Wright City High School senior Charleigh Ferrell is busy.

She’s an excellent student. She’s a three-sport athlete. And she lives her passion with horses, riding three of her horses each day.

And she plans to use everything she’s learned, from creative writing to rodeo, as she prepares for her career.

Q. What are your extracurricular activities?

“So I’m in FFA, I’m the second vice president. I also do Missouri High School Rodeo Association, which is rodeo. So I’m the president there and I’ve been the vice president and the treasurer. I’ve done rodeo since I was like 3. I grew up around horses. My parents grew up around horses. So, rodeo is mainly like my outside life, other than FFA and my sports, which I get to do cross county, soccer, and basketball. So I’m a pretty busy girl all year round. There’s never really a break.”

Q. What is it about agriculture that you like so much?

“My family, especially on my dad’s side, they’ve gone into agriculture. And my dad went into agriculture and I wanted to continue and learn about agriculture. I want to be in equine nutrition, so I’ll specialize in animal nutrition and go deep dive into horses. Since I ride horses, I wanted to keep my job with horses and I just find it fascinating and I enjoy that because I grew up around that.”

Dare to Excel: Warrenton senior Roy Briggs

Q. What is it about horses that you like so much?

“I like when you can just pretty much go out and ride them and get to learn more things, like how different horses ride. And honestly, I just grew up and I loved it when I was little. My mom said I would never want to get off a horse. Like it could be freezing rain and we only rode for an hour. I’d want to go three more.”

Q. How does being in creative writing help you with agriculture?

“It helps me when we do speeches. So if I’m doing a speech, I know how to put more of a fun spin on it. It helps me prepare for college.”

Q. What else do you do with FFA?

“Last year, my friends and I decided to join the horse judging team where we would just horses. We ended up doing really good. I think we got second in districts and then eight in state. We also help around the community. We are really big in trying to help the community and spread the word about agriculture because some kids just think you have to own the farm land to be in agriculture and that's not it all. There’s a lot more things than just tractors and the farm and animals.”

Dare to Excel: Wright City senior Tayla Payne

Q. Where are you planning to go to college?

“My top two schools, right now, that I want to go to are either K-State or Mississippi State University.”

Q. Why those two schools?

“Their ag programs are really good. My grandparents in Mississippi went to Mississippi State University and they also went to K-State. They both have a rodeo team so I can continue my rodeo career through college.”

Q. Which sports do you play?

“Cross country, basketball and soccer.”

Q. What you do with your horses, how does that help you with your sports?

“Sports really helped me with my horses to stay in shape. So I have that core strength and leg strength.”

Dare to Excel: Former Wright City senior Cassie Reash

Q. What is about sports that drove you to play?

“I always wanted to try to stay active during the seasons and I knew I would not be good at volleyball and softball. So the last thing is cross country and I tried it and my coaches really made it fun. The coaches help you and you get to know more people. It’s a fun time with my little group. We jam out, we’ll sing songs when we run just to try to have fun. I enjoy it and basketball, I always like playing basketball and it’s also another fun group. I enjoy having something to do and just being able to meet different people and see what their life is like. And I’ve always had an interest in soccer.”

Favorite food: Lima beans

Favorite class: Ag

Favorite type of music: Country

Favorite singer: Johnny Cash

Favorite place to visit: Wyoming or Las Vegas