story by Lindsay Humphrey
Lindsey Adcock comes by her need for speed honestly. She’s the third generation to raise and train Quarter Horses, but she’s taking it in a whole new direction than her parents and grandparents. “We raised horses while I was growing up, so we always had racehorses in our yard,” said the breakaway roper from Belen, New Mexico. “It all started when my brother got into riding, and I wanted to be part of that. We had some older horses that we rode through the leadline, but once we got into rodeo, we had to find our own horses for that.” Lindsey’s mom was a former barrel racer, so it’s not surprising that she retrained one of the racehorses on the cloverleaf pattern. “I won a lot of awards and buckles on that ex racehorse. He was the start of my winning spree and that’s how I found my love for competition.”
She eventually became known for her quick hands in the goat tying. She won state in the event multiple times in both junior high and high school. “Those were some really proud moments for me because I had worked really hard at being a good tier.” Lindsey took her goat tying to the next level at Eastern New Mexico State University. She made nationals four times – 2014-2018. “Goat tying was my favorite, until it started hurting too much from my body giving out. I switched my focus to breakaway roping because I knew it was going to be big.” Even though Lindsey went to the CNFR three years in a row in the goat tying, she made it her senior year in the breakaway. “I’d been labeled a goat tier my entire life, so to make it in something else was exciting. And it was my first real taste of a new event that I could be successful at.”
Intending to get into the oil and gas industry, Lindsey’s career path has taken an interesting turn. “While I was in college, I had the opportunity to work as a subcontractor dealing with pre-engineered metal buildings. I give credit to my love of learning for making me realize that I would enjoy being a general contractor. I’ve been in construction four years now, and I’ve been in my current role for two of those.” Lindsey’s expertise is in high demand all across the state right now; she’s working on multiple projects in several different locations. “It’s fun to construct all these buildings all over the state and I get to put my name on them, it’s pretty cool. Construction is very volatile. One day things are going smooth and no problems but then the next day the whole world is on fire. You never know what’s going to happen.” Her days start at 6 and end 12 hours later at 6. This doesn’t leave a ton of time for roping.
“I like breakaway roping because I can just get behind the dummy to practice at night and I only need one person in the arena to help. I plan to get back to team roping when things settle down.” It doesn’t look like life will do that any time soon since Lindsey is planning a wedding for the end of 2022 to her fiancée Ty Baker. “We met in college, and we were really good friends for a long time. Things seemed right, so we started dating and then he proposed last December.” Lindsey owes a big thanks to both Ty and his parents for her success as well as her parents. They’ve gone above and beyond to help Lindsey be successful while she was growing up and now in the NMRA.
“I like competing in the NMRA because I grew up with a lot of the people entering it and it’s nice to be around people that I’ve known my whole life. I don’t think there is nearly enough rodeo promotion in the state, but the NMRA is a doing a good job of rectifying that. I think it’s great that they’re trying to have more rodeos in the state.”
