Hi-Line Athlete Profile: Laura Kleinjan, Rodeo

Chinook's Laura Kleinjan started rodeo later than most of her competitors, but it hasn't mattered because she's living life and doing what she loves

Fair week is a unique time in the community of Havre and along the Hi-Line. It serves to bring people together, and one event that does that as well as any other is the annual Great Northern Ram Rodeo.

The rodeo is one of the most well-attended events of the fair and this year was no different. Hundreds of people turned out to watch participants compete for belts and prizes. One of those competitors was Laura Kleinjan of Chinook and while the rodeo always produces a lot of great story lines, there may be no better story at the 2015 rodeo than Kleinjan's.

Kleinjan's journey to being a rodeo competitor was different than most. Many of the participants who got into the saddle inside the arena at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Thursday night have been around horses and the rodeo pretty much their entire lives. Riding horses, wearing cowboy boots and hats is just second nature for most of them — but not for Kleinjan.

Kleinjan was not around the rodeo or horses when she was younger, in fact she didn't even live in Montana. She was born in Chicago and didn't move to Montana until later in life when she settled down, got married and had children.

By the time Kleinjan purchased her first horse, she was 30 years old, and even still competing in the rodeo seemed like a dream that would be difficult to realize. Then Kleinjan got the news that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and after that, horses and the rodeo took a bit of a backseat, but not for long.

That's because while Kleinjan was fighting for her life, a fight that she would successfully win, she learned a valuable lesson: never take life for granted and always live it to the fullest. This is exactly what she did and continues to do.

Now, after defeating breast cancer, Kleinjan, who is in her fourth year as part of the Northern Rodeo Association circuit, is living her dream, only it's not really a dream anymore, because thanks to her hard work and extraordinary determination, it's become a reality.

Make no mistake, when Kleinjan saddles up, she isn't just doing it for fun, she means business and she is out to win, which she has done on the NRA circuit. She has also placed multiple times on the circuit including a couple times in the past month. She finished second in ladies barrel racing at the Chinook rodeo last weekend and fourth in the same event at the Culbertson Rodeo back in June.

And even though Kleinjan, who said she competes in around 20 rodeo events a year, did not post a good enough time to earn prize money Thursday night in the ladies barrel racing event, the fact that she is holding her own against professionals and rodeo lifers on a daily and weekly basis is both impressive and inspiring.

Cancer takes away lives and dreams every day, but Kleinjan refused to let cancer take either away from her. Years after she banished it from her body, she is still moving forward with her eyes fixes squarely on the future, and following her run Thursday at the Great Northern Ram Rodeo, the Havre Daily News caught up with Kleinjan for five questions:

HDN: So what made you get started in the rodeo?

Kleinjan: "I guess I like fast horse and fancy outfits. I didn't get my first horse until I was 30. I was a city girl and I never had the opportunity to have a horse, even though it was something I always dreamed of, until I moved to Montana and married a cowboy.

HDN: How did you catch up and are able to compete with the people that have been involved in rodeo their whole lives?

Kleinjan: "Well, it takes lots of hard work and lots of money. You have to have a good horse and kind of keep riding horses and move up the ladder and finally you click with one and stick with it.

HDN: Tell me about the horse you are riding now?

Kleinjan: "I call him Top Hat. I have been riding him for six years. I bought him as a backup horse when he was four and a week later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So, I was out for two years and I couldn't ride him, so I have really only been riding him for four years."

HDN: Did your diagnosis give you more motivation to be in the rodeo and work with horses once you beat cancer?

Kleinjan: "It gave me more motivation to live and travel and see stuff and after I beat (cancer) I got back into rodeo."

HDN: How does the Great Northern Rodeo compare to other rodeos you have competed in?

Kleinjan: "It has really turned into a good competition. It used to be closed to the professionals but now it is open so you see the same professionals here that you see at all the other events. So you really have the same level of competition here as you get anywhere else, so that is the great thing about it."