Nevada Jones has a new blanket to keep her rodeo horse warm this winter.
The eight-year-old cowgirl and her horse won it fair and square last weekend as local high point champion in the junior division at the Little Britches Rodeo at Nukko Lake rodeo grounds.
"I kind of really didn't expect it. It was kind of weird to win it, it's really exciting," said Nevada, who dominated her division by posting top-10 results in pole bending, goat tail tying, barrel racing and dummy roping.
"I wasn't expecting to do well in goat tying (she was second) and I was happy to get third in poles, that's my favourite event," she said. "My friend Tess (Rawlings) had the same goat and it was so bad for her. It just stood there."
In the junior division, competitors range in age from three to 10.
Last year, Fallon Jones, Nevada's older sister, won the junior high point saddle at Nukko Lake. Now 11, Fallon has moved up to the senior age category and while most of the competitors are older, she's doing exceptionally well.
At Nukko Lake, she finished in the top-10 in all her events, including a win Saturday in the breakaway roping. She also placed in barrel racing, pole bending, and goat tail tying. As a senior, this is her first year of snagging live steers in breakaway roping after three years of lassoing dummy steers and she's liking it.
"Breakaway is my favourite event," said Fallon.
Fallon currently ranks second in the Little Britches provincial season standings in breakaway with one weekend left, the provincial finals in Falkland, Sept. 16-17. Both Jones girls plan to compete in Falkland.
Sponsored by Pipe Dreams Custom and Tim Hortons, the two-day Nukko Lake event drew close to 70 competitors. Taylor Fitchett of Armstrong (junior division) and Ryan-Spur Reid of Savona (senior) each won saddles as the overall high point winners. Allaina Proctor of Nukko Lake also posted top-10 results in multiple events while winning the local high point senior (10-15-year-old) championship.
In other local results, Payden Hinton was second in goat tying on Saturday, and also placed in the top-10 in pole bending and breakaway roping. Clay Thiessen finished second in senior boys breakaway and also cracked the top 10 in his other events.
Unlike her mom Christine, a competitor last year in the World Series team roping championships in Las Vegas, Nevada doesn't feel the need to stand at the fence to watch Fallon compete in her events and that was indeed the case at Nukko Lake.
"I don't watch her because me and my friends are out playing," Nevada said. "I did see her breaking (breakaway roping) once."
Sibling rivalry aside, Fallon says she tries to watch Nevada perform whenever she can.
The Jones girls live on a ranch in Pineview next to their grandfather Gary Suter's property. Suter, a longtime team roper and rodeo rider, showed a few tricks to a group of nine kids who were sleeping over at the house for the weekend.
Nevada and Fallon practice constantly in their free time and sometimes they don't just rope domestic animals.
"I sneak up on (Fallon) and try to rope her sometimes," said Nevada.
"I've heeled her a couple times," added Fallon, referring to the success she's had snaring her younger sister around the ankles while she tries to run away."
Other local cowboys and cowgirls who entered were Abby and Amelia Greenwood, Cara and Lyndsey Houchen, Nadia and Katelyn Lockhart, Braden Harris, Tyer Clarke, Sunny Cooper, Mesa Passey and Sienna Fiberg.
