National Title Lassoed

By Scott Tisdall | Posted: Thursday February 2, 2017

My mother and father have always had farming backgrounds and meet each other through rodeo, so naturally I was born straight into the sport.

I’ve been riding horses ever since I can remember and I was on my first horse around 10 days old. 

Rodeo has always been a major part of my life and it could quite easily be considered a lifestyle. At around year 9 I picked up a rope and began calf roping. 

Three years in and I was selected for the youth development challenge team, where I will be competing alongside 10 other New Zealand high school cowboys and cowgirls against the Australian team in the Trans Tasman Challenge which will be held on 6, 11 and 12 February at Outram, Mataura and Southland rodeos. 

At these three rodeos I will be competing in breakaway roping. Breakaway roping is when a competitor will ride their horse out of a gate just after a calf has been let out, then the rider must rope the calf with a lasso as fast as he possibly can. As soon as the calf gets caught the rope will break, the judges will stop timing and the fastest time wins.

Once this challenge is over my next main goal will be to win a New Zealand title before I leave school.

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