The foothills area is blessed with lots of rodeo talent, young and old.

On the young side, is Raelene Paradis from Nanton.

You could say she's done well in the high school Cutting Horse competition considering she's only been at it about a year.

"I ended up getting season leader, because we have different districts in Alberta, so I was the District 1 season leader, and then I was also the Provincial Champion and then we went to Nationals and I was tenth there and then I was the Canadian Champion," Paradis says.

The Canadian finals were held in her hometown of Nanton, a far cry from the nationals in Rock Creek Wyoming.

"It was awesome, it was huge, it was kind of intimidating, like the first go," she says. "There was two go's every day so it was kind of getting used to the size it I guess and how many people you're actually up against."

She credits her grandparents, who are also well known in the cutting world, and who provided her with a horse for the competition, and specifically her grandmother for her training.

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