July 19, 2018 500 AM
PRESIDIO – Sixteen-year-old Kelly Baeza Colomo, originally from the border city of Ojinaga, Chihuahua, will represent Mexico on behalf of the Mexican Rodeo Federation and the High School Rodeo Association which is located in Rock Spring, Wyoming. The event is from July 15-21.
Kelly will be competing in the goat tying category next week and will also perform the Mexican national anthem, singing it every day of the event.
“I am very happy to have reached the final because I have tried hard to qualify, although I´m a bit nervous because I am going to sing the national anthem,” said Baeza.
Kelly is currently in high school in the city of Presidio, having just finished her freshman year at Presidio High School, where she has excelled in roping. Her love of rodeo competition started when she was seven years old while participating in barrel racing and at 9 years of age she began to rope. She then developed skills for goat tying, the same skill that made her a national high school finalist and allowed her to compete in the international circuit final in Rock Spring.
Baeza, however, also shows off her skills in barrel racing, breakaway roping, pole bending and team roping. Kelly attributes part of her success to the unconditional support given by her parents Jesús Eduardo Baeza and Laura Colomo who, since her childhood, have encouraged her to continue with her passion for rodeo.
“They always support me, they are always at my training sessions, and that kind of motivation is what we young people and the next generations need to excel,” said Baeza.
It is also important to mention the work that Kelly’s family has done which, according to her father, “has been unbreakable.”
“Our daughter relies unconditionally on us, because as I always say to her, if you like this you have to give 100 percent, and you have to have a very big heart that shows that you like the rodeo, because if you fall you´ll be able to get back up and continue,” said Jesús Eduardo Baeza.
