story by Lindsay King
Rodeo is all Jayden Steele, a Stillwater, Oklahoma, resident has ever known. She would beg her mom to let her ride after she got home from school and started rodeo when she was five in the Heart of Oklahoma Youth Rodeo Association. Her dad, Joe, went to Panhandle State University to steer wrestle and team rope after dabbling in it during high school. Jayden grew up learning how to ride on her dad’s old rope horses who she would rein around the barrels and poles at home. Chester, a half Quarter and Paint cross gelding, was her first official rodeo horse after she graduated from the old rope horses. He did everything: barrels, poles, breakaway roping and heeling. Jayden is talented with a rope, she can both head and heel. However, breakaway roping is easily her favorite event. “It’s a feeling you can’t really describe when you go out there and make a two second run. It happens so fast that I sometimes don’t even realize it happened right away. It is different than any other rodeo event.”
Sugar, an eight-year-old buckskin Quarter Horse mare, is her favorite mount, partially because she is a breakaway horse. Jayden and Sugar happen to share the same birthday, May 1.
Jayden bought Mongo, a 13-year-old sorrel Quarter Horse gelding, in 2012 as her next barrel horse and managed to qualify for the NJHSRA nationals. Later, in 2014, while getting Mongo back into shape she then qualified for the Little Britches finals in barrels. In 2016 she qualified in both poles and breakaway roping, making it back to the short-go for a heartbreaking miss on her final calf.
One of her greatest rodeo accomplishments was receiving the Aaron Custer Award while attending Rodeo Bible Camp-Camp of Champions in 2015. “That was a really big honor, I had been going to that camp for eight years when I received that.” Jayden is homeschooled through Epic Charter Schools while also completing two years of a pre-engineering program through the Meridian Technology Center. Jayden has changed her mind and plans on becoming an elementary teacher. She aspires to attend Oklahoma State University and be on the rodeo team after graduation next May. Jayden is musically talented, playing both the piano and guitar as well as singing. Jayden maintains a job at Cimarron Animal Clinic in Stillwater.
Jayden’s little sister, Jessi, eight, is her biggest fan. While her mom, Jalinda, video’s Jayden’s runs Jessi can be heard cheering. When Jayden was six years old, she started roping the dummy and tracking steers at home. She ropes with her dad both in practice and at USTRC events. “When I was younger, he worked at the OSU range and I would go with him every morning to check cows.” Jayden says her parents have had the biggest influence on her life. She has a special bond with both of them, whether it is through horses with her dad or Bible study with her mom. “Both of my parents have put me in a position that makes me better at rodeo. Practice at the Steele house starts at 6:30 p.m. when everyone gets home from work and lasts until dark. Though Jayden is mainly focused on breakaway roping, her second priority is team roping. She is heading in the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association at the moment on her horse Star, a 14-year-old black Quarter Horse gelding. “He is one of the most mannerly horses I have ever been around, he is so sweet.” She likes the OKHSRA because of the people she has met and the support they provide her at rodeos. “You just make such good friends when you rodeo and everybody has your back. Everybody just wants you to do your best.”
