story by Riata Cummings
Britnee Platt is a 17-year-old rodeo athlete who lives on a cattle ranch in Newcastle, Utah. She just finished her senior year at Enterprise High School, where her favorite classes were math and science. Britnee is the oldest of four daughters, and her younger sisters’ names are Teegan, Landree, and Whitlee. Their parents are Rawlin and Julie Plat. Their ranch is a cow-calf operation, typically running around 1000 head of mother cows. Along with ranching and rodeo, Britnee enjoys photography.
With some encouragement from her father and a healthy amount of her own enthusiasm, Britnee began rodeoing as a high school freshman. Britnee competes in the breakaway roping and in the team roping as a header for Hayden Williams. Her breakaway horse is a sorrel gelding that she got at the end of her junior year, Shorty, and her head horse is a buckskin gelding named Allen. Every day after school, Britnee catches her horses and saddles them up. Britnee has qualified for the state finals rodeo in breakaway roping every year of her career, and this year she set a goal to make it back to the short-go and make a run at nationals.
Rodeo teaches you that, “you can get through a lot of difficult things, even the things you think are impossible.” Some of the most challenging times for Britnee were when she was transitioning between horses, trying to adjust to having a new partner. She knows that rodeo teaches athletes a multitude of lessons that can be applied to life, like hard work, respect, and responsibility. Rodeo has helped her develop her work ethic, and she has become, “willing to do anything to improve.” Britnee knows that you usually put in more hours than is evident in your performance, “One day you get to look back and realize how far you have come.” She loves that rodeo gives her the chance to meet new people and develop lasting relationships. “At the rodeo you can really feel everyone’s support; no matter how things go they are there cheering you on.” She has heard the phrase, “We love you no matter what happens in the arena,” countless times from her parents, and is grateful for the knowledge that there will always be someone there cheering her on.
Britnee would advise her fellow rodeo athletes not to give up because, “You win some, you lose some. Getting to where you want to be always takes more time than you think, but eventually you will get there.” She would like to be remembered as a friend and supporter to those around her, and as someone who was willing to work for the things she wanted. Britnee’s hero is her father, Rawlyn, who is always at the rodeo or working to make rodeo a possibility. She would like to thank her friends for their encouragement and her parents for their willingness to help her pursue her dreams.
