Cowboy, cowgirl ready for high school rodeo

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., August 31, 2007

For those who take it seriously, the sport of rodeo is all-consuming. If you don’t take it seriously, you won’t be successful.

Although they are only 16, Nicole Klinnert and Colton Thorson are seasoned pros on the rodeo circuit, having competed since they were small children. The Fergus Falls teens are saddling up for the Minnesota High School Rodeo this weekend. The children of Wade and Lisa Klinnert and Harold and Kelly Thorson, they are the reigning 2007 Minnesota All-Around Cowgirl and Cowboy.

Hosted by the Town and Country Saddle Club of Fergus Falls, the Minnesota High School Rodeo will take place Saturday, Sept. 1-Monday, Sept. 3, at the Town and Country Saddle Club, five miles east of Fergus Falls on Highway 210. Saturday and Sunday’s events start at noon, and Monday at 9 a.m. Admission is free. The rodeo brings in about 150 contestants, as well as their families. Competitors are in grades six-12.

Rodeo life, as Thorson and Klinnert have learned, leaves little time for much else. Horses need to be cared for daily, stalls need to be cleaned, feed needs to be hauled. Daily practice, or at least groundwork such as roping a dummy, is a must.

“It isn’t like a basketball that you can just throw in the corner when you’re done,” Klinnert said.

Thorson plays football and is a wrestler at Fergus Falls High, but rodeo is priority one.

“I can’t just hang out after school,” Thorson said. “I’ve got to get home and take care of the horses.”

Klinnert used to be in extracurriculars, but quit to do rodeo full time. Being home schooled allows her more time for rodeo and she earns school credit for it.

“Sometimes my friends get angry when I can’t do things with them,” she said. “They don’t realize this is our life. Some people are just school oriented. With the rodeo, it’s our second family. I get to travel all around the United States. Some kids don’t have that privilege.”

Klinnert’s mother, Lisa, appreciates the maturity her daughter has acquired through rodeo.

“It’s taught her so many values and responsibility,” she said.

Klinnert has five horses and Thorson three that they use for competition.

“Every horse rides differently and you have to know how each of them rides to be able to win,” Klinnert said.

Winning isn’t everything, but it makes it more fun, they said.

“You still like what you’re doing,” Klinnert said, “but you don’t always draw the perfect calf or horse and you have to work with that.”

Thorson participates in bareback riding, saddle broncs, steer wrestling, team roping, calf roping and cutting. Of them all, bronc riding is his favorite, simply because, “It’s more fun,” he said.

Klinnert’s events include barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, breakaway roping, team roping and cutting. Goat tying is her preference.

“I get an adrenaline rush from it,” she said. “It’s one of my best events and I get to bale off a horse while it’s still moving.”

“What they accomplish, they’ve done it all on their own,” Lisa said. “They do it all themselves.”

Thorson and Klinnert hope to earn rodeo scholarships to attend college and eventually turn pro.

“Like basketball or anything else,” Thorson said, “you can get rodeo scholarships because it’s a high school sanctioned sport.”

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