{"id":119695,"date":"2014-06-10T16:46:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T22:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-barrel-racer-makes-professional-debut\/"},"modified":"2014-06-10T16:46:48","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T22:46:48","slug":"mancos-barrel-racer-makes-professional-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-barrel-racer-makes-professional-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos barrel racer makes professional debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos cowgirl Marie Hoch rounds the final barrel in Thursday night's Ute Mountain Roundup.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Among the barrel racers competing in last weekend\u2019s Ute Mountain Roundup rodeo, many were longtime professionals and a few were superstars.<\/p>\n

In no way intimidated by the stiff competition however, Mancos resident Marie Hoch took to the arena for what turned out to be a solid professional debut.<\/p>\n

Competing on June 5, Hoch completed the course in 18.17 seconds. Although Hoch\u2019s time was not fast enough to place, the ride represented a respectable showing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy performance wasn\u2019t too bad,\u201d said Hoch. \u201c(My horse) tripped on the third (barrel), but I\u2019m very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of her path to the Ute Mountain Roundup, Hoch\u2019s excitement was more than justified.<\/p>\n

Born to parents from the Midwest, Hoch, did not grow up in a household familiar with rodeo. As a result, the longtime Mancos resident had to learn as she went along.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t start riding horses until I was 8 years old,\u201d said Hoch. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know a lot. We just had to learn for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to her love of rodeo, however, Hoch learned quickly. A fan of steer wrestling growing up, Hoch eventually took up barrel racing.<\/p>\n

After several years of practice, Hoch decided to turn pro earlier this year and entered the Ute Mountain Roundup for the first time.<\/p>\n

Clearly excited to be competing in near her hometown, Hoch reflected on what turned out to be a special experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my first pro rodeo and it was kind of nice to do it in my home town,\u201d said Hoch. \u201cI like seeing friends and family. I like getting together with everyone and having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Encouraged by her professional debut, Hoch will compete in professional rodeos in Prescott and Window Rock later this year.<\/p>\n

Before those events, however, Hoch plans to enjoy the Mancos area, which she calls home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being in the mountains,\u201d said Hoch. \u201cMancos has really nice people. It\u2019s a good community.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt, that community will eagerly embrace its newest rodeo star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

gets tipped up at Roundup, but has big plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119695"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}