By: Katelyn Weddle
Nichole Rodriguez, ‘22 was born in Fresno, and moved to Visalia for the start of Kindergarten at Hurley Elementary School. Both of her parents still had jobs in Fresno at the time, so Rodriguez and her two sisters, Kiera and Lilliana, spent a lot of time with their grandparents.
Later on, Rodriguez’s parents got jobs in town, so they moved into a house with just their immediate family. This is when Rodriguez shared “a room with Lilliana, which [she] like[s] to think is the reason [they] are so close now.”
Rodriguez is currently a junior at Redwood, and she is a very involved Ranger. She was in band her freshman year, and she is currently in Redwood’s Auto Mechanics Program. On top of just academics, Rodriguez is a two-year girls’ Varsity track member, and a three-year Redwood soccer player, with two of those years being on Varsity.
Rodriguez notes that she has been playing soccer ever since she was six years old. Soccer has practically been in her life as long as horses have been.
Rodriguez competes in many rodeos, and even trains a horse herself. When asked if any of her friends had the same interest in rodeos as her, she simply said “riding is its own type of outlet.” Rodriguez believes that people grow to love riding, it is not something that can be forced upon them.
Rodriguez explains that “by competing and training [she] got the chance to meet many new people and create long-lasting friendships with them!”
When she was young, Rodriguez would constantly talk about horses; she was fascinated by them. Her parents thought it was just a “phase” for a while. At six years old, her mom got her a trainer so she could try a lesson, and Rodriguez loved it.
After a few years of training, Rodriguez began to compete in rodeos. At nine years old, she “really started competing and started winning awards and getting points for [the] all around awards.”
As of now, Rodriguez has been riding horses for ten years, and actively competing for eight or nine years.
“I took a few years off competing about three years ago when I bought my horse, Charlie. He knew absolutely nothing and he was my first ‘project horse.’ I trained him all by myself and we are now starting to get back on the competition ground!”
Nichole Rodriguez, ’22
When asked about her future, Rodriguez explained that her goals were all aligned one way or another with horses: “My goal for my future is to become a Large Animal Veterinarian; focusing on mainly farm animals.” Her dream colleges for this future career are UC Davis, and Montana State University. Both schools have large animal medical programs.
UC Davis has always been her main goal, considering it is the top veterinarian school in California. With her uncle living out in Montana, a new option of hers is to move out to Bozeman, Montana to go to MSU. By going there, she could stay with her uncle through college, then “be able to travel to rodeos around the North-Western region as an On Call Veterinarian stationed out of Montana.”
Katelyn Weddle
Katelyn Weddle '23 is a third year journalism student. She enjoys designing the Redwood Gigantea newspaper. Outside of writing, she is a Chief Editor for Redwood yearbook. You can reach her at katel.we3140@vusd.us
Tags: clubs and lifestyles, humans of redwood, junior class, nichole rodriguez, redwood gigantea, redwood ranger, rodeos, student perspective, studentlife
