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Nine-year-old Mamou Elementary student Aubree Guillory is seen competing in barrels (first photo), goat tieing (second photo), and poles (third photo) at her first national rodeo competition this past summer. (Photos courtesy of Troy Guillory)

Born to rodeo

Despite having an immune disorder, nine-year-old girl has become a competitive rider

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor

MAMOU -- Nine-year-old Aubree Guillory wasn’t only born with an immune disorder, she also came into this world with a natural ability to saddle up a horse and rodeo.
Aubree’s mother Maggie said, “Aubree’s immune disorder affects the portion of her immune system that fights off things like the common cold. She would get sniffles and a cough, and within three days it would turn into full blown pneumonia, so when she was younger we spent a lot of time in hospitals until they could figure out what was wrong.”
Because of her immune disorder, Aubree’s mother and father, Troy, feared that their second child wouldn’t be able to take part in the same sports that other children were involved in.
In their search to find something that their daughter could participate in, they began to observe what she liked and eventually Aubree led her parents to the answer.
Maggie said, “Anytime we would go to Wal-mart, Aubree’s prize was always a horse. That’s what she would pick, and I told Troy one day that maybe we need to put her in riding lessons because at that time there wasn’t anything for her to do.”
With her dad on board for riding lessons, Aubree began learning the ropes from Linda O’Connor, and she was instantly hooked. The next step was for her to learn the techniques of rodeoing, which ended up making her enjoy riding horses even more.
She fell in love with rodeoing so much that even once she became able to participate in other sports, due to the fact that she is administered intravenous (IV) therapy once a week to put antibodies back into her body, she chooses rodeoing over playing softball with her friends.
The fourth grade student at Mamou Elementary said, “Once I got a horse and started to learn how to ride, I fell in love with it. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Mamou native wanted to do more than just ride her horse though, she wanted to compete, so she joined the Jeff Davis Riders Club (JDRC) in Crowley. Aubree competed in Crowley for three years before joining the National Little Britches Rodeo Association.
Aubree said, “With JDRC I wouldn’t be able to compete in a national competition, and I really wanted to do that.”
Her dad then added, “Little Britches is a national association, so once Aubree joined Little Britches she had the opportunity to try and make it to nationals.”
Getting to nationals would require Aubree to compete in 15 rodeos in Sulphur, and earn a certain number of first places in barrels and poles. And that is exactly what she did.
Before she left for nationals, Aubree was forced to make a decision between playing all-stars this summer or competing in a national rodeo competition.
The decision was an easy one to make according to Aubree, who said, “I chose rodeoing because I love everything about it.”
Aubree made her debut facing off against competitors from across the nation at nationals this summer, which were held in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
“When I realized I was going to nationals, I was nervous at first because I didn’t know how I would do,” said Aubree. “But once I got there, I wasn’t nervous at all. I was just ready to compete.”
Her mother then added, “We were nervous the whole time, because no one in our family does this. We are all learning as we go, and we are very proud of everything that she is doing.”
At nationals Aubree placed 11th overall, 9th as a rookie, 10th in poles, which is her favorite event, 44th in barrels, 16th in flags, and 103rd in goats. The horse that Aubree rode for all of her events, Bay, also won in the super horse category, which Aubree had to submit an essay about her horse for Bay to be eligible to win in this category.
After getting her first taste of competing in nationals, Aubree is ready for the next round.
Aubree said, “I am going to keep working on learning the step-by-step of how you do certain things to get faster times so that I can keep competing, because this is something I hope I get to do forever.”

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