story by Ruth Nicolaus
Oaklie Sanders loves shoes, tack for her horses, high school rodeo, and the mountains.
The seventeen-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Taylor, Utah, owns about thirty pairs of shoes (including boots), loves to shop at Smith and Edwards Tack Shop for her horse, and enjoys going to the Mountain Green-Cottonwood area near Morgan, because the mountains “get your mind off everything.”
She is a member of the Utah High School Rodeo Association, where she competes in the barrel racing, pole bending and breakaway roping. For the barrels, she rides a green ten-year-old horse named Cletus. When the Sanders family got Cletus, he hadn’t been around the barrels very often. Oaklie is putting time on him, getting him seasoned. “It’s just a matter of taking him to different places and getting him used to rodeo. He has his ups and downs but when you see improvements, even if it’s things that other people might not notice, it means a lot.”
Her pole horse, Goober, is a former barrel horse who really likes the poles, and has his rider placing in the top ten. When Goober, a bay, is fresh, he wants to buck and play.
Oaklie’s breakaway horse, Rowdy, tracks a calf as long as his rider needs it. The roan “is going to get me to the calf and keep me there.” Rowdy is unlike Oaklie’s former breakaway horse, Tennessee, who “gave me two shots then shut me down. It helped me to learn to get the rope out of my hand quick.”
The senior at Fremont High School is taking all of her classes this semester through Weber State. When she graduates from high school, she’ll have twenty college credits accumulated, almost all of her general education classes, including English and math. After high school graduation, she will attend Weber State and live at home. She’s unsure of her major; she has considered accounting, echocardiogram technology, interior design, things that interest her.
In high school, she is involved in FBLA and is on her school’s high honor roll.
Oaklie loves to shop and find bargains. “I’m all about deals,” she said. It stresses her out to spend money, so she checks stores’ websites and social media sites for sales.
Her favorite foods include her mom’s raspberry pretzel pie, Ben and Jerry’s chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, unsweet iced tea and Dr. Pepper.
She has competed at state finals every year since sixth grade. Last year, she competed in the barrels and breakaway and qualified in the pole bending but didn’t compete due to an injured horse. Her sophomore year, she competed at Silver State in the breakaway.
She has two younger siblings: her brother Gradie who is twelve, and her sister Averie who is ten.
She is the daughter of J.C. and Dustie Sanders.
