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  • Verden High School junior James Boyer, above, is shown as he competes in the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association event held last weekend. Boyer hopes to pursue a professional riding career.

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March 16, 2010

‘This ain’t his first rodeo’ Area student competes in OHSRA

LARON SHORT

As his parents watch from the stands, James Boyer, a junior at Verden High School, lasts eight seconds on a bucking horse without a saddle.

At one point, the 18-year-old is knocked over the horse's left side but still manages to latch on with his legs, coming only a few inches from hitting his head on the metal gate.

"It's very scary. We just pray a lot," Terrie Boyer, James' mother, said. "But he loves this; he loves the adrenalin."

With a score of 57 from the judges, Boyer placed third in the bareback competition Saturday, the first event of the day.

"It's disappointing that I came in last, but I just have to keep preparing and getting better," Boyer said.

But this is far from Boyer's first rodeo.

According to his parents, Roy and Terrie, Boyer has been racing competitively for about four years, although this is his first year participating with the Oklahoma High School Rodeo Association.

"He grew up around horses and stuff. We've been following local rodeo for awhile," said Roy Boyer.

Boyer, who plays both baseball and basketball in school, plans to follow high school and local rodeo circuits and hopes to eventually pursue a professional riding career.

The point system for competitive bareback horse riding is broken down into two parts.

Out of 100 points possible, 50 points come from judging the horse and the other 50 points come from judging the rider and how he or she interacts with the horse.

In bareback horse riding, the contestant must stay on the bucking animal for at least eight seconds.

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