story by Ruth Nicolaus
Ashlyn Henderson is about to take to the roads. The cowgirl, a resident of Hyannis, Nebraska, and a member of the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Association, is working on getting her school permit. That will allow her to drive the four miles to school each day. She’s had plenty of practice at driving, but has been studying for the written test.
When she’s not studying, she’s doing all the girls events in rodeo, including the goat tying (her favorite), barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, team roping (heading for Brodey Hund) and ribbon roping (running for Jate Saults.)
She has four horses for her events. Streakin Flit, an eight-year-old sorrel, is her barrels and pole horse. Honey, a thirteen-year-old buckskin, is her goat tying horse. Her uncle, Mike Henderson, owns her other two horses: Nicki, her breakaway horse, and Zacchaeus, her heading horse. Of her horses, Honey is her favorite, in part because goat tying is her favorite event, and because Honey “is a sweetheart. She’ll do anything for me. She takes care of me.”
As an eighth grade student at Hyannis High School, she loves history class. They discuss current events, which she enjoys. Her favorite teacher was Mrs. Daly, her sixth grade teacher, because “she was fun, and she understood if we were having a rough time with something.”
In her free time, Ashlyn likes to play volleyball and hang out with friends. Her favorite TV show is CSI-Miami, and her favorite movie is Pitch Perfect. She loves to shop, and she and her mom often travel to Rapid City to the mall, where she loves to go to Rue 21. Her favorite meal her mom makes is homemade macaroni and cheese, and her favorite school lunch is Italian dunkers (breadsticks and spaghetti sauce.) She loves string cheese, Mountain Dew, and chocolate ice cream with angel food cake.
The best trip she’s taken was to the National Junior High School Finals in Lebanon, Tennessee last year. She noticed the differences in climate, soil and vegetation: Tennessee has a lot more trees than western Nebraska, and the soil is more clay-like than what is found in Hyannis.
She’s glad she can lean on her family for help. Her Uncle Mike goes with her to all the rodeos, and her grandma Carolynn and her Aunt Jeanne love to watch her compete. And her mom, Casey, drives her (till she gets her school permit, and later, her driver’s license), wherever she needs to go.
Last year, Ashlyn finished fourth in the state in the goat tying and competed at Nationals, where she finished in the top thirty in the nation.
When she grows up, she’d like to be a child psychiatrist.
