{"id":9278,"date":"2016-11-11T18:52:30","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T18:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9278"},"modified":"2016-11-11T18:52:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T18:52:30","slug":"students-first-love-is-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/11\/students-first-love-is-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"Student\u2019s First Love Is Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JONOTHAN KANE<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Kali
Kali Castle poses with one of her prized rodeo horses. Photo courtesy of Chris Frank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kali Castle, a senior at Wood River High School carrying a 3.7 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, loves horses. At WRHS, besides competing in rodeo, Kali is a member of the volleyball team and president of the Humanities Club.<\/p>\n

Riding since she was a toddler, Kali\u2019s first love is horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t judge you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re pretty or smart. It\u2019s always been an escape and a way to deal with stress at school. I love animals and being around them and out in nature with them. They are just so different from humans in the way they interact and communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kali\u2019s father grew up on a farm and also had horses when he was young. It\u2019s a family tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was little, we used to go on pack trips to lakes,\u201d Kali said. \u201cMy earliest memory was at three, leading the packhorse while I was riding. I told my dad I didn\u2019t need help and I was so proud that he let me do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kali\u2019s family currently owns 10 horses, five of which are hers; four are for rodeo and one is her trail horse. In rodeo, she competes in five events\u2013\u2013calf roping, steer roping, barrel racing, pole bending and goat tying.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalf roping, or breakaway roping, is when the calf comes out of the chute and you chase it and rope it around its neck,\u201d Kali said. \u201cIn steer roping, you work with a partner as a team, with one person roping the head while the other ropes the feet. Pole bending is running your horse slalom through poles.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Kali excels at goat tying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made it to state the last two years for that event,\u201d she said. \u201cI enjoy jumping off a horse while it\u2019s running. With practice, you can get faster and faster each time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kali started in rodeo at the tender age of 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved horses and loved being around them all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI started with barrel racing and pole bending because they were the simplest and had the most basic steps. You have to learn to sling a rope before you can start competing, so it wasn\u2019t until I was 13 that I started roping.\u201d<\/p>\n

She competed at county fair rodeos and did well for a beginner. At 8 years old, she won her first barrel race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited that I bought a framed photo of me and it was the first time I won money, so I was pretty stoked,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I learned roping, which I picked up pretty quickly. You spend a lot of time working on the ground before you get on the horse. I was two places out of making it to state my first year. I was a little discouraged but I didn\u2019t get all the technicalities down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Kali competes in 12 rodeos a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just a competitive person,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in this sport, you don\u2019t go against an opponent. Instead, you are working with a 1500-pound animal who might be having a good day or a bad day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: <\/b>Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact Jonathan Kane at jkjonkane@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JONOTHAN KANE Kali Castle, a senior at Wood River High School carrying a 3.7 grade point average and a member of National Honor Society, loves horses. At WRHS, besides competing in rodeo, Kali is a member of the volleyball team and president of the Humanities Club. Riding since she was a toddler, Kali\u2019s first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-schools","8":"category-sponsored","9":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}