story by Lindsay Humphrey
“In the KPRA, everybody welcomes you in like they’ve known you their whole life,” said Makaylah Rhodes who’s originally from Eagle Point, Oregon, but made her way to Dodge City by way of a rodeo scholarship in 2019 to the community college. “It’s a really good community of people. There are so many people in it, like Leon, that treat me like family, and I know that every rodeo I go to I’ll be okay because someone is there for me.” As a tried and true out of towner, Makaylah’s embraced the Midwest the same way it’s wrapped her up in a warm embrace. College wasn’t always in the plan for her life though.
“When I was in Oregon, I was loping and saddling horses for Todd Bergan at his reining and cutting facility. My dad [Mark] begged and pleaded that I would go to school. A good friend of ours knew the coach at Dodge City and got the conversation started for getting me a scholarship to rodeo for them.” It was all rodeo and riding for Makaylah, so it was an easy sell getting her to Kansas. “I had $2,500 in my pocket, loaded up my truck and trailer with a borrowed horse and I headed south.”
Growing up, Makaylah didn’t live on a ranch or come from a family naturally inclined to rodeo. Before having Makaylah and her brother Clayton with their mom, Tracey, Mark was a day working cowboy and then he became an electrician. “My dad had an old rope horse and what I really wanted to do was barrel race, but he told me if I learned to rope, he would take me to rodeo. And so, I did. I started roping when I was 14. We had an old, old blue Ford and a little red two horse bumper pull and he took me every chance he could to practice.” Mark always made sure Makaylah had good horses to rope on even if that wasn’t his initial intention with each horse he purchased. “He was roping too, and he would get these really nice horses and I’d start roping on them. I ended up stealing most of them from him. He always made sure he got me down the road to do what I wanted to do, but I had to work for it because nothing ever came free from him. Dad always took care of me in that and helped me.”
Where the horsepower came from her dad back in Oregon, in Kansas Makaylah had to work for it even harder than before. “At first, I was borrowing a horse until my dad’s got better after getting hurt and then he shipped him out to me and I breakaway roped on him at college rodeos. But then COVID hit.” College rodeo was effectively canceled until further notice, so Makaylah shipped the Shining Spark gelding back home to Oregon. When rodeos finally started back up, she was fresh out of horse flesh again. A small, sorrel mare came into Makaylah’s life about that time. “This little mare [Gucci] was used at a feedyard before I got her and she was just a loan, but I made her into a breakaway horse. I only had her three months before I was roping on her at college rodeos. She was green, but she would run right out there and just let me rope.”
After college rodeo was over, Gucci went back to her owner. Makaylah tried to buy her, but her owner wouldn’t budge at the time. After going through another horse from her dad, Makaylah put together enough money to finally buy Gucci. “I’ll probably have this horse for the rest of her life. I was a rookie in the KPRA last year and it was her first year of really hauling hard. All I wanted to do was make the KPRA finals on her in the breakaway and she did that for me.” In the fall, Makaylah and Gucci are headed to Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva to complete a bachelor’s degree in health and human performance with the intention of becoming a physical therapist one day, if horses don’t work out of course. “Ever since I left for school, my dad hasn’t roped much – probably because I had all his horses – but now he’s getting back into it and I’m excited for him in that. I want to thank him for everything he’s done to let me live out the dream that he didn’t get to.”
