ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Natalie Thompson is a typical teen. She’s 18, and will be 19 soon, and graduated from Robertsdale High in May. She’s getting ready to head to college, Western Texas College in Snyder, Texas, and she plans to major in English right now. She already has an associate degree from Faulkner State Community College, courtesy of the Accelerated High School Student program at Faulkner that allowed her to complete an associate degree in business and earn her high school diploma.

Sounds pretty normal, except for the saddles that decorate the rooms of Thompson’s Robertsdale home.

The saddles are emblazoned with the awards Thompson has earned participation in various Alabama High School Rodeo Association competitions through the years.

Thompson was the state AHSRA rodeo queen in 2009.

“The main job was to take care of the Grand Entrance and be a spokesperson for the AHSRA, and the Western way of life,” said Thompson, seated in her Robertsdale home.

Becoming queen involved giving “a two-minute speech” and taking a 50 question test on rodeo events, including events that males participate in exclusively. She also demonstrated her riding skills to the judges.

“I competed in the national (for queen) talent contest by playing on my guitar,” said Thompson. She didn’t win that contest, but her love of music and song writing remains strong, and will become her career if her ambitions to be a writer don’t bear fruit.

Being a rodeo queen has earned Thompson some scholarship money.

Thompson came by her interest in rodeo naturally. Her mother, Beverly, participates in rodeos and started her daughter with riding lessons when she was 12. She started barrel racing on her horse,

”Jesse,” who has since developed “navicular syndrome,” an inflammation or degeneration of the navicular bone in a horse’s hoof. Jesse has been retired from competition and is now a brood mare.

“I don’t know why I took lessons, like all kids that age, I loved horses,” said Thompson.

And taking care of horses has become a passion of Thompson’s.

“My Mom and I raised a yearling. We broke him for 60 days, then sold him,” recalled Thompson.

Thompson quickly took to barrel racing, an event where horse and rider try to get around a set of barrels in the shortest amount of time. She also enjoyed pole bending, where the horse and rider compete for fastest time, running a weaving pattern through equally spaced poles.

She also excelled in “cutting,” which is getting a particular cow or calf out of a small herd in a timed event. The work is exciting, and has a practical side as well.

“Sometimes if a cow or calf is sick, you have to get it out of the herd to examine it,” explained Thompson.

But Thompson’s favorite event is “goat tying.”

“The rider jumps off the horse at full speed,” said Thompson, eyes shining. The contestant has to tie the two back legs and one front leg of the goat together. It’s a sport that is growing in popularity, but right now is seen on the high school and college rodeo circuit.

“I like it because you have to depend on yourself and not the horse, said Thompson. This is the event she intends to continue with in college, borrowing a friend’s horse for the event.

Leaving home for college is exciting, but there are some things Thompson is going to miss.

“I am going to miss my family,” Thompson said, “and my friends.”

As importantly, Thompson said she is going to miss her church, the Robertsdale First Assembly of God.

“They are my big second family,” she said.