“I’m my own one-man team with the best partner I could ask for, my horse” states Emma Brungardt. Emma has been training, riding, and competing with horses as long as she can remember. All those years of experience and hours of hard work has shaped Emma into a reputable horse trainer.
Stepping out of her comfort zone, she has started competing in rodeo. The events Emma participates in are goat tying, barrel racing, and break-away roping. Emma exclaims, “I haven’t had much experience with goat tying, so I've face planted a few times!” With each Rodeo, she gains more confidence and experience improving her scores. At Emma’s last Rodeo in Hill City, she improved her most unpracticed event, goat tying, by a few seconds.
When asked about her experiences being in rodeo so far, Emma had nothing but praise to describe it. Going into detail about how much fun she had and all the new people she met. Emma told me during our interview, “Everyone’s so nice and eager to help you out, it's so fun.” So far Emma is the only participant in the rodeo for Valley Heights. When asked if she would recommend joining, she said, “Even though it’s a lot of hard work, it’s all worth it in the end.” Emma even plans on participating in Rodeo for the remainder of high school. She is currently training for her next rodeo meet at Border Bash on March 25-27th 2022.
Article By Taylor Crook