So often, it’s the person doing the roping who gets all the publicity.

But, as we get ready to head out for another summer on the road, I want make sure everyone who is following the sport of breakaway knows something important. It’s not just us out here alone making all of this work all by ourselves.

There are so many people behind every single roper, and there are least two to three people each of us can’t do it without. I know it’s cliché, but there are people that it is not possible without.

When I need to rely on somebody, I can rest easy that my right-hand-woman, Cheyenne Britain, has got it. She’s a rockstar. Not just for me, but everybody around here who knows who she is. She could go anywhere she wanted and be successful at anything she tries, but she’s stuck around with us.

Cheyenne is invaluable. She’s on our team, and she takes her job so seriously. Every person who’s successful has to have that someone, and I’m so glad Cheyenne is our someone.

You see, Billie Bray introduced her to me when she was 16 or 17, and she came out for a roping lesson. Then Charly asked if she’d work for him and help him get ready for the Finals, saddling horses and taking ropes off. She came out and did that and really never left. She’s 25 now, and she has become part of the family. 

It’s fun to work on her roping and her horses together, too. She’s got some really, really nice young horses. She’ll jump in the rig and enter, too. When we go in the summer, the kids are not her responsibility. I hire a babysitter so it’s horses and roping. She’s so particular, she won’t let me boot my own horse up. Everyone thinks I make her saddle, but if I try to do it, she gets angry. She has a certain, particular way for everything. And it’s those bits of attention to detail that absolutely elevate my program.