Rising rodeo star aims for rookie title

LOCAL rodeo star Adanni Walker has been on the road for the last five months touring Queensland on the rodeo circuit. Adanni says she has achieved quite a lot of what she'd hoped for this year, winning highpoint junior cowgirl in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association (APRA), coming in third in the finals for average juniors, competing open, finishing second in stand ins and will now be taking to the road again on the back of her recent success to take on the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) open finals. The APRA NFR open finals aren't for another month, but Adanni will be once again touring the Northern rodeo circuit on her way to the big dance. These will have been Adanni's first Northern tours, competing at Charters Towers, Mount Isa and Townsville, to name just a few. Her horse Doctor carried Adanni to a second at Cloncurry, Australia's single highest paying rodeo. Returning from her Northern run, Adanni competed at the National Barrel Horse Association (NBHA) national finals, where she was able to bring home the win. Two weeks ago, Adanni was able to bring home two saddles from the Australian Barrel Horse Association (ABHA) in Tamworth, a competition that ran for almost a week. She was very happy with her performance there, winning maturity, describing her success as a "pretty big deal", as Adanni was able to come home the winner over almost 400 other entrants. Her horses Doctor and JoJo carrying her to victory in the maturity and second divisions. With all that time on the road, some may get sick of being away from home, but not Adanni, who's mother is there by her side the whole way through. "It's been a really good year, I've been really lucky, my mum's the one carting me all around." "People always ask me who I travel with and how I get around everywhere but I'm so lucky I've got my mum." Adanni says she feels very lucky to have the support of her whole family behind her, and feels it helps to propel her to the successes that she's seen so far. She has been very happy with her horses this year, their performances speaking for themselves. Adanni will be going for her rookie title this year, an award open to those who have competed the whole season, the winners is determined by the participant with the most points or most money won throughout the season. "There are a few girls around including myself that will be going for it this year, so I'm trying to get to as many rodeos as I can". Adanni's first stop on her next tour North will be the Bourke APRA rodeo, and Euroa wishes her the best of luck in her bid for her rookie title.