story by Siri Stevens
Shay Hough has been winning the pole bending at several Wyoming High School rodeos and has added winning the barrel racing to that list. The combination landed her as the Wyoming High School All Around champion and she headed to Nationals in both events.
The 16-year-old junior from Gillette, Wyoming, only had to drive 17 miles to compete at the CamPlex, and the drive was worth it. She went into the Finals in two events and took home the National High School Girls All Around Championship. She came in second in poles as well.
Going into the short round, she wasn’t thinking about the All Around. “My goal was to win the title in the pole bending, I didn’t have the All Around in my head at all.” She was third in the average and both girls before her knocked poles. The only one who could beat her did, by .1 second overall. “I was really upset at first; then I had to run barrels.” She came into the short round in 13th place and they blew the first barrel. “We went to the award banquet to get the award for poles and it turns out I got the All Around. I was surprised – especially when you see people coming here in five events.”
She owes a lot to her horse, Tex, who does both the poles and barrels. “You just have to know how to ride him,” she said. The horse came from Mattie Hepp in Gillette, who helped her learn how to get with him. “Tex and I just clicked. When I got on him, I could tell he was going to be a fun horse.”
This is her second year in high school rodeo. Last year she made it to Nationals in the pole bending and brought home an 8th place. “Last year my very first run I was so nervous I didn’t make a run up to my potential, so this year, I told myself not to get so nervous. I had my cousin with me before every run and she would give me a pep talk and I told myself it was just another rodeo.”
Shay has rodeoed since she could ride, competing in barrels, poles, and goat tying when she was younger. “I started to breakaway in seventh grade and am going to add that and goat tying back into my events this next year.”
She spends her days either riding her horses or hanging out with friends. She has two more years of high school and when she’s done she knows she wants to go into the medical field but can’t decide what. “I’m a people person, and that would be a good fit.”
She has a little sister, Grace, 6, who is going to be in first grade and follows her older sister’s footsteps. “She already ropes better than me.” Her mom, Holly, rodeoed and her stepdad, Gibby, has never rodeoed, but knows how to run the video camera. Holly, along with Shay’s cousin (Sara Reed) and her grandmother, Betty Hough, help her the most. There will be a congratulations party for her during the county fair in a week.
