story by Siri Stevens
McKenna Coronado defended her All Around title at the National High School Finals. “It gave me more of a desire to win it a second time – it drove me to not only focus on what I was there for but to earn it again.” Kenna made it to NHSFR in the cutting and pole bending – last year she made it in four events, but due to a series of horse problems, she was only able to make it in two events. “It’s been a rough few years with horses.” She didn’t have a solid barrel horse to compete on and relied on younger horses all year.
“My breakaway horse flipped over on me last September and hurt herself and me- so I was competing on a younger horse too, so that didn’t get me where I wanted to be.” Her pole bending horse coliced last February and she had only run him at state finals. “The rest of the year I was running a green five year old who is capable, but not as reliable as he is yet.” She was able to take her good horse to Nationals. “I just wanted three clean runs and that’s what he gave me.”
Her strongest event is cutting – Kenna’s parents, Becky and Mike, met at a cutting. “That’s all we raised for years. I didn’t start rodeoing until my seventh grade year.” At Nationals, however, her first go didn’t go as planned. “It was frustrating the first go of the cutting – I got ran over – I came back in the second go with a fire to do something.” Even though she didn’t get points the first go, her points from second go took her to the All Around again. “Coming back from winning it last year to getting run over was hard for me. I had to look at it that I had the opportunity to be there and that was what I focused on.”
Kenna graduated high school with a 3.9, and is four credits short of her associates degree. She is heading to Utah State University and will enroll in pre vet. “They have a fast track program, so after two years I will be done and headed to Colorado State University for the last two years.” She plans to specialize in large animals. “I get too attached to dogs – not that I’m not attached to horses – but I’ve had plenty of horses to deal with.”
Due to the demands of college, Kenna is not going to college rodeo. “Vet school is hard and I need to focus on getting my degree and hopefully haul to the NFR one year and have some fun at that.” Her horses will go with her to college and she hopes to enter jackpots and close rodeos as time allows.
Kenna has three brothers, Dason just got married, Kagen is serving an LDS mission, and Kanden just started high school. All of her brothers rodeoed – all starting with cutting. They live in Kanarraville, Utah, a small town near Cedar City. They are close to the mountains, and like to spend time together hunting, boating, and trail riding.
She is excited about the next chapter of her life. “I’ll miss my little brother – he goes everywhere with me.” Even though her rodeo career will slow down for a bit, she intends to do it again someday and wants to thank her family, Shaun Tree, Kelli Thouvenell and her sponsors for all their support over the years.
