Imagine you are a bull rider and you are getting ready to climb over the chute about to hop on this no fat only muscles that can very well kill you, and all you’re thinking about is your posture, and you are praying before you get on, and then the light is on, the shout opens. It’s rearing up and bucking super hard, then you just hold on for a little longer and then you hear the sound that makes all Roughies happy, beeeeeeep.

Northwest Youth Rodeo Association is an organization where kids from anywhere in the area come together and do their rodeos. It can be scary for some kids and for others not so much. Some kids don’t like it but their family pushes them to do something that could be there lifelong sport.   According to the organization, it “Upholds, promotes and maintains the Western Heritage lifestyle and to promote the sport of rodeo.”

One student who has been in rodeo is sophomore Cody Reese. Reese’s first rodeo was the St. Paul Rodeo and her first time in the rodeo was June 2014. She got into rodeo because her parents took her to a rodeo and then she felt like she was home. She said the St. Paul rodeo falls on her birthday and she enjoys the atmosphere everybody around her was into. So she knew it was for her.

Reese said she likes being in the arena and the one thing she likes about the rodeo is it doesn’t matter who you are and where you’re from. There is always a rodeo family, and it’s more than a sport, it’s a lifestyle. 

She said when you get that first little check and then you’re like “okay when do I get another one and then you’re like okay I want to practice every single day, okay now I’m hooked.¨