Asotin High senior will collect diploma, head to state rodeo

ASOTIN - As soon as Saturday's Asotin High School graduation ceremony is over, Mikayla Rowlett and her horse, Cotton, will head for the state high school rodeo competition in Pocatello.

Though she's sorry to miss it, forgoing the safe and sober graduation party that night is a sacrifice the 18-year-old doesn't regret as she looks ahead to competing on the rodeo team at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore.

Rowlett used to play volleyball and basketball, but excelling at rodeo meant dedicating herself to only that pursuit.

"You've got to pick," she said.

Appreciation for such devotion, she said, is part of what made her friends at Asotin High School seem more like family.

"If you find something you really love, your friends should understand," she said. "And support you no matter what."

When Asotin held a high school rodeo competition, she said, "half the class went and watched."

During Rowlett's sophomore year, as her high school rodeo career was taking off, her mother, Peggy Jones, was diagnosed with heart failure. Doctors warned Jones the dust kicked up at rodeos could be harmful, Rowlett said, but that hasn't stopped her from attending her daughter's competitions.

A pacemaker, defibrillator and medication keep the condition manageable for now, Rowlett said, but it's possible her mother could need a heart transplant someday.

"She's slowly getting better," Rowlett said. "But it's hard when we're busy all the time."

Rowlett discovered her love of horses on her aunt and uncle's cattle ranch in Midvale, Idaho.

She was living with her father, Darrell Rowlett, in Paso Robles, Calif., after her parents divorced when she was in third grade.

But her mother moved to the Northwest, and Rowlett joined her when she started high school, attending her freshman year in Kendrick.

She and her mother moved to Clarkston Rowlett's sophomore year, and Rowlett began attending school in Asotin.

She started riding her freshman year and has competed at the state rodeo every year since, joining the National High School Rodeo Association as a sophomore, when she also qualified for the Silver State International Rodeo in Winnemucca, Nev.

Most of her high school rodeo memories were made riding Cotton, a roan quarter horse who appears alongside Rowlett in her senior pictures,

"She's pretty much my whole life," Rowlett said. "It's hard to become one with an animal, so doing that, it feels like a big accomplishment."

But the level of competition in college rodeo means she'll be shifting her focus to a new horse, Broadway.

"She's a lot faster," she said.

Rowlett's experiences helping at Rustebakke Veterinary Service in Clarkston, where her mother is a veterinary technician, contributed to her decision to study animal science at Treasure Valley. Eventually, she'd like to attend veterinary school and specialize in large animal chiropractic.

"When you rodeo on your horses, they get out of whack, just like people," she said.

Rowlett's family now includes her mother's boyfriend, Deon Lish, and his son, Jake, also an Asotin High School senior who participates in rodeo.

When the family heads south to Pocatello after Saturday's graduation ceremony, Jake will be going along, too.

Having what amounts to a brother after growing up an only child has been good, Rowlett said.

"It's a lot different," she said. "But also good to have someone to talk to."

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Stone may be contacted at mstone@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2244. Follow her on Twitter @MarysSchoolNews.