Hello! I’m Cheyenne, for those of you that don’t know me personally, continue reading.
I’m 17 years young, with two awesome parents. You probably know them as Donna Olsen and Travis Hatfield. The crazy lady on the big sorrel quarter horse at every barrel race and the crazy guy on a blonde quarter horse at every Cascade Cattle Club event! That’s just the begining of people who support me. There’s also Cynthia, who married my dad 8 or 9 years ago.
Where do I start from here?
I grew up on horses. The first one I had was a bay quarter horse gelding, whom I named “Mr. Dot”. From then on I pestered my parents for horses here and there. The first horse I rode at the old O.B Riley facility was ‘Pete’. Old members remember him as the little paint pony.
Then came ‘Dandy’, the best horse I’ll ever own. That’s a fact. Dandy took me through so many lessons. He taught me respect and love for the sport. I will never forget the day my mom asked me if I would let a 5yr old boy ride him for the events at a playday. Let me remind you, this is the red roan I rode, the one that absolutely LOVED running. He’d get so excited, the only place to put it was in those spotted legs of his. Of course, I raised an eyebrow and said..”Um..no”. Eventually she talked me into letting him come out for some practice rides. We saddled up and walked around together in the field for hours. Then she talked me into letting him try and ride at the next playday. I responded “Um..No!”, but you know how that is. The day of the playday comes & I was sure that something terrible was going to happen. Soon they announced “Buckaroos, please be ready for barrels!”… I was terrified. “Wyatt & Dandy you’re on deck”… near panic by now. ”Wyatt, you’re in the hole.”…This isn’t going to be good. “Wyatt, you’re up”…straight to the finish line, and I swear Dandy was just about to fall asleep. I thought to myself ‘This isn’t going to be so bad..He’s not even awake!’. Then came the ultimate test, is he going to be okay? That horse had me fooled. Wyatt couldn’t even get Dandy to trot! Dandy refused. Suzy Page, was the back up timer for this event also became the part time ‘clod thrower’. Dandy would go so slow that Suzy would reach down and grab the closest clod and chuck it in his general direction. I lost Dandy about 3 years ago. Our vet, who just happens to be my uncle, suspected that he was about 33 at the time he died. He took me where no one else could, and I’ll always be missing my Dandy boy.
Jack is a blood bay Appendix quarter horse. This is the horse I’m riding to represent Rim Rock this year. My uncle gave him to me when Jack was 5. Soon after he injured his back legs and was out for a year. I started riding him when he was 6, Jack is now 8. He’s an amazing horse, and I’m proud to say that I’ve worked very hard on him! I’ll admit, he’s a goofy horse, but I’ll never get rid of this boy!
I’m currently riding for Mt View High School’s Equestrian Team, which Mackenzie also rides for. I’m involved in riding with Cascade Cattle Club. Have I told you that horses are my life? If I am not at home or at school, I’m usually out riding.
Now that i’ve written a shortl novel, I just want to say how proud I am of Rim Rock! We have a very nice facility that I hope helps us grow even more! I’ve grown up with a lot of you and I hope I meet a lot more horse lovers like myself! Remember to keep checking our blog, I’ll try and update twice a week.
Thanks for reading!
-Cheyenne.