By Lily Weinacht
Piper Davis, 4, is full of life. She doesn’t have a slow speed, her mother Lindsay describes. “She doesn’t understand what walk means when she’s on a horse. She likes to run run run everywhere, all the time.”
And a horse is the perfect vessel for Piper to live to the fullest. Pretty much her entire family is involved in rodeo, and Piper has been on a horse since she could hold herself upright, maybe before then.
Her mom runs barrels and her dad Braden tie down ropes and team ropes. Piper has a younger sister Presley, 3, and a newborn baby sister Poppy.
The family lives in Peru, Kan., while Lindsay stays with the girls, and Braden works as a pipeline welder. They rodeo every chance they get.
Piper loves a sense of humor, especially her own.
“She’s wild, and she thinks she’s the most hilarious thing in the world- she’s always laughing at herself,” Lindsay says.
She likes to dance around the house, and she likes to dance at the rodeos when they’re playing music. She likes to sing too.
But Piper’s favorite thing is to rodeo, competing in flags, goats, barrels, and poles in the Northeast Junior Rodeo Association.
Of her chosen events, Piper’s favorite event is probably poles, though she has a hard time deciding.
“I love it [seeing people and winning money]. Poles and goats is the best part,” Piper says of the NJRA.
“She has a pony named Sparkles that she runs barrels and flags on, and she’s got another pony named Queenie that she runs poles on, and they’re pretty fantastic on the poles. She runs anywhere from a 25-27 on her, and everybody just loves to watch her run, and she also ties goats off of Queenie,” Lindsay explains and adds with a laugh, “ She’s been trying to take over my barrel horse, she runs her at the house, but she’s not quite ready to take her away from the house yet.” Piper probably has the most horses of anyone in the family. “She kind of rules the roost right now,” Lindsay jokes.
Rodeo and a commitment to the horses has been something this lifestyle has instilled in both Piper and Presley.
“Having horses in general has taught my girls a lot of responsibility. They feed their ponies, because they told me that I don’t do it right apparently, and there are some days that I don’t saddle them right or put their boots on right or what have you,” Lindsay laughs.
“They know what kind of work it goes into it. When I pick her up from school she’s ready to go ride and sometimes in the mornings, she’s ready to go ride before I’m even up, so it’s taught her how to work hard.”
Unsurprisingly, questions about Piper’s favorite things outside of rodeo still go perfectly back to the sport. Her favorite food is hotdogs, and her favorite movie is 8 Seconds. She’s quick to chime in that Kellie’s horse was named Crawford in the movie.
The Davis family loves being a part of NJRA. “We’ve got a good atmosphere, the people we NJ with, everybody roots for everybody else,” Lindsay says.
And no doubt, Piper will spend the summer on her horse at the NJRAs- she’ll just make sure she does it as fast as she can.
