Kenlie Raby rode her horse in slow circles in the mud Saturday, calm and quiet despite the country music blaring over the speakers and the man drawling over the loudspeaker, announcing the names of the riders on deck and in the hole.
Several other girls on their horses clustered near the white fence marking the dirt arena, wearing cowboy hats, flared jeans and boots flecked with mud. One complained to the others about the way her horse swings when it turns.
Kenlie says the 80-degree heat before noon doesn't bother her. Neither do the long, late-night car rides to Texas and Wyoming for weekend competitions during the school year, nor do the early mornings -- at least, they don't bother her enough to give up the thrill of rodeo.
At 14, Kenlie has spent more than a decade rodeoing, from riding through barrels in peewee divisions to lassoing calves and goats. Along with her two sisters, she makes up the fourth generation of a 58-year-old family tradition known as the Flying L Rodeo Company.
Kris and Roy Lee left Texas in 1957 to purchase Flying L Ranch in Mount Vernon and raise livestock. As the Lees started their family, Roy Lee's love for horses spilled into a love of rodeo. The couple started producing rodeos, with Roy Lee putting together a pen of bulls and horses and Kris Lee organizing events on their ranch in Faulkner County.
Their passion continued, with the Lees' children competing in rodeos in Arkansas and around the country and raising their own children the same way.
On Saturday, Flying L Rodeo Company hosted its second annual Elite Youth Rodeo Challenge, Arkansas' largest one-day youth rodeo. Situated at the Don Owens Sports Complex in Conway, the competition attracted about 75 participants ages 5 to 19 from several states. Some competitors already have state and world championship titles.
Rodeos can last all day and include events where riders on horseback lasso goats and calves, wrestle steers or work through obstacles. The top finishers of each event compete in a "short round" in the evening, and the rider with the lowest time for that round wins.
Many young riders hope to earn new saddles or scholarship money, and some hope to one day make a living on the rodeo circuit.
The weeks around July 4 are what many refer to as "Cowboy Christmas," with several opportunities to compete.
On Saturday, the Lees' daughter, Barbara Warren, sat with her own daughter, Jesse Moss, in the shade of a motor home canopy. They watched the arena from across a plastic table that held score sheets listing participants' names and hometowns, which ranged from Benton to towns in Tennessee, Texas and Florida.
Moss said she never had a free weekend growing up. Though she never participated, she loved watching her siblings and cousins compete.
"Once, I asked my mom why we never had a family reunion," Moss said with a laugh. "She said, 'We have one every weekend.'"
Many young rodeo contestants are third- or fourth-generation cowboys or cowgirls.
For Myles Neighbors, the 18-year-old 2016 National Little Britches Rodeo world champion steer wrestler, there was never a question about whether he would ride and rope.
"My grandpa rodeoed when he was young, and my dad rodeoed, and now I rodeo," he said.
Neighbors likes the thrill of steer wrestling -- riding his horse alongside a steer about a foot shorter, then leaning over, sliding his right hand down the steer's neck, then shifting off his horse and tackling the steer.
He compared the adrenaline rush to going out on the field during a football game, but he said rodeo is different.
"There's no other sport that you're gonna go out, you can be winning first, and your friend can come up and you're gonna be pushing their calf and be right there beside them, or be loaning them your horse, anything," he said. "In football, you're friends with all the people on your team, but there's no teams in rodeo."
Kenlie said her family will take along a friend or two to out-of-state competitions if they need help hauling horses and supplies. She likes seeing new places, like a mountain arena in New Mexico.
"It's like a road trip," she said.
The Raby sisters and their cousins balance weekend rodeo competitions with high school classes, basketball and watching Grey's Anatomy. Aubrey Lee, 14, said she saves her weekend homework for the first block of school Monday. On hot days after school, she waits until the evening and practices roping using the lights from her front porch.
"You do get tired sometimes, but when it's the love of your life, you don't really get tired of it," Aubrey said. "It's a blessing."
At the arena, Kenlie's horse stood at the fence, waiting. Then the gate opened and her horse shot through it, weaving through a row of poles before turning around in a quick figure eight, knocking down three poles and kicking up a cloud of dust on the way to completing the route.
In less than 15 seconds the event was over, and Kenlie walked her horse back to rest and get ready for the next event as the announcer offered encouragement over the loudspeaker.
"Tomorrow will be a new day, sister, and you can hang your head high."
Metro on 07/02/2017