It all started when she was just a little girl, but Poplar Bluff’s Alonna Haley was all about rodeo and so began a romance with the arena.

Haley ultimately advanced from mutton busting as a little bit to slowly evolving her interest in rodeo as she matured and before you knew it, was rodeoing to represent her hometown.

When things got serious, so did Haley who ultimately decided to become a collegiate rodeo participant and she moved on to Three Rivers College right in her own backyard where she is now a freshman for the Raiders, who just completed the first half of the 2022-23 season. The season returns in March.

Three Rivers head coach Chad Phipps said that Haley is a hard worker who may be inexperienced, but she has learned to adapt.

“She’s made a lot of accomplishments this semester and has a lot more confidence in herself,” Phipps said. “Her barrel horse had to have major surgery a couple of weeks ago and that was an emergency situation that took her horse away from her at the last rodeo. She got on another horse they had and she was able to put it behind her.

“I have a lot of respect for her because she is working hard to become better and an asset for her team. She has improved every week. She has a great attitude – she will never get down if she doesn’t good. She just smiles and says she’ll fix it and will get better next time. That’s something you can’t put into somebody – a good attitude.”

Haley is a barrel racer as well as a participant in breakaway roping and it all started with joining family at rodeos as she was roped into it.

“I was enjoying it,” Haley said. “I really love horses. It was really fun to me and to be able to do something on the weekends and be around my family and the community. I always have pets around me. I have umpteen dogs and little animals.”

Then high school took Haley from circuit involvement into a more serious focus. However, she didn’t get rolling until her sophomore year as a Lady Mule.

“It kind of clicked one day and I wanted to be good at this,” Haley said. “As a I got older, I thought I may want to make a career out of this, so I decided I had to get better.

“High school was fun and there were a lot more people close to my age and had more people to talk more about it. I started out with just barrels and poles and then my senior year I started doing barrels, breakaways and poles.”

When she was looking for colleges, she focused on Three Rivers since it was closer to home and she could still work with her horses. Haley also knew Phipps and that didn’t hurt.

“I was very excited, and I didn’t expect any colleges to call me and they were the first ones that did,” Haley said. “It made more sense to me. I was really excited to be a part of a team. High school wasn’t really a team thing.”

Of course, the college game is a whole new type of rodeo.

“It’s a harder competition and there’s a lot of good people going against you,” Harley said. “They are so good. I am lower on the food chain since I haven’t been doing so well. My horse just had surgery and so I just have to start practicing more than I have.

“For breakaway, I have to rope as much as I possibly can. I need to rope my dummy 24-7 and always have a rope in my hand. I am bad at roping my dummy. For barrels, I have to ride my horse more and go to more races.”

Haley’s biggest challenge is to overcome the nerves that overcome her at times.

“When I get to the rodeo, my brain blanks out because I get so nervous because I want to do so well,” Haley said. “I need to tell myself what I need to do and go to into the arena and remind myself. That usually makes it better.

“I feel good about the spring. My next objective is to catch all my cows without breaking the barrier and push him all the way in barrels. I think I can do that.”

Alan Dale - Daily American Republic