story by Ruth Nicolaus
Malia McCloud has a unique name.
People sometimes stumble over the pronunciation, which is “Mah – Lee-Ah” but she doesn’t mind. In fact, she likes it. “Nobody has the same name as me,” she said. “It’s kind of nice.”
The thirteen year old cowgirl, a resident of Bluffdale, Utah, competes in the Utah Junior High School Rodeo Association. She is a barrel racer and pole bender and hopes to add goat tying this spring. For the barrels and poles, she rides a sixteen year old mare named Tabby, “the sweetest horse ever,” she said.
She also competes in 4-H speed events, shows horses, and is training three more horses for the barrel racing, with help from her mom and grandma. For the western pleasure, reining and showmanship, she rides Rooster, a sorrel gelding.
Malia is an eighth grade student at Summit Academy, where she enjoys yearbook class. For the 2016-2017 yearbook, she is responsible for the student life pages. She is on the honor roll as well.
Malia enjoys cooking and will often start dinner if her mom is running late. She likes to bake, especially cookies, cakes and brownies. She makes a mean chocolate chip cookie, and likes to make white cake with white frosting. Each Christmas season, she helps with her family’s annual Cookie Party, where they make dozens of cookies.
When she grows up, she’d like to be a large animal veterinarian.
She has a sister, Jacee, who is nine, a half-brother, Tate, who is sixteen, and two step-brothers: Logan, age thirteen, and Sawyer, who is ten.
Her mother Josie McCloud and her boyfriend Ray Brande, along with her dad and step-mom Gary and Angie McCloud, are very proud of her.
