story by Ruth Nicolaus
Rylee Legg is a strong proponent for high school rodeo.
The Kenesaw, Neb. cowgirl, in her second and final year as a member of the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association, didn’t begin high school rodeo till her junior year, but absolutely loves it.
If friends asked her what is so good about high school rodeo, “I’d say you should do high school rodeo because you’ll meet lifelong friends and learn lots of important lifelong lessons, like if you work hard, results will come.” And another lesson she’s learned is, “not everything’s always going to go your way but you have to keep pushing.”
The eighteen-year-old participated in 4-H horse events beginning at age ten, but it was a comment from a girl from whom she bought a horse who encouraged her to try high school rodeo. “I tried it and I like it a lot,” she said.
She competes in the pole bending and barrel racing and considers poles her strongest event, mainly because of her horse.
For the poles, she rides a fifteen-year-old palomino gelding named Jax who thinks “he rules the world,” she said, “and he definitely gets treated like a king.” He’s not very big, “but he’s very catty and super turny and he can weave through the poles pretty well.”
For the barrels, she’s just getting a start with a new purchase, a gelding named Rayban who was trained by Camryn Kocian. The seven-year-old bay is the opposite of Jax. “He’s very to himself and doesn’t like any attention.” He’s small, standing at 14.2 hands, but “he has a really big stride for how small he is.”
She just finished her senior year at Kenesaw High School, where she will miss being with her friends. Her favorite class this year was large animal management, taught by Mrs. Meyer, who “is super nice and always willing to help me,” she said.
In high school, she participated in volleyball, basketball, track, and was a member of the FFA and the National Honor Society. She was on the A Honor Roll this year.
For fun, Rylee likes to hang out with friends at Harlan Lake near Alma, tubing, hanging on the beach, and enjoying s’mores.
The most fun she’s had on a trip was going on a cruise to the Bahamas four years ago with her family. She loved scuba diving on the trip and seeing the ocean creatures.
If she had $1 million to spend, she’d build a big barn with a living area, complete with kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
This fall, Rylee will attend Southeast Community College in Lincoln to study radiology. She hopes to be an X-ray technician and continue to run barrels.
She has an older sister, Jaci, who is 24, a younger brother, Will, who is 16 and into dirt bikes, and a younger sister, Danelle, who is twelve and will follow in Rylee’s footsteps in rodeo.
She is the daughter of Troy and Kari Legg.
