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Miller off to national junior high finals rodeo

Keeley Miller and her horse Roman are in Lebanon, Tennessee this week for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo World Championship June 18-24, where the 12 year old is vying for a spot as world champion.
Keeley Miller and her horse Roman are in Lebanon, Tennessee this week for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo World Championship. The 12 year old is competing in the pole
Keeley Miller and her horse Roman are in Lebanon, Tennessee this week for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo World Championship. The 12 year old is competing in the pole bending event and vying for a spot as world champion.

Keeley Miller and her horse Roman are in Lebanon, Tennessee this week for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo World Championship June 18-24, where the 12 year old is vying for a spot as world champion.

The teen from Fawcett will be competing in pole bending over two days at the nationally-televised event.

Miller has been riding in the Alberta Junior High School Rodeo Association where she ranked in the top 4 in pole bending at provincials in Olds May 26-28, and qualified to go on to nationals in Tennessee.

“I’ve been in rodeo pretty much my whole life,” said the born-and-bred rodeo girl. “My dad’s a pick-up man and my stepmom, she runs barrels, so I’ve barrel raced and been around the rodeo since I was really little.”

The international rodeo competition will wrangle in contenders from 43 U.S. states, five Canadian provinces and Australia to compete for more than $80,000 in prizes and $200,000 in college scholarships.

To earn the title of world champion, contestants must finish in the top 20 based on combined times and scores in the first two rounds. Those finalists will advance to Saturday night’s final round where the world champs will be decided by their three-round combined times and scores.

But this won’t be Miller’s first rodeo, so to speak.

She has qualified for the 2015 Wildrose Rodeo Association finals in Barrhead and won several buckles in the events, and was also awarded High-point Cowgirl of District 3 in the Alberta High School Rodeo Association.

Recently she competed at the Long Island Lake Rodeo June 10 in barrel racing but that took a bit of a turn in a way she didn’t plan.

“I hit a barrel, but sometimes that happens,” she said.

Even so, she has groomed herself into a well-rounded rider who competes in goat tie, team rope and break-weigh rope with her roping horse Brownie and in barrel racing and pole bending with her other horse Roman.

For those unfamiliar with pole bending, it’s a staple at canine agility competitions where a dog races in and around a line poles. But pole bending in the rodeo scene is done of course with a horse and a rider on top. And that event is Miller’s favourite to do.

“It keeps you on your toes because you have to weave through the poles so you don’t knock them over,” she said. “You also have to have a fast time, so it’s really pressuring and I like the pressure.”

Though she was a little nervous to compete in a rodeo of this scale — “it’s a pretty big rodeo,” she added — she was excited and confident.

“I grew up doing is so it’s always been fun being around all my rodeo friends and competing against each other, the excitement about it. There’s always lots of pressure.”

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