Océane Veilleux, a young 17-year-old rider from Saint-Alfred en Beauce, stands out in the United States, where she participated in one of the biggest rodeos in the world.
Océane started riding at a very young age. For years, she traveled across Quebec and Canada to participate in dozens of equestrian competitions.
Today, this young athlete spends her summers in the United States to participate in the amateur circuit and eventually turn professional.
Last week, she took part in the huge annual event “The American Rodeo” which took place at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
In front of 60,000 people, she competed against the best cowboys and cowgirls in the world to finally take 7th place in the barrel racing event.
It’s an incredible accomplishment because for her, simply being in the top 10 was unexpected.
In an interview, she admitted that the scope of this rodeo made her a little nervous before taking the start.
“I was trying to calm down because I knew how there were going to be people who were going to watch me (…) it was televised too, all over the world people were watching me,” she confided.
However, once the competition was over, nervousness quickly gave way to excitement.
“It’s not a feeling that I can explain. It was so amazing, I never thought I would have done that because I raced against the best in the world. My dream was to race against these best one day,” she said.
Reference-www.journaldequebec.com