Riding With Morissa Hall
Photo By; Jackie Hicks
Meet Morissa Hall
Photo By: Jackie Hicks
Who is Morissa?
Morissa, a 17-year-old senior hailing from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is currently enrolled at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton High School. Boasting a GPA of 4.2, Morissa's academic rigor includes all Honors and Advanced Placement courses. Additionally, she is an active participant in the Scholar program, dedicates her time to community service, and holds a position on the Executive Board of the Women’s Empowerment group, Seton Diamonds.
Morissa competes in Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, Goat Tying, and Breakaway roping. Morissa Hall is the MDHSRA 2X Maryland High School Rodeo Queen to win any portion of the National High School Finals Queen Contest. She is a 3X All-Around Cowgirl Champion; 2022-2023 Goat Tying Champion; Barrel Racing Champion; 2X Pole Bending Champion for the Maryland High School Rodeo team. Morissa also placed 3rd in Breakaway Roping for 2022-2023. This qualifies her to compete in the National Finals, located in Gillette, Wyoming for the 3rd consecutive year in July 2023. She is also a 19X NBHA Barrel Racing Champion in the Open and Youth Divisions and the 2022-2023 Youth 1D Champion and 2D Champion, which qualifies her to compete in the Youth and Teen World held in Perry, Georgia the last week of July 2023.
Her Story in Rodeo
In her first year of competing in high school rodeo, Morissa competed and won the 2020-2021 Maryland High School Rodeo Queen, Maryland High School Rodeo All-Around Champion, Pole Bending Champion, Rookie of the year, and Reserve Barrel Racing Champion. Morissa also won the NBHA 2022 4D Open Champion, 2D Youth Champion, and 1D Youth Reserve Champion.
She qualified and received the honor of competing in the National High School Rodeo Finals in 2021. The largest rodeo in the world with over 1700 contestants. She competed in the Queen contest, pole bending, and barrel racing. She won the impromptu portion of the National High School Queen Contest. She returned to Nationals in the Queen Contest, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending and Goat Tying in 2021-2022 in Gillette, Wyoming.
She also competes in the National Barrel Horse Association. She says, “I get to show my love for barrel racing, and I love the multi-division format, it gives everyone a chance to win, even if you don’t have an expensive barrel horse.” In 2020, her rookie year, Morissa qualified for NBHA youth world finals (in all 5 divisions). In the 2020 Maryland State NBHA Finals youth division, she won 2D Reserve Champion and 4D Reserve Champion. In the Open division, she won the Reserve 4D champion.
At NBHA Maryland state finals in 2021, she won third in the 3D Open division and in the Youth division, she won the 3D. She competed in the NBHA Open/Senior World Finals in Perry, GA in October 2021. She had the honor of carrying the flag in the opening ceremonies for the championship round. She advanced to the championship round at her first NBHA open world finals appearance. In 2021, Morissa qualified for the 2022 NBHA Youth and Open World finals again where she competed in July.
Morissa had the honor of competing in the December 2021 Junior World Finals in Las Vegas in Pole Bending. She qualified in Pole Bending and Goat Tying for the March 2022 Hooey Junior Patriot Rodeo in Fort Worth, TX, but due to a set of unfortunate circumstances at the last minute was unable to compete.
2023 Interviews
Morissa has been interviewed numerous times this year to include: Community News, TV News , Social media and Podcasts.
Communiity Conversation with Prince George's County June 2023; Rodeo Star, Nickalive.net -Nick News: Titled " Inflation;Climate;Trials;Robot;Teen Rodeogirl, Morissa Hall, June 28; Fox 5dc.com/video - Tucker Tries It At the Rodeo! June 9; Morissa Hall, Black Teen rodeo rider aims to break barriers,- WUSA9 which went viral , Feb 20, 2023: Black cowgirls gallop on in face of US rodeo stereotypes/AFP, April 2023 also went viral internationally in 3 differnt languages and in 5 or more countries. Rodeo Queen Morissa Hall interview with Brandy Flores DCNewsNow;
Testimonyfridaywithdnicole IG Live podcast, Rodeo Queen, February 2023 and Marketing for Woman in Business, FB Live, Extracurricular Moms and Chat with the Rodeo queen.
Previous featured stories The Bowie Blade newspaper, June 2021; Channel 4 News, August 2021; Toby and Chili Radio Show on Iheart Radio, August 2021; Maryland Youth spotlight with The Equiery Magazine, Feb 2022; Elliot in the Morning Radio Show, June 2021. Burst TV network interview, December 2021; and I AM REAL podcast interview with Leesha Archie, April 2022.
Morissa’s favorite quote is “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only one remembers to turn on the light.” - Albus Dumbledore. She likes to cook, listen to music, ride roller coasters, and watch Harry Potter, Marvel, Star Wars and any musical she can get her hands on. She likes to spend time with her dogs, cats, and horses, play volleyball, tennis, soccer, fish with her family, and loves to
work cattle.
Morissa would like to thank everyone who has donated and supported her throughout the years.
Partnerships & Mailing-List
If you're interested in partnering with Morissa, she'd love to hear what you have in mind. Please fill out the form below and we will be in contact with you as soon as possible.