Amelia English

story by Lily Weinacht

photo by Christopher “Click” Thompson

“I just love rodeo in itself,” says Amelia English, APRA member for nine years. “I always have a goal each year that drives me to where I’m going. I’ve got that rodeo bug, and I don’t think I could ever sit at home again! You get started and it’s like this terrible addiction, and you keep passionately doing it!”

Amelia, 30, grew up in New York state. She loved horses like many a young girl, but didn’t come from a family that had animals, let alone horses. When Amelia was four, her dad brought home an old Shetland pony that lived out its last years with the Englishes. A few years later, Amelia was 11 and some friends gave her a retired fox hunting horse, Markey, who taught her many of her lessons about horses and riding. From there, Amelia was exposed to rodeo through friends that competed locally, but she made up her mind that if she was going to rodeo, she would do it as a bull rider. “I went to a Mike Swearingen rodeo school and tried the bull riding,” Amelia recalls. “The first one I tried I fell off of, and that bull stepped on me and ripped my pants off! I said, ‘That’s it! I’m buying a barrel horse!’”

So she did. Amelia and Tex barrel raced locally until Amelia went to college in Pennsylvania at Lancaster Bible College. She boarded her horse and started competing in APRA rodeos. Today, Amelia is a wife, registered nurse, and mother of three, but she still finds time to rodeo. “The only downfall of rodeo is being away from home and not being able to see the kids,” she says. “That can make for a long week, but I love it when they can come with me.”

Amelia and her husband, Tracy, have three sons, Dalton, 12, Chase, four, and Clayton, three. The English family lives in Dalton, N.Y. Their farm is home to numerous horses, as well as a pony each for Chase and Clayton. Amelia and Tracy also own Broken B Rodeo Company, which Tracy formed in 1997. They raise bucking bulls and lease them, as well as putting on bull ridings and providing stock for several Southern Extreme Bull Riding Association (SEBRA) events. They do eight to 12 rodeos a year. Tracy is a former APRA bull rider, having made the AFR 12 times. He also competed in the PRCA Frontier Circuit Finals, where he won his event in 1993 and ‘94, also winning the bull riding at the Dodge National Circuit Finals the same two years. “He is a great motivator and supporter, and my parents are always supportive in every way,” Amelia says.

In addition to running the farm with Tracy and raising their boys, Amelia is a RN (registered nurse) at a hospital, where she works the evening shift three nights a week. She finds the time to exercise and condition her two horses several times a week. Her gelding, Rocky, has been her main mount for the last ten years, and recently, Amelia added a mare named Dirty to the herd in the fall of 2013. Dirty has proven a quick learner and has become Amelia’s main horse.

Every year, Amelia chooses several goals that she hopes to achieve.”This year, I definitely want to make it to the AFR again, and I’ve been going to a lot of IPRA rodeos, so I would love to continue working on qualifying for the IFR.” She concludes, “At rodeos, I stop before I get on and say a prayer, praising God for my horse and the privilege of being able to rodeo.”