story by Michele Toberer
Three years with the Rocky Mountain Professional Rodeo Association has been just what Lauren Porter was hoping for. Lauren has qualified for the RMPRA season finals and finished in the top 5 every season since she joined the association in 2017. Lauren is from Payson, Utah and competes as a barrel racer and breakaway roper. She has been competing in rodeo since she was a freshman in high school. “My younger sister Amanda and I were the first in my family to rodeo. We started taking riding lessons and competing in 4-H with horses. We had some friends that were pretty heavily into rodeo and we convinced our parents to let us rodeo. It was a little bit of a disaster trying to rodeo on our 4-H horses, so we upgraded horses, but have never stopped rodeoing!”
Lauren went on to compete in the Utah High School Rodeo Association all four years of high school, until graduating from Payson High School in 2016. She was the Wilderness Circuit Finals Rookie of the year in 2018. Since graduating, Lauren has been attending Weber State University, and is looking forward to her final four semesters before obtaining her medical sonography degree. “I currently work at Utah Valley Hospital taking x-rays while I attend school, but I’m really looking forward to getting a job as an ultrasound technician once I finish my schooling.”
Lauren has been married to Luke Porter for three years, and the couple enjoys roping together. “Luke wasn’t into horses at all before we got married, but now we rope calves together and would like to start team roping together soon. Luke is going to school for a business management degree and currently works in our family-owned paint store, Jones Paint and Glass.” Lauren’s dad, Mark Butler, also works in the family business, and her mom Kim Butler is a stay-at-home mom, keeping up with Lauren, her sister Amanda, 19, and youngest sister, Josie, 9. “She stays busy chasing us all around to rodeos. My parents have been so supportive, and we certainly wouldn’t have all that we do without them. None of this would even be a thing without their support.”
Since she was a junior in high school, Lauren has been competing on her 15-year-old sorrel mare, Holly. “We call her Satan’s Mistress because she is not a genuinely nice or kind horse at all. But, she’s a good rodeo horse. She has her job and wants to do it and go home. She doesn’t like any horses around her and has quite an attitude, but I think she is just the greatest.”
“I love rodeo and the community of rodeo people are the best. I love the environment and the energy of the crowds and the contestants at rodeos. I could obviously just go to barrel races, but there is nothing like running at a rodeo. And, the RMPRA puts on some great events and always makes sure to have the ground exactly right for us barrel racers, which is important to us. There is just a great group of people in the RMPRA always trying to do their best and that make it such a good environment. I don’t really have any other hobbies, I pretty much do school, work, and rodeo; it’s what defines me.”
One of Lauren’s main goals for the future besides finishing her schooling, is to win some money in breakaway roping so she can qualify for the RMPRA finals in both barrel racing and breakaway roping and earn an RMPRA title.
Lauren appreciates the army of people that have been in her corner along the way. “Everyone from the vets helping keep horses sound, to people giving me pointers and helping me find good horses, have been so appreciated. I could give names, but the list would be endless.”
