story by Ruth Nicolaus
Addison Powell is such a good hand, so reliable and hard working that she’s already doing daywork for area ranchers.
The cowgirl, a member of the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Association, helps pair out cows and calves and during brandings, goes with her dad, Zane Powell, roping and wrestling calves.
A resident of Keystone, Neb., Addison competes in the pole bending, barrel racing, goat tying and ribbon roping (as a runner for Hudson Ebemeier.)
Her barrel and pole horse is an eight-year-old bay named Maui. She and her dad did most of the training on him. He is a good horse, she said, but he’s ornery, because sometimes “he likes to chew on your hair.”
Her goat tying horse is a fifteen-year-old dark bay named Billy, who likes his job. He can be stubborn, but some days he’s well behaved. Her rodeo horses are often used for ranch work, which is good for them. “It keeps their minds off the arena.”
An eighth grade student at Ogallala Middle School, the best part of the school day is when the bell rings to go home. But she does like algebra class: “I just really like math,” and she enjoys learning from her science teacher, Mrs. Sudbeck, because “she’s really nice and we do a lot of projects to help us learn,” she said. Her least favorite class is reading; she’s not big on reading.
Addison competes in volleyball, basketball, and track, which is a mental game, she says. In track,she does the high jump, 400m and 4x400m relay. She is on her school’s honor roll.
She loves to hunt pheasants and mourning doves; the dove breasts are delicious, she said, when her mom wraps them in bacon and cooks them.
The best meal Addison’s mom Colette makes is steak with mashed potatoes and corn. Her favorite fruit is strawberries, plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar, and she loves to drink Bubblers, any flavor. Her favorite movie is “Top Gun,” the newer version, and the best trip she’s taken was to Tarpon Springs in Florida, with her family and friends four years ago. She loved the beach, the swimming, the dolphins and the calamari.
Addison is the proud owner of a Red Angus heifer, named De Nice, and the heifer’s new calf, Bob. Her parents gave her the heifer to start her college fund. Right now the cow and calf are staying at her grandparents’ ranch, but when they come back to the Powell ranch, she’ll be responsible for feeding them.
The family has three dogs and four cats. The dogs are Dakota and Bexley, both German Shorthair pointers (Bexley is a puppy), and JC, a dachshund mini. Their cats are Bandit, Smoky, Bongo and Socks.
If Addison were given $1 million, she’d buy barrel and roping horses and put up an outdoor arena.
This spring, she’s been busy at brandings, wrestling and roping calves. She often works for the neighbors. They stop by and pick her and her horse up in the morning, and she goes to work. “She just loves being on the back of a horse and doing that kind of thing,” her mom Colette said.
Her parents love their girl: “She’s a hard worker,” Colette said. “We love the fact that when she gets on her horse, she’s a total different person. She’s chill.”
Addison competed at state finals the past two years.
She is an only child, which has its advantages, till her parents are mad, then she’s the only one that is available to get mad at. “Then you get yelled at,” she joked.
When she grows up, she’d like to be a veterinarian.
