story by Ruth Nicolaus
Peyton McKinley competes in the barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, and goat tying in the New Mexico High School Rodeo Association.
The sixteen year old cowgirl, who lives in Las Cruces, N.M., says goat tying is her favorite event because it’s “more of an event you have to do by yourself, other than relying so much on a horse.”
For the goat tying, she rides a horse named Dinero who her dad used to steer rope on. Peyton trained him for the goat tying, and now he is her horse. For the barrels and poles, she rides Princess, a horse her mom trained and pro rodeoed on. “My mom trained her, and my mom trained me,” Peyton said, “so we kind of run the same.”
For the breakaway, she rides Mack, a horse owned exclusively by Peyton. Mack was given to her by a family friend, and he is her “little baby. He is spoiled, and he has everything he wants.”
She is a sophomore at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, where her favorite class of the day is the animals class. Last semester, Peyton took the large animals class, studying the bone structure, nutrition and diseases of equine, bovine, and other animals. This semester, she is studying the small animals. Her school also has a “Paw Spa” – a grooming room through the ag department where the community, teachers and students can bring in their pets to be groomed.
Peyton’s favorite teacher ever was her second grade teacher, Miss Carreon. Peyton struggled in second grade. “At the time, I was having a hard time in school,” she recalled. “I was behind, and she was the one who truly believed in me, that I could get where I needed to be.” Peyton is now enrolled in honors classes, in part due to Miss Carreon’s guidance.
When she grows up, she’d like to be an animal pharmaceutical representative. She enjoys traveling, and helping animals “would wrap it all together.”
She is involved in FCA, and is on the honor roll.
In sixth grade, Peyton won the state breakaway roping title; the next year she won the state pole bending title. As an eighth grader, she won the state barrel racing title, and that same year, she won the ribbon roping at Nationals. She has competed at Nationals every year since sixth grade.
Peyton has a younger brother, Braxton, who is nine and a “huge part of my support system,” she said. “He will open chutes, hold goats, and tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
She is the daughter of J.D. and Brandy McKinley.
