Helayna Hollobaugh: “A taste for speed”
ST. MARYS - Helayna Hollobaugh has been around horses since she was an infant with her mom, Brandy Hollobaugh, as an experienced rider.
Today at 15-yearsold and a sophomore at St. Marys Area High School, Helayna has become a competitive rodeo rider competing with the Pennsylvania High School Rodeo Association (PHSRA) and the only rider in the PHSRA from Elk County.
Brandy placed Helayna on her first pony when she was about two years old, and by eight years old she was enthusiastically riding horses with 4-H.
“She really got into it when she joined 4-H and I think that’s when she realized that it wasn’t just her mom that rode, but that kids her age actually rode too,” Brandy said.
At first, Helayna was doing walk/trot local shows with 4-H, but Brandy said Helayna got the “taste for speed.” After attending the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg and seeing the rodeo riding, Brandy asked Helayna if she might be interested in rodeo riding.
Helayna did want to pursue gaming/contest riding and learned from her neighbors, who are locally known as the Swanson Triplets: Allie, Andie, and Lexie in Kersey, who are experienced riders with speed events. They showed Helayna how to use her legs and get the horse to respond racing around barrels or poles.
Together with her horse, named Blazin’ Chaos, Helayna’s first rodeo was last September at Rocky Ridge Ranch in McVeytown, Pa. While the rainy weather was not perfect conditions for rodeo riding, Helayna finished in the top of half of more than 30 competitors within her class.
"When I enter the arena my mind goes blank, everything else becomes a blur besides the pattern and the dirt. It has become second nature for my body to guide Blaze through the run,” Helayna said.
However, the Hollobaugh family found out quickly that rodeos were very different from 4-H shows. They had to get use to a whole different world of riding and competition. The apparel was different, the rules were different, and of course, the expenses of rodeo riding were different. The cost of fuel to get the family and the horse to various riding competitions, the costs of lodging, stabling for the horse, entry fees, insurance, and etc. made the family realize that they had literally and figuratively entered into a new arena.
The new expensive hobby required getting sponsors for each competition and Brandy told Helayna if she wanted to pursue her new passion that she would be required to find the sponsors on her own.
“It’s assumed that people who have horses are wealthy, but that’s not the case,” Brandy said. “I told her if this is something you want to do, you’re going to help us find sponsors to cover the costs.”
Through her generous local sponsors, Helayna is able to compete in her new hobby. Helayna’s first sponsor was Athena Laser Clinic in Ridgway and later more local businesses became sponsors. Rather B Embroidery is a sponsor and embroiders Helayna’s competition shirts with the logos of her other sponsors, including D&T Towing, Marnatti Contracting, AE Diesel Services & Auto Repair and Jonathan Updyke Contracting.