My little ponies
Queen pageants include Katie Heid and her horses, but there is much more to the story than that profile&photos.rachelneumiller
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fter waking up, feeding her horses and taking care of her dogs, she goes to school like every other high school student. She loves math and science class and sits with friends at the lunch table. But with her cowgirl boots, dimples and a quiet sense of joy, she is anything but every other high school girl. Senior Katie Heid has been competing in queen pageants for a bit longer than a year. In them, she contends in a speech competition, a modeling portion, an interview and horsemanship competition-in which she may show her horse, ride him through a course or shoot a paintball gun while riding. “[Queen pageants] are fun, you meet a lot a people,” Katie said. “I also got over my fear of speaking in front of people.”
“I got my first horse [when I was little] because of brain surgery. My parents promised me one if I made it.”
Katie has three horses, works at Country House Deli and does her chores at her house in the country. She does things with friends and rides horse in her free time. Katie’s well-loved horses, named Bingo, Misty and Chubby, are part of every day of her life. Katie’s first horse was a gift after she had surgery due to complications of arnold chiari malformation type 2 “I got my first horse [when I was little] because of brain surgery. My parents promised me one if I made it,” Katie said. “The first thing I said when I woke up was, ‘Can I have my horse now?’” Although Katie’s life has many different aspects, her passion rests on the backs of horses. A relationship exists with each one of her horses. “You just gotta click [with the horse],” Katie said. “With Bingo, it was just like that.”
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