Mini Mag Feb 16 2021

Her rodeo scholarship provides housing for one horse, but Hughes keeps both horses at school. “I keep Effie on an exercise program, but I only rope a couple calves on her before a rodeo,” Hughes said. “Although Effie is getting old, I take good care of her. I think she’ll last two more years of college rodeo. Then Ziggy will work right into her place.” Intending to graduate from the two-year NEO this spring, Hughes is uncertain where she’ll continue her education. “I sure plan to college rodeo two more years, but I just haven’t decided what school I’ll attend,” she said. Summer months will be filled on the rodeo trail. “I intend to go hard on the ACRA circuit with most of those rodeos being in Oklahoma,” Hughes said. “There are a lot of jackpot breakaway roping events too so I’ll also go to as many of them as I can.” Kansas High School Rodeo Association breakaway roping champion as a senior, Hughes was fourth at the National High School Rodeo Finals. Her youth rodeo career featured a number of yearend awards in several associations. She’s pretty much a one event cowgirl at this time. “I have entered a lot of rodeo events through the years, but I concentrate on breakaway roping nowadays,” Hughes said. “My college classmates want me to head in team roping and I might try some later on.” Looking to the future, Hughes said, “I’m uncertain on my career plans. I am interested in equine rehabilitation which would be a perfect complement to continuing to compete on the rodeo circuit.” While her 2.4-seconds ACRA Finals breakaway run is almost a snap of a finger, she’s been faster than that. “I had a 1.7-seconds run at the NEO Recruitment/Alumni Rodeo. I’ve had a few other runs just under 2-seconds,” Hughes remembered. “That sounds fast, but you have to be in order to win these days.”