Oregon’s Cline is stealing the show

LAS VEGAS – Teagan Cline is making the KK Run for Vegas at the YETI Junior National Finals Rodeo her personal playground.

The 10-year-old from Roseburg, Oregon, and her horses have dominated the field in both the 17-and-under pole bending and the junior barrel racing through the first two rounds. Cline enters Saturday’s short go-round leading the average in both events.

“This is super exciting,” Cline said Friday after her barrel racing run.

After winning the first round with a 13.860-second run, Cline and Laken, her 7-year-old palomino, turned the cloverleaf in 13.964 seconds Friday. Her two-run time of 27.824 seconds gives her a slight lead over Kaylee Whynot of Molalla, Oregon, who has a 27.850.

Not bad considering Cline wasn’t expected to ride Laken this week.

“She wasn’t supposed to ride that horse in the barrels; she was supposed to ride the sorrel horse,” Bailey Cline, Teagan’s mother said. “But the yellow horse (Laken) worked really, really good and so we swapped them the night before.”

Obviously, the swap has worked.

“Laken was just supposed to be here as a backup,” Bailey explained, ‘but I put her on the palomino just kind of on a whim and she’s been phenomenal.”

Teagan expects the best is yet to come for her and Laken in the barrels.

“We worked on a lot of stuff over the winter and we’re just starting to get to know each other,” she said.

As good as Teagan has been in barrel racing, she has been just as impressive in pole bending on Stunner, the sorrel that was supposed to be running poles and barrels this week.

Teagan finished third in the first round with a 20.230-second run and was the runner-up in the second round with a 19.632. She leads the average with a two-run time of 39.862 seconds, followed by River Zvonar of Tulare, California, with a 41.091.

The young cowgirl isn’t surprised at her success in pole bending.

“I always win poles on Stunner,” Teagan said with a smile.

Teagan’s big week in Vegas hasn’t been confined to the Junior NFR. She’s competing in both pole bending and barrel racing at The Patriot Las Vegas across town and is leading the 12-and-under poles and is second in the 12-and-under barrels.

“She’s had a really good week,” Bailey noted. “All year she’s been electric.”

Teagan has two chances to create more electricity Saturday in the short rounds on Stunner and Laken, who are full brother and sister.

“We call Stunner the king and Laken the queen,” Nick Cline, Teagan’s dad, said. “We have good horses, but we have a great kid.”