They can compete
Barrel racer Kylie Gilbert races around the last barrel on Sunday at the 10th annual International Indian Finals Rodeo in McGee Park Coliseum in Farmington, N.M. (Times photo - Donovan Quintero)
ABOVE: Barrel racer Kylie Gilbert races around the last barrel on Sunday at the 10th annual International Indian Finals Rodeo in McGee Park Coliseum in Farmington, N.M. (Times photo – Donovan Quintero)
Haven, Edgewater win world championships in adult competition
FARMINGTON
If there is one thing Kaitlyn Haven and Sharaya Edgewater learned about themselves as newly crowned world champions it’s that they can.
Haven won the world title in breakaway roping and Edgewater earned her world title in the ladies barrel racing at the 10th annual International Indian Finals Rodeo held Oct. 9-12 at McGee Park.
Haven, 17, and Edgewater, 16, didn’t just earn their first world titles in their respective events but learned that they can compete with adults.
“It’s really eye opening that we’re able to compete with this talented group of ladies,” Haven said. “I’ve gained a lot of confidence and it’s also a very humbling experience.” Haven, who attends Window Rock High School, qualified for the IIFR for the first time this year under the Central Navajo Rodeo Association.
She said with every rodeo she competed in this season she did her best to prepare for the IIFR.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s so surreal,” she said. “It was a big goal of mine. Every time I went to a CNRA rodeo I would try to make sure I rope my calf.”
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow