story by Ruth Nicolaus
Layne Zaharias is in his last year of competition in the Utah High School Rodeo Association.
The seventeen year old cowboy, who does the cutting, lives in Bluffdale, Utah, and rides a fourteen year old sorrel named Jewel for his event. She’s small and works well, he said. “She moves really quickly, and fast, and likes to get down deep in the dirt.” She’s also sassy. “She likes to have her way.”
He is about to finish his senior year at Riverton High School, where this year has been good. His hard classes are out of the way and he’s been able to take some fun classes, including woods, where he made a cedar chest and a night stand, and auto class, where the students work on their vehicles. However, he’ll be glad to be done with high school. “I’ve been ready to be done since tenth grade,” he said.
Layne plans on attending college but isn’t sure where. He hopes to get a business management degree and work with his dad in the family construction business. He can run nearly any piece of equipment the company owns, and spends his evenings and weekends driving a front end loader, backfilling holes. He works between twenty and forty hours a week, and tries to save his money, but it can be hard. Some of his earnings go towards fuel. He and his girlfriend like to splurge and eat at Texas Roadhouse, where his favorite meal is prime rib and a loaded baked potato, all washed down with a Dr. Pepper.
Layne has competed at state finals the last three years and has qualified for this year as well. He made it to the National High School Finals last year, and loved it. “It was an awesome experience. Just meeting all the new people from all over the country, not only this country, but Canada and Australia. It was a neat experience.”
He has three younger brothers: Gavin, a sophomore, Dawson, a freshman, and Kazen, who is about six weeks old. So far, Layne has escaped diaper duty. He is the son of Shane and Heidi Zaharias.
