story by Lily Weinacht
Jr. Boy World Flag
Racing Champion
Hermosa, South Dakota, native Trevor Hartshorn took home his first NLBRA world title this summer after winning 2018 NLBRA Junior Boy World Flag Racing Champion. Trevor, now 14, went into the NLBFR in the top 10 in the flag racing standings, and won second in the first two rounds and fourth in the short round. “I kind of felt confident, but it really surprised me when I did win,” says Trevor. “My favorite thing at the finals is the short round—it seems like everything is more intense in the rodeo.” He also enjoyed spending time with his friend Jack Rodenbaugh, the 2018 NLBRA Junior Boy World Champion Bull Rider, while his own world champion buckle has a home on the shelf in his room, and he rides his world champion saddle.
Trevor and his 8-year-old brother, Levi, are the third generation of their family to rodeo. Levi competes in the Little Wrangler division, while their dad and grandpa both team roped. “I look up to my parents, Travis and Jennifer Hartshorn, and my grandparents, Donna and Lyle Hartshorn. They help me a lot with travel expenses, entry fees, taking me to practices—just about everything,” says Trevor. Along with flag racing, he competes in team roping, ribbon roping, bareback steer riding, goat tying, and breakaway roping. He finished eighth in the world in the bareback steer riding, and seventh in the world and sixth in the average while team roping with header Pepper Rhyne. “I like to rope a lot—I really can’t pick a favorite—and it’s really fun with the adrenaline,” explains Trevor, who is heading this year for Landry Haugen. He’s also competing in the SDHSRA for the first time this year, and enters 4-H rodeos.
Friday and Katie Jane, Trevor’s pair of 18-year-old mares, helped him win the series all-around cowboy title in the Badlands Little Britches this year before carrying him to the NLBFR. “Friday was trained to be a barrel horse, so we thought it would be a good idea to flag race on her, and Katie Jane is my rope horse. They did a lot better this year since we’ve been to the Finals before.” Trevor’s family also runs cattle, and he’s working on his own cattle operation. “I have seven cows right now, and I’m selling eight calves in November—the most I’ve sold before that was four. I’m pretty much just seeing where it goes.”
A freshman at Custer High School, Trevor does well in math and algebra in particular, though he admits it’s not his favorite subject. He prefers playing basketball, which he’s done since fourth grade, and starts practicing with the Custer High School Wildcats in November. “It keeps me in shape for rodeo. Normally the winter is my off time, but sometimes I enter team ropings in the winter. I also do a lot of leather work. My dad helps me, and I’m making knife sheaths most of the time. I haven’t sold any yet, but I’m planning on it,” says Trevor. “I have one more year as a junior, and I want to do a little bit better in the bareback steer riding this year, and all the roping events.”
