story by Ruth Nicolaus
Dawson Zaharias is the 2015-2016 Utah High School Rodeo Boys Rookie of the Year.
The Bluffdale, Utah cowboy competes in three events in high school rodeo: team roping (as a header), tie-down roping, and cutting. Of his events, cutting is his favorite and his strength. He’s been cutting since he was young. “That’s what I mainly grew up doing with my dad,” he said.
His cutting horse is a fifteen year old bay whose registered name is Gimme My Sock, aka Walter. The family purchased Walter in November of last year, and the horse is “pretty calm and goes with the flow,” Dawson said.
The fifteen year old cowboy is a sophomore at Riverton High School. His favorite classes are auto class and woods class, and he hopes to restore a 1958 Chevy Apache truck his dad bought for a project. It’s in pretty rough shape, he says, and when it’s restored, he’d like to sell it and put the money towards his “dream truck:” a Dodge 3500. If money was no object, he’d like the truck to be black with tinted windows, a black leather interior, and “some good lookin’ wheels.”
In his first year of high school rodeo, Dawson set the goal to finish tenth in the nation in the cutting, which is exactly what he did. He qualified for the state high school finals in the cutting and finished in fourth place at state. He also competed at state finals in the team roping.
Dawson has two older brothers, Layne, who is married to Savannah, and Gavin. He also has a younger brother, Kazen, who is six months old and has his big brother wrapped around his little finger. Dawson hurries home from school to see him, and has even changed a few diapers, including a messy one. “He’s fun,” Dawson said.
He is the son of Shane and Heidi Zaharias.
