COWGIRL Life

IN AN INSTANT

By Ken Amorosano

Rodeo athlete Amberley Snyder builds back her life against unimaginable odds.

Along a lonesome stretch of highway outside Rawlins, Wyoming, on a frigid winter afternoon in 2010, 19 year-old rodeo barrel racer Amberley Snyder was driving towards her next competition when she was momentarily distracted.

She was ejected from the vehicle with such force that her petite body snapped a fencepost, moving it and the attached wires some 20 feet. 

Coming to rest on her back in a snowbank, her mangled pickup truck lay silent as the impact of the accident began to set in. 

She could not feel her legs.

Perhaps it was fate that she survived the crash. She didn’t have her seat belt fastened and it could be what saved her life considering the extreme damage inflicted upon the truck cab.

Her only thoughts were how to get back on her horse and if she would ever be able to ride and compete again.

However determined, Amberley soon soon met the realities head on.

Riding and managing her horses was never going to be the same again.

It was just a matter of months after the accident that she climbed back atop her beloved horse and ten years later her story continues to inspire.

In 2019, a movie about her life, "Walk. Ride. Rodeo," premiered on Netflix.

As a motivational speaker, she travels extensively and has crafted a career that serves as a way to make a living as well as way to give back.

Amberley Snyder is a goal setter and has accomplished almost everything she has set her mind to.

She still competes in rodeo and travels extensively, sharing her inspiring story and helping others who find themselves in similar situations.

Amberley Snyder is an inspiration!