story by Lily Weinacht
Sage Kohr nearly didn’t compete in the WHSRA this season. The 18-year-old senior from Gillette, Wyoming, tore her ACL playing basketball last fall and was told it would take 4-6 months for her knee to heal before she could ride again. Sage didn’t play basketball over the winter, but she recovered from reconstructive knee surgery and was back on her horse by April for the first of the spring high school rodeos. Despite missing several fall and winter rodeos, she qualified for the NHSFR in barrel racing, breakaway roping, and pole bending, and she was given the Governor Award as the senior with the most year-end points. “I’ve been so much more grateful to be at all the rodeos, because you realize how quickly that can be taken away from you,” she says.
Having competed in her first barrel race when she was 17 months old, Sage is right at home in the arena, especially working alongside her mom, Lynn Kohr. Lynn started her rodeo career in the 1980s and trains barrel and pole horses, along with competing in futurities. “I love my horses and the friends that I’ve made doing rodeo, and I love doing it with my family. All of us go—my mom, Lynn, dad, Marshall, and my sister, Cedar, and brother, Stratton. Cedar is a junior and Stratton is a freshman. They’re both in high school rodeo with me, and we usually take eight or nine horses. We take two trailers—I drive one and my mom drives the other.
“My mom has been an inspiration for most of my life, and Curt LaDuke has been essential in my roping. He’s taught me everything there is to know about a rope, and about horsemanship in the box and how important that is,” says Sage. “Barrels and breakaway are my favorites. Barrels I’ve done my entire life, so it’s very comfortable for me, and in breakaway, I love the adrenaline rush.”
Sage didn’t start high school rodeoing until the end of her sophomore year, when she decided to forego cross country and track to focus on rodeo. “At the time it was a really hard decision, but now I know I made the right decision, but I do miss them,” says Sage, who was the state cross-country champion her freshman year. She was also the state champion in track and field her sophomore year, and her school’s basketball team was the reserve varsity state champion her junior year. Rodeo is her main sport now, and Sage practices daily with her siblings and their mom, who runs chutes for them and coaches. “Both the horses I’m riding this year have been a blessing from friends. I lost my really good horse a year ago in the spring, and since then I’ve been jump-riding everything that came my way. Then one of my really good friends, Karen Gleason, gave me her good barrel horse, Blackie, and he’s awesome. He only has one eye but he’s great about it. Callie and Lori Robinson have leant me their breakaway horse, Cuervo, and my pole horse, Raindrop, is one that we raised.”
Sage graduated from Thunder Basin High School in May as valedictorian, and she’s attending Montana State University on a rodeo and academic scholarship this fall to study pre med. “I’m really interested in becoming a doctor, and I will do barrels and breakaway. I’ve always loved Montana, and when I went up to visit the school, I fell in love with it.” Before the next chapter of school starts, Sage plans to enter futurities this summer, and she and her mom and brother went to New Mexico for the first time in June to compete in the Best of the Best Timed Event Rodeo. “I’d love to win a national championship,” she finishes, “but I’m just really blessed to be able to compete at Nationals!”
