Brooke Howell

My granddaughter, Brooke Howell, lives near Belle Fourche. Like her mother, my daughter Shanna, who went to college on rodeo scholarships (Title 9), Brooke is an extraordinary horsewoman and athlete. So are her sisters (she has three).

Last week (June 20-24) she and her older sister, Bridget, competed in the SD High School Rodeo Assn's finals in Belle Fourche. Point leaders in each event proceed to the National High School Rodeo in Rock Springs WY in mid-July.

I found good vantage points and shot about 1000 images of mostly girls competing in barrel racing and pole bending and breakaway roping (which were events in whic my granddaughters were competing). I shot most everybody and posted them here.

Barrel racing provides lots of opportunity for good action shots, and people will buy the good ones. I took three shots of each run, maybe more, and about 10-20% of the shots are what I'd call good. The first shot below, for example, has an awkward feel to me.

 

The next shot, though (below), is just pretty damned good. The horse's legs are in good position, the rider is in control of her balance, and there's dust and motion blur.

  

The same picture cropped to essentials, is an album picture for whomever is in it.

The third shot of the same run as above again looks a little awkward. This run put Brooke in the lead in barrel racing. Her time was eclipsed about two minutes later.

The previous photos were shot Friday evening, June 22. The next series was shot Saturday morning, June 23. Brooke rides again.

 

And again I managed to nail one good shot out of the three.

 

Brooke will represent Belle Fourche High School at Rock Springs in July in Breakaway Roping. I'll post more pictures later.