story by Ruth Nicolaus
Jordan Peterson is in her final year of high school rodeo.
The Nebraska High School Rodeo cowgirl, who lives on a ranch north of Arthur, Neb., competes in the goat tying, barrel racing and pole bending. Of her events, she considers goats and poles her strengths.
For the goats, she rides a gelding named Gusto, who started life as a ranch horse. Four years ago, she made him into a goat tying horse, which works. “He’s taken to it pretty well,” she said.
For the poles, she rides a mare named Maggie, and for the barrels, she’s on her sister’s horse Studley. Of the three, Gusto is her favorite “because I’ve been with that horse since before I was in high school rodeo. I ranch off him,” she said.
As a senior at Arthur County High School, she enjoys school. The best part, for her, is learning new things. She loves her ag classes, and has two of them: ag ethics and soil science, where she can differentiate between soil and dirt.
The worst part of school is all the homework. She usually has homework in college English, chemistry, and personal finance and careers. She loves her personal finance class, because it’s real-life, she said. “I can take something away from it, and use it in the real world.” She’s not a fan of the college English class, however. Students have been assigned a lot of writing, “and writing and I do not get along.”
For fun, Jordan and her friends go to the movies and out to eat in Ogallala They also cruise the streets of town, looking for cute guys, and there are a few there, she notes.
The best food her mom makes is enchiladas and her favorite dessert is Death by Chocolate, which is delicious, she said. Jordan loves sweets.
The best trip she’s taken was to Ft. Robinson, in northwest Nebraska. The family took their horses and went on trail rides at Ft. Rob.
Jordan has three sisters: Heather Peterson, Audra Johnson, and Morgan Rufenacht.
She is the daughter of Rich and Jayne Peterson.
