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For 17-year-old Jessica Fisher, rodeos have always been a family affair.

It will be no different next week when she travels July 18-30 with her parents to compete in the National High School Rodeo Association finals in Springfield, Ill.

Having qualified for the third consecutive year for nationals, Fisher will compete in all five events: barrels, poles, goat tying, breakaway roping and team roping.

It's no surprise Fisher is enjoying so much success, given her family's history with horses.

"Both of my parents had and showed horses, and when I was

18 months old, my grandfather got me a pony," Fisher said.

Fisher's parents, Ken and Stephanie, thought Jessica would be content with owning and showing horses, but by the age of 10, "she just wanted to go fast," Stephanie joked.

The national competition begins tomorrow and continues July 28. One would think competing in all five events might be stressful for Jessica, but that isn't necessarily the case.

"I'm not really nervous about any of it really. I think my parents get more nervous than I do," Fisher said.

About 1,500 competitors will convene in Springfield, Ill., for the event, all of whom must carry a 2.0 GPA or higher to compete. Jessica is home-schooled through the Treca Digital Academy and will be a senior in the fall. The hectic travel schedule might seem bothersome for the Fishers, but both Jessica and her mother said it is just the opposite.

"I love the traveling," Jessica said. "We see a lot of the same people and get to travel around with them to different events. We are just like one big family."

Along with the pride of winning the competition, there is another motivation to do well at the nationals.

"There is a lot of scholarship money awarded by the sponsors of the events," Stephanie Fisher said. "These kids can really get a lot of their college paid for through rodeo scholarships."

Even with scholarship money on the line, Jessica said the camaraderie among the competitors in unmatched.

"We all root for each other to do well even though we are competing for the same thing," she said.

Once Jessica graduates next fall, she would like to attend college on a rodeo scholarship somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas and major in radiology, she said.