For Michelle Lummus and Mia Bugs Kid, the Days of ’76 Rodeo in Deadwood, South Dakota marked a major victory. Winning a rodeo is no small feat, and doing it aboard a horse you trained yourself makes it even more special. Michelle knows “Mia” like the back of her hand, and that certainly helped the duo come out on top of the barrel racing contenders.
“Mia’s got tons of personality. She talks all the time. She hollers at me if we walk out the door without going and seeing her,” Michelle said. “She always thinks she needs a cookie because she thinks she’s done something. She’s into everything.”
Taking home a purse of more than $3,000, Michelle is steadily working toward her goal of making the Top 35 rankings for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
“My goal this year was to try to get in the Top 35. We’re not too far out; I think we’ve got $22,000 won so far,” Michelle said. ““But everyone kind of doubted Mia from the time I got her, telling me she’s too small and she’ll never make it.”
The win at Deadwood was unexpected for Michelle and Mia, but the horsewoman knows she can count on her mare. Mia is a 2007 chestnut solid mare by Mr Bugs Malone (QH) and out of Mia Dixons Kid; owned by L & S Barrel Horses of Hiram, Georgia, Mia was bred by Janice or Jack Williams of Spencer, Tennessee.
“I just hoped for the best. I didn’t know it was that great a run. I never know how it’s going to go with her,” Michelle said. “She always works. It’s just sometimes you think your run is really good. It’s hard to tell on her if I had a really good run because she can have a few mistakes and still win the rodeo.”
Michelle credits her parents for her success and says her goal next year is to make it to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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