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Emily Gravlin got hooked on rodeo about 10 years ago with barrel racing.
From there, her fascination grew, and in July, she competed in the National High School Finals Rodeo (NHSFR) in Gillette, Wyoming, in the reined cow horse category.
This was Emily’s third consecutive year qualifying for nationals, and this time, she tied for 17th place out of about 112 competitors in reined cow horse.
“It’s a blast,” said Emily, a Creston High School senior. “There’s a lot of pressure, but it’s really fun to go out there and compete and know this is the highest level you can compete at in the (high school) rodeo system and see where you place in the world standing.”
Emily earned a position on the Iowa National High School Rodeo team by placing third in the state in reined cow horse. She and fellow teammates then traveled to Gillette July 17-23 to compete in the 68th-annual NHSFR.
“Reined cow horse is kind of a newer event in the rodeo system,” Emily said. “I love it because it’s so versatile in what you do. You do a reining pattern – a really slow, collected, beautiful pattern. But, it’s still thrilling because you go fast down the arena and you slide, and it just really pushes what your horse can do. Then, you bring out a cow and it’s all fast work, and you have to be in control of that cow, and you have to be in the right position with your horse. It’s really challenging.”
With more than 1,650 contestants from 43 states, five Canadian provinces and Australia, the NHSFR is one of the world’s largest rodeos. In addition to competing for more than $200,000 in prizes, NHSFR contestants compete for about $350,000 in college scholarships and the chance to be named an NHSFR World Champion.
The final day of the championship was televised nationally and broadcast online.
Starting out
About 10 years ago, Emily’s mother, Michelle Hanson, and stepfather, Wayne Hanson, purchased the first horse for their children. Emily and her older brother, John, became interested in horses.
“We pretty much just trail rode horses. I started on a little Arabian pony,” Emily said. “We started out doing the Lenox youth rodeos, got hooked on barrels, and my older brother really liked to bareback ride. So, he got hooked in with the high school rodeo, and then we found out there was a junior high rodeo.”
Emily began running a pony in the junior high rodeos while John competed in high school rodeos.
“We started getting better and we got a better horse, and then people convinced us to try more events, so it just kind of grew from there,” Emily said.
John is now most interested in bareback riding, while Emily’s favorite event is reined cow horse.
“The most exciting part is probably the fence turns,” Emily said. “Once you’re done boxing and you pull it down on the fence and you’re running right next to it, then you have to build speed and then you just stop and turn it really fast both directions. That’s an adrenaline rush I just love. I could do it all day. “
Getting into the NHSFR
In 2014, Emily qualified for the NHSFR for the first time. That year, she competed in barrel racing alone. In 2015, she competed nationally in both barrel racing and reined cow horse.
“Over the course of 10 rodeos in the fall and 10 in the spring, you compete in each of your events,” Emily said. “Every time you place top 10, you get points, and then it goes toward (a total). At the end of the year, if you’re top four, you get to go to nationals.”
“At nationals, for barrel both years, I made top 30,” Emily said. “In (reined) cow horse last year, I got 10th place.”
Training
In preparing to qualify for the 2016 NHSFR, Emily spent countless hours training alongside her parents with trainer Luke Jones of Allerton.
“For about two years, we’ve been working with Luke,” Emily said. “He and his family have helped us find our horses. We go over there for a few days, work with Luke and work on cattle. He helps us figure out what to do with our horses and helps us with reining, so that’s definitely the No. 1 thing that’s helped us get to where we are. And then, just going to shows and practicing and making a lot of mistakes has helped, too.”
The hardest part for Emily has been learning how to better read cows.
2016 NHSFR
This year, Emily competed solely in reined cow horse at the national rodeo.
While her standing was higher last year, Emily is content with 17th place this year given the horse she rode, a young horse named Tommy Boon. Still, her results “could be better,” Emily said.
“She did awesome,” Wayne said. “She placed 17th riding a 5-year-old horse, while most other competitors would have been riding much older and more seasoned horses. So, she did really well. There were just a couple tiny, little bobbles, and I mean little bobbles, that probably cost us a top five. That’s how close the scores were.”
Emily’s parents joined her at the national competition and helped with her training along the way.
“The experience of taking your kid to an event like that where there’s about 1,700 competitors and to see all their hard work pay off, because only the top 20 in each event come back to the finals, I think is an attribute to her hard work,” Wayne said. “And, the competition was much stiffer this year than it was last year.”
Other Union County competitors this year included Thayer residents Dallen McIntire in steer-wrestling and Dalli McIntire in pole-bending.
What’s next
In the fall, Emily will begin college at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. She plans to enter the pre-veterinary program and hopes to join the college’s cow-horse team. Her ultimate career goal is to become an equine surgeon.
“Their riding facilities are super nice,” Emily said. “They have multiple, really nice arenas. And, I hope to go into vet school, and their pre-vet program matches the requirements for ... three of my top schools I was looking at for vet school. So, everything just kind of came together really well.”
As far as rodeo goes, Emily hopes in college to push herself past her current abilities.
“I hope to be more confident in my riding abilities and get better and be open to learning even more and see how high I can go,” she said. “There’s college finals, so hopefully we will get there and get to the top again.”