story by Ruth Nicolaus
Jozee Sheffield’s favorite things are horses and cattle.
For the horses, it’s Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo.
For the cattle, it’s showing them at county fairs.
The thirteen-year-old cowgirl, a barrel racer and breakaway roper, lives near Farnam, Neb. and is in her final year of junior high rodeo.
For the breakaway, she rides a fourteen-year-old bay gelding named Roy, who is also her sister’s heel horse and is easy-going. For the barrels, her mount is a nine-year-old blue roan mare named Royal, who is “one of a kind, really,” Jozee said. “She’s definitely more spazzy and has her crazy moments, when she gets over excited.”
Both horses are home-raised by Jozee’s great-granddad Roland Sheffield, who has bred and raised quarter horses for years.
Jozee’s second love is showing cattle, which she has done since she was eight years old. This year, she showed a Charolais cross steer named Calf at the Frontier County Fair. The 1,250 lb. animal earned a second place purple in his class, and she earned a purple in showmanship.
She also shows horses, and this year at the county fair, won an all-around buckle for the barrels and poles with Royal and the other events with Roy.
An eighth grade student at Medicine Valley High School in Curtis, the best part of the school day is lunch, she said. Science class is her favorite, but grammar and reading are at the bottom of the list of favorites.
The best school lunches are orange chicken, chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes, pizza and burritos. She’s not a big fan of reading, but if she had to read, she’d like to read a book about rodeo.
In school, she is involved in FFA, plays volleyball and basketball, and in track, throws the discus and runs the 4×1, the 4×4, and the 800m.
The best meal her mom makes is steak on the Traeger grill, with mashed potatoes and corn. Her favorite movie is Eight Seconds.
When she grows up, she might want to be an animal nutritionist or an ag teacher. Jozee has enjoyed her involvement in FFA and that has spurred an interest in ag education.
She competed at the state junior high finals in both sixth and seventh grades, in both of her events.
Her dad loves the “glow” his younger daughter exudes, he said. He loves “her attitude about everything. She’s real eager to learn, and she has a sense of humor.”
Jozee has an older sister, Hallee, who is a junior in high school and competes in high school rodeo.
She is the daughter of Kyle and Denise Sheffield.
