Advertisement

BELLAIRE - I was supposed to meet her at 9 a.m. And right on the button, Emily Hill pulled up in a shiny red Chevy pickup wearing blue jeans and a brown, broad-brimmed cowboy hat befitting of a rodeo champ.

I wanted to meet Emily because last June she became the first girl (and only the second person) to ever qualify for the high school rodeo nationals in all seven events. That's not just the first girl from Michigan, that's the first girl ever, from anywhere.

Think of it in terms of a track athlete qualifying for the national meet in every event - shoveling your driveway with chopsticks would probably be easier. Which is why until Emily came along, no one had ever done it before.

The nationals were held in July in Springfield, Illinois, and Emily received a special honor from the association president in recognition of her achievement.

"I was really excited," she said. "When I just thought I was the first girl from Michigan (to qualify in all seven events) I thought that was a big accomplishment, but then the national office called and said I was the first girl from anywhere to do it. I never pictured me being the first."

Rodeo isn't one of the better known sports in Michigan, but it's governing body, the Michigan High School Redeo Association (MHSRA), gives kids plenty of reasons to saddle up a horse. For every point that a participant earns in a competition, the association gives the student $1 in scholarship money. The scoring in rodeos works like a track meet: first place gets 10 points, second place gets 9, etc. In her four-year career, Emily has amassed almost 3,500 points, which not only means she's finished in first place a lot of times, but also that she'll have a nice start on paying her college tuition bills.

The life of a rodeo champ isn't all shiny belt buckles, however. Emily gets up a 6 a.m. Every morning before school to feed her horses. After school, she does two hours of chores and then practices with the horses for another two hours. Then she does her homework and goes to bed. And that's just on the days when she doesn't also work at the Kalkaska Animal Hospital after school until 5 p.m. Emily is also the class president and a member of the National Honor Society.

"(Rodeo) takes a lot of dedication if you want to do well and succeed," Emily said. "You have to put a lot into it. Horses don't get in shape by themselves."

That work ethic was apparent in Emily from a young age according to her coach, Denny Youngdyke of Central Lake. They met when he sold her two horses and offered to teach her how to rope as part of the deal. Emily was 13 at the time.

"I wish I had a dollar for every person who has said they wanted to learn to rope but gave up when they realized how much effort was involved," Youngdyke said in a written statement. "Our arena (is unheated), so when it's 10 (degrees) below zero outside, it's 10 below inside. Emily was undeterred. There are many easier pursuits for teenagers on cold winter nights, but Emily made the choice to travel more than an hour each way, sometimes through blizzards, to rope more than twice a week.

"She dreamed of being the MHSRA All-Around Cowgirl."

Emily's passion for horses is a trait that runs in the family. She's been riding since age three and competing since age five. Her younger sister, Mindy, is a freshman at Kalkaska and also competes in rodeo and on the Kalkaska equestrian team. Emily credited her two older sisters, Jennifer and Megan, as getting her involved with horses.

Megan, a corrections officer at the Kalkaska County jail, even lets Emily use her horses in competition. "Megan has definitely supported me the most with everything that she does," Emily said. But that support comes with a little sibling tradeoff: "She's put me in handcuffs a couple times," Emily explained with a bright smile.

One of the reasons Emily enjoys rodeo is because of its familial environment. "The people involved make it fun," she said. "You get to know everyone pretty well.

"We cheer on everyone even though we're competing against them. "It's a really fun association (MHSRA)."

In February, members of MHSRA are putting on a "Cowboy Prom" in Frankenmuth. Emily also travels around the state to expos and promotes rodeo.

Emily hopes to compete in rodeo as part of a college team, and she can see rodeo being a part of her life for a long time to come.

"I will always have horses," she said. "Horses kind of grow on you. You get into it (rodeo). It's definitely fun."

Besides her interests in rodeo, Emily has aspirations of becoming a pediatric nurse. Her path to achieving that goal will no doubt be filled with challenges and difficult choices, but her experiences with rodeo have prepared her.

"Life is about choices," Youngdyke said. "Choices to be a champion, or to take the easy route.

"Emily made her choice to do what it takes to be a champion."