The Australian Junior High School Rodeo Team, comprising of 11 children, made a massive trip over to Des Moines in Iowa, in America’s Mid-West, to represent their country in early June for the National Junior High School Rodeo Finals.
There were teams from all over America, Mexico, Canada, and our Australians — 1340 children, over 2000 horses, and 600 golf carts, all packed into the state-of-the-art showground facilities for the eight days of competition.
Each rodeo team comprised of their top four competitors for each event. The competitors went into two go-rounds, split over 12 rodeo performances in six days, plus a finals night for the top 20.
The whole week was jam-packed full of action for 22 hours a day, with practice sessions starting at 5 am, rodeos from 9 am to 1 pm, then competition jackpots for every event in rotation till 6 pm. The night rodeo performance went from 7 pm to midnight, then jackpots through to 4 am…then the kids started practising again at 5 am! Along with three dances for a bit of networking, volleyball games, coaching events and a trade stall that rivalled Bunnings in size, it was a mammoth event for the 11 to 15-year-olds and their families and friends.
Our Australian kids did extraordinarily well in the competition and had an amazing time meeting incredible people from all over the world and making contacts for life. A huge thank you goes out to the families who leased their horses to the Australian children, as it was no small feat to have them mounted on such high-levelled, well-presented horses.
Local Bindoon girl Lucy Oversby was the only West Australian in the Australian Junior High School Rodeo team, and in January 2024 had qualified in first place for four events (Breakaway Roping, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, and Goat Tying) at the Australian finals held at Bendemeer NSW.
At the American competition, one highlight for the Australian team was when Lucy did a smoking catch in the second Go Round of the Breakaway with a 2.15-second run. This time held out to be the fastest of the 180 girls in the breakaway ropers over the three days, winning Lucy a shiny new buckle, a horse rug, a $1,200 cheque and a small scholarship. The American announcer tried his best to do a sterling Australian accent to introduce Lucy Oversby in the Breakaway Roping, and the shock in his voice and him stating, “Whaaattt?” echoed many of the American thoughts when Lucy caught quickly and went to the lead in the Go-Round.
It was a huge financial cost to get the Australian children over to the event. Lucy personally would like to thank the enormous amount of support for all her family and friends who helped with all the fundraising needed which included selling her horse, collecting batteries and cans, doing raffles at rodeos across WA, and all the incredible and very generous donations of local Bindoon people, clubs, the Shire of Chittering and lots of rodeo supporters. Lucy hopes her actions help to become a catalyst for many other Aussie kids to dream big and work hard towards achieving amazing things on the world stage, while enjoying every step along the way with your family and friends.
