06/09/2023
𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏….
What follows is a story that I have joked many times about sharing some day when I win something big enough to get interviewed, but I decided why wait to inspire someone until later!
I was born in Oregon, into a family that does not rodeo at all. My dad wanted to name me “April Rose”, but my name became April Anne instead when my mom shot back with the statement, “That’s a name for a country singer or a cowgirl” …turns out God has a sense of humor doesn’t He.
I was either born with the bug or at that moment she spoke it into existence because I have always had the horse obsession. I started off riding English horses, and whoever’s unbroke pony they would let me crawl onto and get run off with. Just to crawl back on and get run off with again and again. Allllll day long.
Eventually I up with a cheap counterfeit cow horse named Red as my first horse, to be followed by Calvin the cripple. I remember back then how we couldn’t fathom injecting a horse to keep using them. Calvin was blood bay, and that’s how Hobbes got his name, he looked just like him when he was born.
A friend invited me to try High School Rodeo so of course I went for it, and I was terrible… like, got my zebra breast collar, wonder bit on upside down kind of awful. For the high school rodeos mom and I would drive a Ford Excursion, 2 horse bumper pull and pitch a tent no matter the weather.
One day at Condon rodeo I watched the breakaway roping and told my mom, “I’m going to do that.”
The next step follows like this….
I went and bought a rope from the feed store (probably a heel rope, idk?!) and then I taught myself to rope off of YouTube.
For “realistic practice”, my mom would put on a helmet, lean forwards and run through the pasture, and I would rope her. This is not a lie, ask the neighbors 😂😂
Along the way I fell into the hands of some amazing horsemen, which is what helped me not die, and saved my mom several laps across the field. When I look back on a few of those people that so graciously chose to share their knowledge with me, I just wish I knew then how valuable what I was learning was. Specifically, the man that really taught me about making a rope horse is an incredibly talented show horse trainer. In my shoes, to learn in that environment first was irreplaceable and invaluable for the rest of my journey. Unfortunately, I had no idea then how lucky I was, I always say I wish I would’ve shut up and listened more to him.
Between then and now even in my barrel racing times I just wanted to rope. I would skip school to go to the sale barn to buy calves of any kind, for some reason the set of outlaw longhorns sticks out in my mind most 🫣 At certain times I chose to run barrels truly just because I didn’t have the access to what I needed to pursue roping, rather I had a patch of desert and 3 trash cans and well, for someone like me doing anything on a horse is better than waiting for life to be perfect!
One summer I was rear-ended by a Semi while driving between rodeos in Portland. My horses had to be cut out of the trailer and very long story short sustained several injuries that I was told were “career ending”, cue my obsession of equine rehab and therapy.
I spent the next several years, & up to this day still learning everything I can find to learn from anyone or anything that will offer information about the mechanics of a horse and how to optimize it. Whether that be hands on bodywork classes, apprenticeships, veterinary partnerships, machines, nutrition, shoeing, saddles, bits, dentistry, anything and everything! This was never a career I chose, it chose me out of my love for horses and a desire to find a way to see them do what they loved again. Honestly I’ve tried to quit a few times, it never works. The universe won’t allow it 😂
And by the way, those horses in the semi accident absolutely did return to their designated jobs, but even more importantly taught me so much!
Somewhere in here some breeding came into the picture, lots of moving and even more long days and tears but the moral of the story is, when I look back at “little April”, I know she would be so elated to see that this is where she is headed.
To me, sitting here in this photo on a horse I raised at a pro rodeo somewhere in Texas, with a barn full of rehab horses waiting at home just really proves there is a God that has a plan way bigger than anything our little hearts can possibly dream of. Because of this, I get to share the gifts He gave me with others and their horses- and live by gratitude and the deepest faith for His process💕
I share this to shed a little more understanding on my wildly optimistic mentality, if I could go from upside down wonder bit to this, basically anything is possible! You don’t have to be born into it to find your way, you really just have to be relentless and humble when you are taught✨
