Dream Team

I had really good success at Rocky Top with three of my partners, but the coolest part was winning the girls roping with my best friend, Jessy Remsburg. We’d already won the girls roping in Jacksonville at the [2017] NTRL National Finals, and we’ve been roping together for her entire life. She’s from Florida, but now she lives in Alabama and Texas, and works for Beverly Robbins, but whenever we are in the same place and have a girls roping, we always enter. We had no success whatsoever until this year, so that was kind of the highlight.

Horse Business

I started roping 25 years ago when I met my husband, Ray, who no longer ropes.

We are ranchers. I raise beef cattle and roping cattle. All of my family is in the horse business. My nephew is on the United States Equestrian Team, my dad’s a veterinarian, and my mom’s 75 and still rides two or three horses a day.

Miss Independent

I’m a loner. My husband is so supportive, but I do this by myself. I travel by myself, every place—Vegas; Arizona—but I’m okay with that. I wish my husband roped, but he doesn’t, and I like to be by myself. And, I really love my horses and my dog, and I’m okay traveling around the world with them.

Committed to the Cause

In the winter, I have a lot of people in and out. Everybody wants to come to Florida during the winter. But, from May until October, I have no one to practice with, so I drive two-and-a-half hours to Jay Holmes’ Triple J Ranch in Sarasota. They have a beautiful indoor facility, and they’re kind enough to let me stay a day or two (or three) every week or two.

Weathering the Weather

I don’t get to practice much at all in the summer. It rains every day in South Florida, so you have to rope around it. I’m finished for the summer. My horses won’t get saddled again until Sept. 15.

Having that time off works well for them. I came from the horse show world and polo and in the polo world, all the horses, they all get 90 days off. Pull their shoes. Turn them out. Leave them alone. Let them play and be horses. Then, they get them back up and fit and go right back to it. So I still have that mentality.

Save It for the Roping

I’m such a bit fanatic. I’m a lover of bits. I have hundreds. Nobody goes in the same thing twice, until I find the magic bit, then I rope in that. But, I don’t warm up in it and I do not ranch on them in it.

I try to save their mouth as much as I can for roping. I like my horses to be really light and in my hand, and I don’t want that feel to ever become numb, so I just ride outside in something else and sometimes break it up with a hackamore and try to stay out of their mouth.