2013 BARREL RACING RECORDS Women’s Professional Rodeo Association 431 S. Cascade Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Phone (719) 447-4726 • Fax (719) 447-4631 www.wpra.com “Last year was the heartbreak of my during a barrel race. She shattered her pel- Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days. In all, Dreams life,” said Walker, who combined a fantas- vis, broke her hip in three places, had two Walker and Latte won more than a dozen Really Do tic regular season with a dominating per- fractured vertebrae and suffered two bro- rodeo titles, from Ada, Okla., to Window formance at the Wrangler National Finals ken toes. She had surgery, where doctors Rock, Ariz., to the All-American ProRo- Come True Rodeo to win the barrel racing gold buckle. used eight plates and 11 pins to stabilize deo Finals. “To go through what I went through last her hip, and she was in a wheelchair for Oh, and Latte was named WPRA/AQHA By Ted Harbin year and to fight your head, you have to get about four months. Horse of the Year. hen a child dies, life can be- up and do something, anything. You have Every inch rolled in that chair turned “That meant everything,” said Mary come unimaginable. The grief to be willing to do the things you have to into motivation, but that’s what happens Walker, who had planned to use 2012 to is overwhelming, and living W do.” inside the hearts of world champions. just season Latte on the rodeo trail; the each day is a challenge. Reagon Walker died in April 2011, the “People have accidents, and they still gold buckle seems to fit OK anyway. “It To make it through, it takes the mind of victim of a car wreck. He was 21 years old drive,” said Walker of Ennis, Texas. “I was just like it was meant to be. Everything a champion, the willingness to maneuver – just old enough to begin living his adult thought, ‘I have that nice horse in the barn. that happened this year just fell into place.” through this world through the heartache, life and way too young to die. But young I either need to get up and try him, or sell the despair, the roller coasters this life has people die each day, and Byron and Mary him.’ ” Knowing What It Takes delivered. Mary Walker knows every step Walker know that all too well. They said of that process, from the days of not want- goodbye to their baby boy when the rest of A Horse To Race To Win Gold ing to get out of bed because her heart hurt us can only imagine the what-ifs, the pain. That horse is an 8-year-old black gelding Byron Walker is the 1981 world cham- just too much to the days of finding the will That was just the first – and most painful she calls Latte, out of Curiocity Corners by pion steer wrestler who competed at the to saddle a horse and ride in the grassland. – situation in the most challenging of her Dash for Perks. NFR 16 times. His gold buckle win came She has the mind of a champion. She has 53 years. Less than two months later, she “Byron purchased him for me on May 31 years ago, and it was directly after he the heart of a world champion. and her great horse, Perculatin, went down 17, 2011,” Walker said. “I had actually led the world standings in earnings in a been riding him six months prior to that. previous year. The girl who owned him wanted him fin- The only reason he didn’t win gold ear- ished out for a rodeo horse. I got my hands lier was because the Professional Rodeo on him, and I had to teach him how to run. Cowboys Association had changed the I knew there was something in him that I rules to rewarding the highest NFR money needed to get out. earners with the world titles. That’s how “Finally Byron decided he was the one Chris LeDoux won his world tile, even we needed to buy. I didn’t own him but though Joe Alexander had earned $19,000 about a month before I got hurt. He got six more than the No. 2 man on the money list. months off after that.” Byron Walker finished atop the money It took a little time for Walker to reha- list in 1978 and was runner-up in 1979. bilitate her injuries. In the interim, Byron And after 16 times in the sport’s grand fi- Walker mounted Latte three or four days nale, he knows a thing or two about what it a week, but they didn’t run the pattern to- takes to compete at a high level. gether. When Mary Walker was cleared to “At my age, at our age, it means a whole ride again, she and Latte went to work. lot more,” he said. “When you’re plus 50, “I bet he was glad to get that heavy sad- you wrote off a world title 10 plus years dle off him,” she said. ago, and you didn’t think there would be He must have been quite happy. He re- any more. If it did happen, it would be Re- Mary Walker entered the 2012 Wrangler NFR ranked third behind world champions Brittany Pozzi and Lindsay sponded to everything that happened af- agon’s.” Sears. However it didn’t take the Ennis, Texas, cowgirl long to chip away at the money difference winning the Unfortunately, fate had other plans. first three rounds at her first Wrangler NFR as a competitor en route to her first gold buckle. WPRA photo by terward, from running at small rodeos in Mike Copeman Texas to winning the “Daddy of ’em All,” Wrangler NFR. It was in Las Vegas where pect as a competitor. Walker excelled. She won the first three “Mary got upset with me trying to get go-rounds, then again in the seventh. She organized,” Byron Walker said. “I tried to also placed on four other nights. explain to her what happens when you win In all, she won $146,941 in 10 nights in a go-round at the finals. It’s real easy when the City of Lights, earning more money you don’t win the round, because nobody inside the Thomas & Mack Center than wants to talk to you. But if you win the anyone else and setting a new WPRA NFR round, you’re going to be with the media at earnings record that was previously held least an hour before you see anybody you by Sherry Cervi with $146,100 set in 2009. came to the rodeo with.” For that, she earned a pickup for winning That’s why the Walkers had plenty of the Ram Truck Top Gun Award. She fin- help, and she realized on the first night the ished the season with $274,233, about importance of a solid team, but there was $70,000 ahead of the No. 2 cowgirl in the much for Mary to figure out on her own. land, Carlee Pierce of Stephenville, Texas. “Watching Byron participate at the fi- “With Mary’s story, you can be noth- nals, you knew it was a small arena,” she ing but happy for her,” said Brenda Mays, said. “But I never got into the arena sitting a Terrebonne, Ore., cowgirl who won the in the stands. That first morning they let us Wrangler NFR average with a cumulative work, we walked in there, and I could not Mary Walker served as an inspiration to all during her trek to her first gold buckle. Along the way she won time of 141.70 seconds on 10 rides. “It believe it. The timer’s right at the alley- more money than any contestant at the Wrangler NFR, $146,941 to win the Ram Truck Top Gun award and was her first year here, and she breaks out. way. It was a lot different, then you have a brand new Ram Truck. Bareback rider Kaycee Field, who won the Top Gun award in 2011, finished second A year ago, she was in a wheelchair. I’m with $135,211. WPRA photo by Kenneth Springer the camera pit, which is right over there by speechless for her.” the first barrel. You don’t realize how close This Was A Tuf Ride “That was the year I won my first world A Run To The you come to the camera pit every night.” title,” Cooper wrote on a Facebook post. Finish Apparently, she got it all figured out. About 40 years ago, Byron Walker and “Reagon and I never got the chance to “Everybody was pretty excited for her,” Roy Cooper stood side by side for a photo get our picture taken. This year his mom, Many people were speechless for the Byron Walker said. “There are very few showing off their championship saddles. Mary, won her first world title on a horse Walkers. Few could imagine what it’s like times when someone wins a world cham- That was 1973. The young men vowed that Byron bought for her after Reagon to lose a child; more could never under- pionship that everyone’s happy, but I think then to take a photo together when they had passed, and we got to live out Reagon and stand how someone could dream of com- she was the favorite of all the girls.” won ProRodeo’s gold. They did just eight I’s dream together.” peting at an elite level after such pain and Mary Walker was the fan favorite for years later.