story by Ruth Nicolaus
Mericia Van Pelt makes a pretty good travel buddy.
The Fredrick, Colo. cowgirl travels with her mom, Amy Smith, as Amy competes as a professional barrel racer.
But when she’s not with her mom, Mericia is a pole bender and barrel racer in the Colorado Junior High School Rodeo Association.
Mericia, who is thirteen years old, considers pole bending her strength of her two events, mostly because of her horse, Ellie. Ellie, a twenty-year-old mare, is special to the family, because she’s been around a while; she was Amy’s high school barrel horse. Mericia uses her for both events. The family’s plan is to retire Ellie next year, and she will high school rodeo in the barrels only, on one of her mom’s horses.
An eighth grade student at Erie Middle School, the best part of school is lunch. School “isn’t really fun, but I have to go.” She likes studying history but her favorite class so far has been an elective last semester that she did not want to do: piano. “She wanted out of the class,” Amy said, “and I told her no, she should try new things and then she liked it.” Mericia also plays the guitar.
The cowgirl, alongside her parents, Amy and Justin Smith, run a Tik Tok account with 115,000 followers and an Instagram account with 25,000. The accounts, mostly horse-based, are used to help younger audience members with horse tips. Mericia helps with then as well; they post about ten stories a day. “There’s an audience that enjoys watching Mericia on a daily basis,” Amy said.
Even though Mericia helps with the family’s social media, she hasn’t had a phone for the last ten months, and she doesn’t mind it. Her parents feel social media isn’t always healthy for youngsters.
“I really think social media given to kids at malleable ages is part of the toxic negative base that we’re seeing in a lot of our youth,” Amy said. “Covid was hard on them, and they were online learning, and it didn’t help. It was isolating.”
Mericia misses having a phone, but she knows it’s beneficial for her. “I feel it’s the best for me.” She can see the differences herself. “I can see how I open myself up more (with her family) and I have a personality that’s not social-media based and doesn’t have anybody else’s influence.”
Amy realizes the no-phone discipline might not work for everybody. “It’s not everybody’s path but it’s working for us right now.”
The best food Mericia’s dad makes is spaghetti (her mom isn’t much of a cook). Her favorite dessert is chocolate cake, and her favorite fruits and vegetables are carrots and apples. She loves to wash it all down with a root beer, and if she were given $1 million, she’d give $100,000 to her mom, build a house right next to her parents, and “buy more horses.”
The most fun vacations Mericia has had are the family trips to Utah for rodeo. She loves going to the restaurants and loves visiting the national parks: the Arches, Zion, Mesa Verde, and more.
Not only is she a good travel buddy for her mom as her mom pro rodeos, but she cleans stalls, saddles, and does social media creation, too.
She competed at the state junior high finals last year, finishing the season in ninth place in the poles and in the top thirty in the barrels.
Mericia has a younger brother, Trigo, who is ten.
