Legends are being made this weekend at the legendary Mount Isa Mine Rodeo, and they are women, and they are from all over Australia.
- Leanne Caban from Emerald is one of the country's best cowgirls. She leads the national standings this year, and she's the current Mount Isa All Round Champion. This weekend she's hoping for three-in-a-row Mount Isa All Round titles -and she has her legendary horse in AKKA DAKKA to do it. She and 'Akka Dakka' are also the current Mount Isa Barrel Race champions. Her rodeo mantlepiece is bulging with trophies, and she's a mentor to hundreds of young girls choosing rodeo careers across the country. MOBILE 0407 574 323
- Fellow Emerald rodeo rider, Emily Howkins is the current Australian Champion Ranch Bronc Rider, and earlier this month in Cheyenne in the USA, she just came 5th in the world! MOBILE 0455 551 447
- Julie Campbell from Bonshaw in NSW is a former APRA Australian Barrel Racing Champion and Mt Isa winner, and is currently on the board of the Australian Barrel Horse Association.
- Shona Tribe from Hallsville in NSW is a former Mount Isa Rodeo Barrell Race champion and is on the board of the Australian ProefesionalRoad Association.
- Sam Ferrari is from the Macedon Ranges in Victoria – at her second Isa Rodeo. She's competing in the Open Ladies Barrell race – on her horse Paint Boy MOBILE 0439992720
- Dakota Brandenburg - stock contractor to rodeo! She started hauling bulls aged 13, the start of a career which saw her awarded the Australian PBR Stock Contractor of the Year in 2017 as a 21-year-old. She brings the bulls that make rodeo!
- 10-year old Charters Towers girl Dusty Young – Junior Barrell racer – her dream is be as good as Leanne Caban one day!!!
These girls are on fire!
Emerald's Emily Howkins has had her fair share of biting the dust. This 30-year old Bronc Rider is one of only a few in Australia, and this weeked, she rides at the legendary Mount Isa Mines Rodeo, after flying home from America, picking up a saddle in her hometown, and then getting to the famous red dirt arena at Mount Isa in time for her chute to open and that famous 8 seconds to start! And she's determined not to bite the red dust of Isa!!
Emily started her love affair with horses as an apprentice jockey but after being bucked off seven times in a single chilly morning in Toowoomba by a particualry spirited Thoroughbred, and fracturing her kneecap, she decided to learn how to ride horses that buck"!
Turns out, she's actually really really good at it!
So good that she's the current Australian Champion Ranch Bronc Rider, and earlier this month in Cheyenne in the USA, she just came 5th in the world!
Probably still nursing jetlag after traveling around the USA competing, Emily will ride in the Local Station Buck Jump, and she can't wait.
"I thought I had a crack at the world title after the first day in Cheyenne at the Worlds," she said. I rode a great horse, and was feeling really great. Then on the second day, I drew that one horse – an 'eliminator' – that we all knew was there in the pen, and no-one wanted. His name was ChromeZilla and he beat me good!" she said, speaking about biting dust from a great height as though she's just lost a computer game! "I still came fifth which means my first ride was a ripper."
Emily, like 99 per cent of cowboys and cowgirls, especially Aussies, is extraordinarily humble. Her voice excited when she talks of learning to buckjump. "I trained at Saddle Bronc School at Gatton and learnt confidence, toughness, and how to read and respect a horse."
It's where legends are made - Mount Isa Rodeo Festival
The world famous red dust of the legendary Mount Isa Rodeo in the Queensland Outback has called riders and ropers for 65 year. This rodeo has opened the chutes, set the barrels and tightened the girths on the best cowboys and cowgirls in the country – and it's continues. Mount Isa Mines Rodeo is the Southern Hemisphere's largest rodeo and the third largest rodeo in the world, and this year champions return to battle for the famous buckles, newcomers will become legends, juniors will rise up, eight seconds will seem like a lifetime and the heritage and importance of rodeo in the Outback will be celebrated. But there's more: riders are coming from across the world to literally throw their hats in the ring.
Mount Isa Rodeo Festival:
All information and TICKETS ON SALE: Mount Isa Rodeo - Australia's Most Spectacular Rodeos
