Millie Joe’s desktop showing her digitally created cutting arena.
When traveling between horse shows, there can be a lot of down time. And when you’re hauling your kids along with horses, keeping everyone entertained and occupied can sometimes be a challenge. But 12-year-old Millie Joe Rosenberg has found an interesting way to occupy her time in the car. She creates cutting horse arenas online.
Millie Joe, the daughter of non-pro cutter Missy Jean Rosenberg, of Bush, Louisiana, was traveling from Oklahoma City, where she had competed in the Non Pro Plus The Open in the Amateur and Youth classes. While making the long haul home, she enjoyed playing Minecraft, a game she has been playing for several years.
Minecraft is a popular video game that allows players to create and build 3D-generated worlds using textured cubes. In fact, that is what the whole game is based on, breaking and placing these cubes to create various constructions. If the game sounds strange, it is. Players can choose a variety of gameplay modes and explore, gather resources, build, and engage in combat. It is an “open world” game, meaning there are no real goals. Players are free to choose how they want to play. So Millie Joe decided to create a cutting horse arena out of these 3D cubes, complete with turnback horses and comfy judges’ chairs. And she can actually cut the cows!
As one explores the world of Minecraft, the player will encounter a number of non-player characters and animals, like cows and chickens. Players can actually spawn these animals to make more. So Millie Joe spawned a cow to create her own herd.
Millie Joe can saddle her virtual horse and actually cut digital cows! This is the view from the back of her horse.
As Millie Joe explained, “They recently added horses, and you can tame them with apples.” Once tamed, the player can saddle the horse and change the point of view to that from the back of the horse.
“There are a bunch of different-colored horses to choose from,” she said. “However, the cows are all one color. You can lead a cow out, and they try to get back.”
Millie Joe uses the keyboard to control her horse. When asked what it was like to cut a digital cow, she said, “The babies are fast, and it glitches.” Kind of like real-world cutting!
Millie Joe’s cutting arena has good dirt, comfy judges’ chairs, reliable herd help, and lively cows!
Millie Joe said her next project is to construct Will Rogers Coliseum. “I’ve been wanting to do Fort Worth for a long time.” She will get a front-row seat to plan her creation. She will be putting down her digital cutting world to jump into the real one. She will be competing at the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Summer Spectacular in July. We can’t wait to see her version of the iconic Will Rogers Coliseum!
Millie Joe trains with cutting professional Ed Dufurrena, and she has an Equi-Stat record of $13,081. While at the Non Pro Plus The Open, Millie Joe competed on 2001 red roan gelding Mr Peppy Pepto (Peptoboonsmal x Tequiero Peppy x Peppy San Badger), who has $96,829 in earnings, and Light Of Grace (CD Lights x Graciela Dual x Dual Pep), a 2009 mare that her mom owns. The mare has earned $68,124 and is among CD Lights’ top 10 offspring. She’s a half-sister to CD Graceful Dual ($185,964) and full sister to Dual Lights ($157,242).
