Amelia Knowles, 15, will travel to Shawnee, Oklahoma for the International Finals Youth Rodeo (IFYR) in July.
Her international debut follows a 2023-2024 rodeo season in which she won the junior national breakout title.
Breakaway is a rodeo event where riders attempt to tie a calf, using a rope attached to their saddle. Once the calf is tied, the rider stops his horse, allowing the calf to continue running and break the rope from his saddle horn.
Amelia was aiming for a time around three seconds and trained “hard and consistently” throughout the season.
New Zealand rodeo titles were awarded on a points system throughout the season and Amelia's junior breakaway title came down to the final rodeo of the season, in Waimarino, Bay of Plenty, in March.
“All I had to do was make a few catches, and I did,” she said.
The feeling of winning was “pretty surreal”.
“I won't repeat what I said because it's not PG.”
Amelia also joined her father, Danny, in the open team roping event in Waimarino, which the pair won.
“He still talks about it,” she said.
“It was pretty special.”
Amelia has been riding since before she could walk and grew up in the rodeo community.
Dealing with pressure was the key to being a successful breakaway rider, she said.
“You have to be able to take that risk and take that chance, otherwise you go from having a winning chance to third place.”
Amelia will rely on that risk-taking instinct in July when she competes in breakaway and barrel racing for the first time at the IFYR in the US.
'They meet that standard [in the US] which we want to tie up here [in New Zealand].”
She will have to ride a borrowed horse during the event, something she has done before at North Island rodeos.
“It [is] a bit of a risk and a bit of a test of my riding skills to be able to get on someone else's horse and collect some money.