story by Ruth Nicolaus
Burgan Torgerson has a beautiful name.
The thirteen year old cowgirl, a resident of Torrey, Utah and a member of the Utah Junior High School Rodeo Association, was supposed to be named Abigail. But when her parents’ friends had a daughter months before Burgan was born, and the girl was given the name of Abigail, Burgan’s dad came up with a different name.
And her middle name is the initial “D.” So if her name is said rapidly, it sounds like the color “burgundy,” which is ironic, Burgan says, because her favorite color is purple.
Burgan competes in the team roping (as a header), the breakaway roping and the goat tying. Her head horse is a fifteen year old sorrel named Charlie, who she loves very much. She also uses Charlie for the goat tying. Her breakaway horse is a gruella mare named Gwen.
As an eighth grade student at Wayne Middle School in Bicknell, Burgan enjoys P.E. class. She is the newly elected social media director for Student Government, plays league volleyball, and has a 4.0 GPA. She is on her school’s high honor roll and is a member of the Junior National Honor Society.
For fun, she loves to go out on Boulder Mountain and hunt for deer and elk. She was with her mom last spring when her mom got a bear. She also loves to boat on Lake Powell.
When she grows up, she’d like to be a radiology technician. Burgan learned about the career when she job shadowed with a friend, and “I instantly fell in love with it,” she said. “I said, ‘oh my gosh. This is where my heart is.’” She has wanted to work in the medical field, but being a radiation tech will be a good fit. “I don’t like touching people, and I don’t like blood.”
This is Burgan’s first year in junior high rodeo.
She has two younger sisters, Kate, who is eleven, and Tylee, who is eight, and a younger brother, Trey, who is two.
She is the daughter of Tyler and April Torgerson.
