Emilee Mendel closed her high school rodeo season exactly where every competitor would choose to do so. At the National High School Rodeo Finals, held the last week of July in Gillette, Wyo.
Mendel, an 18-year-old 2017 graduate of James Valley Christian High School, earned her trip to Gillette by winning the South Dakota High School Rodeo finals in Pole Bending.
Pole bending is a timed event, which involves a horse and rider sprinting the length of the arena, wheeling and weaving through a set of six poles that are 21 feet apart, then turning and going back through the poles before sprinting back out of the arena.
Competitors routinely complete the course in less than 18 seconds.
“You accumulate points in two regional rodeos,” Mendel said via telephone from Baltic. “The goal is to have as many points as possible going to the state finals. I was near the top and did well enough to make it to the final go-round.”
Mendel won the Huron Regional Rodeo earlier this summer and built upon that success through the state finals through to Nationals.
“It was my first time at Nationals,” Mendel said. “It was such a cool atmosphere - there were competitors there from across the country, as well as from Australia and Canada. I met a lot of new people there.”
She didn’t have the best of luck at the NHSF, but will treasure the memory of her time there.
“I also qualified for the state finals in barrel racing,” she said, “but missed out on break-away roping this year.”
Mendel will attend Lake Area Vocational School in Watertown this year, but is not planning to be a part of the school’s rodeo club.
“My mom (Angela) has a horse boarding business down here and I am helping her, while also working at a veterinary clinic.”
Mendel said that she and her sister Melanie have been in business for the past few years.
“The business is called Top-Notch Performance Horses,” Mendel said. “We have been training horses and Melanie does equine chiropractic treatment. She has a large machine and does adjustments to help prepare the horse.”
Many of the horses in the facility are there for barrel racing training. “I don’t think I will compete with the Lake Area team, but will instead concentrate on running jackpot and SDRA (South Dakota Rodeo Association) events. I probably like barrel racing most.”
She rode a mare named “Jazzi,” to the national finals this year, but nearly didn’t get the opportunity.
“My sister had competed on her and when she was through, there was talk about selling her. I told her that I would love to ride her. Melanie had ridden her on barrels, but I trained her on poles. She did really well on poles.”
In addition to being a business partner, Emilee credits Melanie with getting her started in rodeo.
“She competed in the fast events - like barrels and pole bending,” Emilee said, “I was younger and had been doing Western Pleasure, which is a much slower event. She was giving me a hard time so I just decided to try to do something fast. I did, fell in love with it and never went back. But I wouldn’t have done it without her.”
