Alejandra started her day early at 5am this Saturday Oct 2, 2004 getting ready for her first competition in Georgetown, Texas for the 2004 Clayman Rodeo annual event.
Alejandra entered the pole bending race, straightaway barrel race, and barrel racing (clover leaf pattern) events in the novice class with eleven other boys and girls around here age and level of experience. Alejandra has been riding horses since she was five years old. She is now eleven years old.
Here is a picture of the girl behind the scenes (it was a rainy morning so the competition was moved into an indoor arena):
The morning session held two of her events and was also for the qualifying of the more advanced riders in the other classes.
Alejandra came in second place for the pole bending event in which you do like a weaving in and out of PVC poles laid out vertically inline on the arena floor.
She did however come in in first place for the straightaway barrel race! In this event you have three barrels lined up straight in front of each other and the rider and horse do a sort of double figure eight pattern through them for the fastest time.
In the evening session, Alejandra came in second for the barrel racing event two seconds behind the leader. Overall leader is judged on points and we had some hope Alejandra would do well as she did some fine work on her patterns. We waited for the last event and I was "volunteered" to bring in some of the prizes into the arena in my truck.
Well as it turned out when the novice awards were given out Alejandra got her trophies for reserve champion in two events and a belt buckle in the straightaway barrels. When the last award for All Around Champion in novice class was announced, she won!! She also received some purse money but the big prize was the saddle that was on my truck! Her dedication and years of hard work earned her a top spot in her first rodeo.
It was now about midnight and here is Alejanda with some of her awards for the night and the saddle she earned:
Here is the buckle she also won. We're very proud of this young girl and her accomplishments!
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