{"id":72571,"date":"2017-06-15T12:02:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T18:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-student-hopes-to-become-first-generation-rodeo-star\/"},"modified":"2017-06-15T18:02:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T18:02:29","slug":"mancos-student-hopes-to-become-first-generation-rodeo-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-student-hopes-to-become-first-generation-rodeo-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos student hopes to become first-generation rodeo star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e554ad1d-9b12-48b0-aa68-0462306d5533&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1396\" alt=\"Mancos cowgirl Rhiley Montoya finishes up her run in the pole bending competition of the 2016 Four States Junior Rodeo. She will compete this year in the National High School Rodeo Association\u2019s junior high finals.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mancos cowgirl Rhiley Montoya finishes up her run in the pole bending competition of the 2016 Four States Junior Rodeo. She will compete this year in the National High School Rodeo Association\u2019s junior high finals.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Rhiley Montoya will compete in three events at the National High School Rodeo Association\u2019s junior high finals next week, in what she hopes will be another step in a lifelong career.<\/p>\n<p>The 13-year-old Mancos Middle School student will test her skills in barrel racing, goat tying and breakaway roping during the 10-day event in Lebanon, Tennessee. She is one of several members of the Ute Mountain High School Rodeo Team to qualify for finals this year, but she\u2019s the first person in her family to compete in rodeo. This will be her second year at the national competition.<\/p>\n<p>Last year she said the finals were \u201csuper fun,\u201d even though she didn\u2019t place in any of her events.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone was very nice,\u201d she said. \u201cI think I will do better this time because I know what to expect and I\u2019m not as nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rhiley said she first got into her sport at age 5, when a preschool teacher recommended her parents take her and her sister to a beginners\u2019 day camp in Bayfield. Since then, rodeo has become a major part of her life.<\/p>\n<p>Although Rhiley has trained in several different events, she said her favorite is goat tying, because it requires more skill on the rider\u2019s part.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just about how good your horse is or how much money you spent on your horse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She said she\u2019s looking forward to making new friends at finals, although she\u2019s a little worried about being a spectator at their events. Watching other people sometimes makes her nervous, she said, and that can lead to mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually Rhiley hopes to get a college rodeo scholarship and keep competing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I can\u2019t do rodeo when I\u2019m older, I would hope to be a teacher or something, so I can still do what I love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019ll be joined in Tennessee by her family and her Ute Mountain teammate Cooper McClain, who will compete in bull riding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>13-year-old will compete in barrel racing, breakaway roping<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,60,937,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-72571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county","tag-rodeo","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72571","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=72571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72571"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=72571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}