Gonzales native wins national titles

Readers of the Inquirer may have seen her name pop up multiple times around rodeo finals season. For those who haven’t, meet Loni Lester, a Gonzales native who has been riding horses since she was a child and winning belt buckles for years before she reached the college level and won the Southern Region Barrel Champion and All Around Cowgirl for 2017 as well as the College National 2017 Breakaway and All Around Cowgirl Champion.

“All year long I wasn’t really first, I just kind of hung in there,” Lester admitted. “And at the long college rodeo, I won the round in the barrels and that moved me all the way up. I had enough points form that run to help me win the title for the girls. And the breakaway, I qualified with our team standing, our girls won our region, so it helped me get to nationals. Once I got there it was a clean slate. “

Lester attends Sam Houston State where she not only rodeos, she of course has her nose in the books studying animal science. It’s a wonder she has time to eat, let alone interview, as she spends most of her time either in the classroom or around the horses she has to take care of.

“It’s very hard [balancing the time],” Lester said. “I usually have five horses at school with me. It’s a lot of decisions you have to make, how long you’re going to study, you have to get those horses roped…you have another animal you have to feed and take care of…”

Lester explained that horses are just like any other athlete — they have to be in shape in order to perform.

“If not they’re not as fast, they’re not as athletic,” Lester noted.

She has to not only make sure everything from nutrition to exercise is squared away with her horses, she also has to practice the events with the thousand-pound athletes.

“It’s hard to balance school and horses,” Lester explain. “I sometimes have to tell myself ‘OK you have to study, you can’t ride all the time.’ But one more year left is what I keep telling myself. Those are my two goals, keep good grades and those horses good.”

Before getting to this level, Lester competed in high school rodeo, and then before that youth rodeo. She believes her involvement early on in rodeo was one of the reasons she got to where she is right now.

“Starting young is good,” Lester said of youth rodeo. “You learn the competitive edge. You learn how to take care of your horses at a young age. You learn from the older people. I think youth rodeos are awesome. You really need to start at a young age to try to ride to best of your abilities.”

The best advice she’d give someone wanting to follow her footsteps is to make sure they are all in.

“Put your whole heart into it,” she said. “If you really love it, you can do it.”

The traveling may be a problem for some, but if one is willing to put the miles into it, going to as many rodeos as you can attend can do wonders.

“It’s definitely not a sport for the weak hearted,” Lester said. “You are gone a lot. You have to put the miles in. it’s a very humbling sport also. It’s not just you and a ball and a teammate. It’s you and a thousand-pound animal and you trying to communicate to them and they can’t talk to you at all.”

There is so much that goes into rodeo that many people may not necessarily catch from the stands. Just like any sport, it takes a support system for an individual or a team to have success.

“[I wanted to] thank my school and my coach [Bubba Miller]. [Also, I wanted to] thank all my sponsors for supporting me up and down the road. I don’t know what I’d do without those sponsors,” Lester said. “[Finally, I wanted] to thank my entire family for always supporting me through the high and lows.”

To get to the pro level after college, Lester will need all that and much more. After all, her dream of making it to the “Super Bowl of rodeo” is still a “long haul” according to the cowgirl. But she’s on track to get there. And if she follows her own advice on putting her whole heart into it, perhaps a child of Gonzales can get to the big stage in Las Vegas.