WINNIE, Texas — Over 1,400 miles away from home, this East Chambers Buccaneer and her horse will compete at the 75th annual High School Finals Rodeo.
"I just finished my second year of rodeoing on her, and it has been more than what I could even imagine," Pole Bender Jayden Guidry said. "She's done so much for me, and this has just been a dream come true."
At the state competition in Abilene, Jayden won Reserve Champion Pole Bender to qualify for Nationals for the first time in her career.
"I had never been at that level, and I didn't know that I could even compete there," Guidry said. "Last year, she showed me that I can do this, you can do this, so this year coming back I knew I could do it, and I just had to trust her and ride her, and we did it."
Meet Roany, the true star of the story. Jayden gave up all other extracurriculars to focus on her.
"This is Roany," Guidry said. "We bought her in 2020. We bought her when she was four. She didn't know anything. We bought her from this Facebook ad that I begged my parents to buy her for."
"She begged us for a year to get her a barrel horse and I was like no," Jayden's mom Rene said. "Finally after a year, she finally quit, and she also showed cattle, so after that year she finally got the horse. That's where the whole journey started, so yeah it's been worth it for sure."
Jayden hopes to start her senior year as a national champion but her dreams don't stop there.
"Hopefully a national title would be pretty cool, but I just hope my horse, she works for me," Guidry said. "She always does under anything."
"That would probably bring a lot of opportunities into like my college," Guidry said. "I really want to go to Sam Houston and further my rodeo career there, and I know I can only pole bend for one more year after this, but I do believe that she can do very good for me in college in barrels. So, that's what I'm hoping for."
From Winnie to Wyoming and wherever they go after that, Jayden and Roany will continue to showcase their championship bond.