She grew up on horses.
Kali Schilling can remember riding horses on trail rides with her mother, Karen, as a child.
The 16-year-old from Zwingle, Iowa, has since graduated to riding horses all by herself in high school rodeo competitions.
Schilling will be among the approximately 150 teenagers from Iowa and Wisconsin to compete in the sixth annual Dubuque-Wisconsin High School Rodeo this weekend at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds.
"Just being in the environment is a lot of fun," Schilling said.
There will be 13 events, including bull riding, roping, steer wrestling and barrels.
Schilling will compete in many events but will focus on the barrels with her horse Whoopie to maintain her high standing in the event.
"I like barrels because I like the speed," she said. "It gets my heart racing."
Schilling also will run for the title of Wisconsin High School Rodeo Queen in June with her horse Tate, which she raised from a foal.
Schilling's mother was a founding member of the River Rodeo Committee
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The sixth annual Dubuque-Wisconsin High School Rodeo will be held at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, and noon Sunday, May 17, at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds horse arena. Tickets are $5 in advance at Theisen's in Dubuque, Dyersville and Maquoketa, Iowa, Longhorn Saddlery in Dubuque, and FS Town and Country in Epworth, Iowa. Tickets at the gate are $7 for adults, $3 for children ages 7 to 10, and free for children 6 and younger. The Dubuque River Rodeo will host "Are you tough enough to wear pink?" Everyone is asked to wear pink at Saturday's 7 p.m. performance, where the first 200 admissions will receive a pink bandana. For more information, contact Ginny Henneberry at 563-879-3507. |
"It was just a group of parents that got together," she said.
The Iowa families with children in the Wisconsin High School Rodeo Association formed the committee in early 2004. The first Dubuque-Wisconsin High School Rodeo that was held later that year broke the families in hard.
The sky dumped 7 inches of rain that weekend on the outdoor arena.
"The arena looked like a bowl of chocolate pudding," Karen Schilling said. "The contestants and arena personnel were a muddy mess."
This year's competition shouldn't have a muddy arena. The weather forecast calls for sunny skies.
