My name is Laura Harding and I was seventeen on October 31, 2003. My parents have set up this homepage for us to tell you something about me and my interests.
Laura was gifted with an extra chromosome at the time of conception, so every cell in her body contains three copies (rather than the normal two) of chromosome 21. This results in the condition called trisomy 21 or, more commonly, Down syndrome. (For information on Down syndrome, click on the name.)
For some time now, Laura has objected to the term Down syndrome and prefers to call it "UP Syndrome" like her friend Ann Forts!
Ann Forts, Founder
of Ann's UP Fund.
Laura has been in inclusive education settings since the time she started attending a morning Mothers' Day Out program when she was 15 months old.
Send e-mail messages to: laura@rafter-h-longhorns.com
I was born on October 31, 1986 and live in College Station, Texas (famous for Texas A&M University and, since November 1997, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum).
I am completing tenth grade (high school) at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station. I enjoy my World history and Art classes with my tenth-grade classmates. I also really like my Canine Science class. I plan to take several more agricultural science classes before I graduate in 2006. For math and English, I am in a Resource classroom where I study specific topics that I need to cover.
I attend Sunday School and church at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. I serve as an acolyte during services on some Sundays. I also attended preschool at the St. Thomas Early Learning Center from the age of 3 through kindergarten.
I attended Camp Allen, the Episcopal Youth Camp near Navasota, Texas for three summers. I had a great time, and my counselors thought so too! However, for three summers starting in 2000, I attended a "ranch camp" learning to halter-break, exhibit, and raise Texas Longhorn cattle (see below). Last summer I was selected as one of a group of 16 - 22 year olds in Texas to attend a Leadership camp for self-advocates..
What I Like
I guess that the best - and fastest - way to really get to know someone is by discovering what they like. So here goes . . .
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Here I am riding my ridng steer, Ol' Sarge in Nov. 2003 during the Grand Entry for the TLBAA Horn Showcase. He was just 4 years old earlier that month. His horns are over 5 1/2 feet tip-to-tip. He is great with kids on his back for pictures. |
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Here I am after showing one of my parent's young heifers to World Class Champion at the 2003 Texas Longhorn Breeders of Tomorrow National Show in June. |
Although I enjoy working with my Longhorn cattle, I have to make sure everyone knows that I am not a fan of that 'university' in Austin with a longhorn mascot - I am a Texas AGGIE fan (see the TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY AGGIES). To read more about my Texas Longhorn cattle, click here. To see more of my cattle as well as my parents cattle, go to the Rafter H Longhorns website.
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At the 1999 Texas Longhorn World Show and Exposition,
I got I got to see him perform his Christmas Concert in December
of 2001 . |
My great-great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Henry Polley, came to Texas as one of the original 300 colonists with Stephen F. Austin in the early 1800's. He raised longhorn cattle by the thousands during the period prior to the Civil War. An article in the May 1938 issue of The Cattleman stated:
"At his death (in 1869), his cattle brand JHP (connected) was registered in many of the cattle counties in Southwest Texas. The earliest recording was in Brazoria county in 1837. His herds of longhorns were estimated, by some, to be second in number only to the great King holdings. During the time when depradations were being committed by Mexicans, over 16,000 head were reputed to have been stolen or killed from the Polley herds..... Mr. Polley looked after his cattle scattered from Fort Bend county to Marble Falls, and from Corpus Christi to Austin. They were sold mostly on the San Antonio and New Orleans markets. Later his sons 'went up the trail.'....."
However, my ancestors did not stay in the ranching business, so there were no more longhorn cattle in my family until 1998 when I started my 'herd'. Click here to see my story about raising Texas Longhorns.
Send e-mail messages to: laura@rafter-h-longhorns,com
This page last updated on May 2, 2004
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