna didn't dally fast enough, and the roped burned all the way through her hand and so they were a no time. The clock showed 9.3 as the rope left Hanna'a hand. So close. Hanna's hand was really rope burned. Austin had it bandaged up by Saturday night so she could goat tie.

Our friend Amanda that lives in Rock Springs offered to let us stay at her house for the weekend because they left for a family reunion. Austin was reluctant, but I really wanted to so we could save money. And later Austin admitted, you were right. It was nice to get out of our small hotel and be in a house with more space.

Jill and Larsen came back to watch the finals with us.  Saturday afternoon the NHSRA took pictures of the top 20 in each event, and they had a practice for the grand entry.

The Saturday night performance of the National High School Finals rodeo is really one of the best events ever. It is really exciting and a great performance and a great rodeo. I was really nervous. I'm sure Hanna and Austin were too.

Hanna ended up coming back 7th in the average.  So she was 14th in the short go. Several girls ahead of her fell as they got off because they were trying to go so fast. Hanna came out and made a sweet run. She was a 6.7. Then her goat got up. What? How could this be? No. She would have been the national champion. Heart broken.

I finally got the courage to go to the trailer to see them. They were smiling and talking. Hanna said, "Mom, I'm fine." Austin was happy too. She had decided to go for the win. No use in playing it safe and coming in second place. So she did. And her goat got up. Also, I didn't know it, but Austin and Larsen had given her a blessing right before the performance. They were all okay with it. Sure, it would have been nice to win. As we have re-watched the video again and again, she didn't cross the legs so they kicked free. That's a rule in goat tying. If you stack the legs instead of crossing them, they can kick free. In hind sight, we do think that having sore hands she may have subconsciously not have pulled as tight as she could have.

After taking care of Lena, everyone went back to watch the end of the rodeo. I couldn't do it.  I took my chair and sat it outside of the arena. I just needed to process everything. So many emotions. And tears. Sad. Happy. Thankful. Disappointed. Angry. Proud.

I was so thankful for the opportunity Hanna had to high school rodeo for 4 years and how successful she was. I was thankful we could go to Nationals. She did so good. She was so close to being a National Champion. I was also sad knowing she was leaving for college soon, but thankful for the amazing person she is and the joy she brings to us.

I quickly started receiving texts and messages from people who had been watching online about how they had been cheering Hanna on, how they were sad her goat got up, and how impressed they were with how she reacted.  Me too.

Jill Goes to the Temple

 Jill was ready to go through the temple for herself and receive her own endowment. She took a 3-lesson temple prep class from Logan Zemp, the Cardston Temple Recorder and our neighbor. He is so smart. Anyway, she really wanted Larsen to be there so we decided to meet in Logan.

We love the Logan Temple. Austin and I went there for the 15 years we lived in Logan. It is just so beautiful and historic and awesome. Jill did great and enjoyed it and felt overwhelmed all at the same time.  My parents came from Idaho Falls, Les and Hollis came and ended up being the witness couple, and we invited Karma Albiston, our adopted grandma. We all ate at Arby's after the temple.