story by Lily Weinacht
Knickerbocker, Texas, native Kallie Montalvo is competing in her third season with the AJRA. The 13-year-old enters the breakaway roping, goat tying, and ribbon roping, sitting in the top five of all her events. “Goat tying is my favorite, and I like competing with other people and with my horse. I have a lot of friends at the AJRA rodoes,” says Kallie. “I look up to my dad. He rode bulls, and he always makes me work hard so I can be better. I’ve been to several of Lynn Smith’s schools, and she’s helped me with getting my tie faster and posting on the go, and getting off my horse faster.” Kallie’s mom, Natalie Montalvo, adds, “Lynn is so inspirational. She has a couple of clinics in Texas for returning students, and it’s normally the same twelve girls that Kallie competes with. We continue to be impressed with Lynn and how she also teaches them about being a good person.”
Kallie started competing seven years ago, inspired by her dad, Philip Montalvo, who has worked on ranches and competed in high school rodeo growing up. “I like the competition and the traveling, and I like to work hard so I can see myself get better,” says Kallie. She has competed in several Joe Beaver ropings, and her hard work took her to the TJHRA state finals, where she set a personal best time of 7.09 in the goat tying and finished second in the first-go, placing twelfth overall at state finals.
She is the youngest of three, and her two sisters, Kizzie and Kindra, now grown with families of their own, are very supportive of her rodeoing. “They’re a really close group, and if the rodeos are close enough to watch, they come out,” says Natalie. “The whole weekend of state finals they watched the live feed and were really cheering Kallie on.” Also part of the family are Kallie’s horses. She ties goats off of Molly, and ropes on Jewel. Molly started out as Kallie’s barrel and pole horse, but when she switched to roping events, Kallie trained the mare for goat tying. “I’m training another horse right now, Golden Boy, to be my backup goat and breakaway horse. He’s eight and he’s doing really good.”
Kallie will be an eighth-grader at Christoval School this fall, and she particularly enjoys animal science. Her basketball team, the Lady Cougars, was district champion, while Kallie also runs cross country. “We’ll go to the Frio River for a week or so in the summer and go camping, but I have to limit trips because of practice for rodeos. I like to watch movies while we’re on the road. I like all kinds, and my dad is a big fan of John Wayne.” Natalie adds, “Kallie is very family oriented, and she practices all the time. She loves her friends, and she loves being home.” Kallie’s goal is to continue rodeoing through junior high and high school and compete at the college level in breakaway roping, as well as studying to become a veterinarian.
