By SAMANTHA McGUIRE
News Editor
Her voice was barely a murmur through the clamor of chutes banging, boys shouting and wind howling.
She sat in a lawn chair on the back of a flat-bed truck. Dust blew around her, making it hard to see as she announced the team roping jackpot. Her blonde hair whirled loose out of her pony tail; she wore dirt stained jeans and an old sweatshirt.
She isn’t always just announcing though. Ashton Johnson, a freshman at Northwestern, is an active member of the rodeo team. She breakaway ropes and goat ties, but breakaway roping is her main event.
Johnson’s grandpa used to team rope, but no one else in her family rodeos. She got into rodeo because of her love for horses. She said, “when we were little, we went to youth rodeos for fun with a bunch of our friends, and I’ve loved it ever since.”
Johnson’s goal for the year is to be in the top 10 college rodeo standings in the breakaway, and she is on her way there. During last semester she placed third in the breakaway at Woodward’s college rodeo.
Johnson also wants to get a degree in elementary education and get a job teaching second or third graders. She dreams of one day moving back to Benton, Iowa to start a family. Also, she plans to continue rodeoing on her summers off.
Besides rodeo, Johnson also played basketball and ran track in high school. She said rodeo is the sport she is most passionate about because, “It’s a sport that you have to work at instead of just having natural talent.”