The cowboy trail

Some weekends a cowboy or cowgirl just doesn't know where they're going to end up.

But that's the rodeo life, and Rhonda Padilla knows it all too well.

Padilla was one of a hundred or so rodeo participants that made their way to the Navajo Nation Cowboy Days rodeo hosted by the Central Navajo Rodeo Association May 29-31.

And like most cowgirls and cowboys, Padilla chose to attend the rodeo because that's just what a rodeoer does.

"I just kind of pick up a couple here and there on the weekend, I'm not a member of that association," Padilla said. "I like that arena, it's one of the better arenas on the rez. It was on a flyer I saw when I went to rodeo in Lukachukai, Ariz., the weekend before."

The Eastern Navajo Rodeo Association member thought to herself, Why not?

And it's a good thing she did, because in 17.74 seconds on Sunday afternoon, Padilla and her horse Newman won the barrel race.

Padilla said the win took her by surprise because before the race she didn't even know what the prize was going to be - all that mattered to her was that she and her partner made a good run.

The 24-year-old Lake Valley, N.M., native has been to many rodeos since she started when she was 11 years old, and knows how hard barrel racing is compared to a lot of other events.

"It's more, for me, it's the horse, having that partnership with the horse," she said. "You have to come together with the horse, it's just you and the horse.

"With barrel racing you have to get it out of the horse, for both the rider and horse to perform," she said. "It's a lot of work, coming together with your horse."

Working as an accountant and tending to her horses, Padilla has a full schedule so her win of a paid entry fee to the Navajo Nation Fair Rodeo was a big help.

"It's a lot of work," she said. "I give all my energy doing this but it's fun when you actually go to rodeos."

For Crownpoint native Alesia Musket, the rodeo was just another weekend spent with her father, Wayne Musket.

"Me and my dad that's just what we do," she said. "Mainly me and my dad traveling."

The recent Thoreau High School graduate has been given a rodeo scholarship to attend Navajo Technical College.

She said she's excited but doesn't necessarily need to practice for her college debut.

 "They're going help me for college, but I've always been doing rodeo," Musket said.

She is a member of CNRA and was the All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association junior barrel racing rodeo champion in 2005.

Musket said though she didn't do well last weekend enjoying the rodeo is always important, and she also had a message for the little cowboys and cowgirls she saw at the rodeo.

"I didn't do so good," she said, "but I did have fun. I plan to beef up my practice. For all the little kids, try to stick with it even though it's hard at times. It's just the beginning, it keeps you away from drugs and alcohol."

Helping Charmayne Smith out back behind the arena gates was her boyfriend Craig Sells. The two 19-year-olds traveled form Oak Springs, Ariz., to compete in the rodeo. They have been competing for years and used this weekend to see where they stood competitively.

"I wasn't too happy about my run. I didn't hustle my horse as much as I do," Smith said.

She took fourth place in breakaway roping and fifth in barrel racing.

Sells took third place in team roping with his partner Chris Begay.

Sells said he got to see how his newly trained horse Lula performed.

"... the horse I'm with riding now, I trained her myself," Sells said. "She's doing good for me, being patient."

A couple of cowboys who are also learning to be patient are 11-year-olds Malachi Pablo and his friend Shelby Yabeny.

Pablo competes in many events but his favorite is steer riding.

"Because my whole family does it, my dad, grandpa, brother," he said. "I practice on a bucking barrel."

Pablo made the trip from Bloomfield, N.M., and wasn't exactly sure how he did.

His friend, Yabeny, from Shiprock, is also a steer rider but he likes it for a different reason.

"Because it's a rough sport," he said. "It just seemed fun. It's just excitement and entertaining."

But his favorite part of the rodeo was his horse that he named Blue Duck, "because he looks blue and we walks like a duck."

Whether it was the beginning of their rodeo careers or midway through, a handful of rodeoers made the most of the Navajo Nation Cowboy Days rodeo.

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