Rylee and Jaida Woody love horses, so much so, that they spend hours every week riding and training their four horses to compete in rodeos, the third generation in their family to do so.
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Rylee and Jaida Woody are
like many sixth grade girls,
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they love horses, but unlike
most, they spend hours
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and hours riding and training their horses
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to compete in rodeos and
they are the third generation
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in their family to do so.
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You're watching the Local News Network
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brought to you by Choice
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and The Overlook at Edgemont
Highlands in La Plata County,
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I'm Wendy Graham Settle.
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Dolores sixth graders
Jaida and Rylee Woody
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share a common bond,
they're fraternal twins.
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They also share a common
passion, rodeo competitions.
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And you might say their
passion is almost genetic,
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their grandmother, Kim
Russell, is a long time
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Montezuma County resident who
has bred and trained horses
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for 40 years.
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She and her brother
founded the Four States
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rodeo competitions held
in Montezuma County,
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and Russell put her granddaughters
on their first horses
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before they could walk.
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By the time they were three
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they were riding horses on their own.
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Today, each girl has two
horses, one for barrel racing
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the other for pole events.
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They also compete in goat roping
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and now they've set their
sights on qualifying
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for the junior national
rodeo finals this summer.
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Like any top athlete, that
means hours of training
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and hours on the road
traveling to rodeo competitions
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with the help, support, and
guidance of their grandmother
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but they say, the investment
in time is worth it.
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I love that how you can just go fast
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and meet new people and all that.
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I just like love being like
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it's like being one with your horse
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till I make a good run
and like having horses
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you can care for and
have like all that stuff
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and like being able to meet
new people and all of that.
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The fastest time that Rylee
and Jaida have clocked
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on the barrels is 15.58
and 15.5 respectively.
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Well, they're pretty evenly
matched at least so far,
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they admit that they each
try to best her sister.
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We are competitively like
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but we love each other when
we like win or something
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'cause we call ourselves the Woody team,
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so I just love like they
almost compete with her
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and having someone always by
your side and cheering you on
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and all that.
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They admit they fight
like any other siblings do
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but the tiffs are short-lived
and when it comes to rodeos
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they're there to support the other.
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When we did goats, we would always like
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when we throw our hands up,
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we'd all fall down and
everybody's like whoa,
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that's the Woody twins.
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Rylee and Jaida will be
heading to competitions
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in Arizona and on the
front range this Spring
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in hopes of performing
well enough to gain points
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toward an invitation to the
junior national rodeo finals
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next Summer.
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To see the Woody twins in action,
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log onto the Montezuma
County Fairgrounds website
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and check out the events calendar.
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If there's a barrel race
scheduled, more than likely,
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the Woody twins will be there.
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Thanks for watching this edition
of the Local News Network,
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be sure to stay up on the latest releases
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with Instagram, Twitter, and our podcasts
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on your favorite podcast app,
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I'm Wendy Graham settle.