Halle competes in barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying, ribbon roping, and team roping. This year, Halle started team roping in the KJRA with her sister, Kya. They each switch from heading to heeling for one another. Halle is coached in her events by her parents and also by Jessica McMillan. Halle’s dad, Mark Johnson, helps her with her roping events since he competes in team roping as well as tie down roping. Halle’s mom, Michelle Johnson, also team ropes in addition to barrel racing.
The Johnson family lives in the country on 80 acres outside of Bennington, Kan. Halle is the oldest – her sister Kya is 12 and her brother Hunter is five. Both Kya and Hunter compete in the KJRA. Halle has three horses that she rodeos with. Beamer is a 14-year-old mare who Halle does barrels and poles on. Tank is her breakaway horse, and Colonel is the team roping and goat tying horse that Halle shares with her sister Kya. The Johnsons also keep Black Angus beef cattle, cowdogs, and cats, along with steers, calves, and a goat for roping.
A student at Bennington Middle School, Halle is in the eighth grade. Her favorite subject is English. “I like to write stories and I love to read,” she says. She enjoys reading adventure stories, and she just finished The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth. When Halle is not lost in a book, she enjoys playing guitar and clarinet. She plays clarinet in band at her school, and during the school year she also plays volleyball, runs track, and does cheerleading. Additionally, Halle is involved in 4-H, having shown sheep and dogs for the past five years. She also competes in the horse events and has won the breakaway roping at state fair for the past two years.
Recently, Halle won her very first team roping check at a HYRA (Heartland Youth Rodeo Association) rodeo. Other highlights of her year include coming in fourth in the barrel racing and second in the breakaway roping at the American Royal Invitational Youth Rodeo. She also won the open and youth buckles in barrel racing at the Labor Day open rodeo in Brookville. In 2012, Halle and her sister Kya competed in Gallup, N.M. at the NJHFR, with Halle placing 22nd overall. One of her goals is to compete there again. “I want to make it to nationals in multiple events,” says Halle. Her other future goals include rodeoing through college and beyond, as well as becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
