A Champion of Adversity

I’m KayDee Gilkey and welcome to Open Range. Here’s Greg with today’s report.

Thanks KayDee. If you haven’t heard the name Amberley Snyder, it’s someone you need to know. She’s a former Utah FFA state president and National Little Britches Rodeo world champion who is confined to a wheelchair after wrecking her truck and breaking her back.

SNYDER: When I get on my horses I get to leave my wheelchair and my trailer and I get to get on and I forget about that. I strap myself in. I have a seatbelt on my saddle. I have velcro straps that go around my legs to hold them still and I just worry about what I can control. I worry about my balance and my hands in order to really still communicate with my horse while I’m competing.

She still competes in barrel racing and breakaway roping.

SNYDER: I mean there are definitely some challenges when you can’t kick and you can’t cue your horses with your legs but I mean for the most part I feel like it is working out pretty well. My horses have been really good about it though. I don’t have anybody else get on them to retrain them, I didn’t have anybody else try to teach them anything, I just - I got on.

The doctors told her she needed to come to terms with the broken back and find another hobby.

SNYDER: Competing in rodeo, that’s going to be impossible. And I just said, no I don’t think you guys understand this is what I do. This is a part of who I am, this rodeo side of me so I’ll figure out what I’m going to do to do it. Definitely not a hobby. It’s definitely a part of my lifestyle.

More with this incredible woman during next Wednesday’s Agri-Beef Minute. I’m Greg Martin.

Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m KayDee Gilkey.