Braylee Shepherd has won breakaway roping’s 2023 Resistol Rookie of the Year title in commanding fashion, garnering a total of $38,773 throughout the ProRodeo season.
“Winning this means a lot because I fought the fight in and outside the arena,” Shepherd said. “I never gave up, never stopped pushing and never stopped looking at the end goal of Rookie of the Year—and did what I could with what I had.”
Shepherd’s top 2023 paydays included winning the Big Fork Summer ProRodeo in Montana for $3,788 and Utah’s Own Rodeo at the Utah State Fair in Salt Lake City for $2,408 as well as tying for No. 1 at the Mt. Pleasant Rodeo in Texas for $2,077.
She competed in 68 rodeos throughout the 2023 season to best the competition by $8,073.
2023 Breakaway Resistol Rookie of the Year Results
| Rank | Athlete | Money | Rodeo Count |
| 1 | Braylee Shepherd | $38,772.87 | 68 |
| 2 | Shaya Biever | $30,699.55 | 54 |
| 3 | MaryBeth Beam | $27,201.56 | 90 |
| 4 | Rylee A George | $24,004.64 | 93 |
| 5 | Jacelyn Frost | $21,934.58 | 65 |
A season of trials
The 19-year-old from Fitzhugh, Oklahoma, started the season with once-in-a-lifetime horse “Dollar,” but lost him to cancer in February.
“I thought I was going to have longer with Dollar, and I wanted to go rodeo hard when I had him,” Shepherd said. “My main goal was to set up for Rookie of the Year with him. I wanted to rope on him at RodeoHouston.”
Instead, Shepherd learned one of life’s timeless lessons.
“Putting him down really changed things for me. It shaped who I am as a roper and made me realize sometimes you have to accept the struggle. I looked at that as a learning moment.”
As if losing her No. 1 horse wasn’t enough, Shepherd was plagued with issues many ProRodeo cowboys encounter on the road. Her Rookie season was peppered with tire problems, axle problems and an accident after the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Oregon, where, feeling like she was being hazed by a careless trucker, she took a curve too quickly and slid into the right-side ditch, where large rocks ruined the frame of her trailer.
But for every tough moment, there was a helping hand ready to pick her back up.
“I would tell an aspiring rookie to always focus on the goals you set and keep fighting for it.” – Braylee Shepherd
Making good on “Promise”
After Dollar’s passing, Shepherd tried competing on his half sibling, but the mare wasn’t the caliber she needed for ProRodeo. That’s when word got back to Lari Dee Guy and Hope Thompson about Shepherd’s situation, and they lent her a horse named “Promise.”
“She and I progressed together,” Shepherd said. “The toughest part was that I didn’t know what to expect from her, though. I had only ridden her for a week or so when I started rodeoing on her.”
The challenge gave Shepherd the opportunity to put her lessons learned into practice.
“Throughout the summer I kept the same mentality with her that I had with everything else, make do with what I’ve got and fill out the things I needed to work past. Like standing in the corner and handling crowd noise. Don’t pick at it too much. As we went, she got better.”
Thompson and Guy have generously agreed to let Shepherd ride Promise through the 2024 winter rodeos, so rodeo fans still have a chance to see the two in action.
Looking forward
“After this year, I’m not setting any goals too high,” Shepherd said. “I am just keeping them in arms reach and really focusing on doing my job at the winter rodeos like Houston and Austin.”.
After the winter rodeos wrap up, Shepherd will be stepping on personal gelding “Peso,” who she hauled all summer to prepare for 2024.
“I bought him in 2022 from Shelby (Boisjoli),” Shepherd said. “He didn’t have much roping on him when I got him, but he’d been shown in the reined cowhorse, so he was pretty broke and cool.”
Shepherd was able to win a check on the 7-year-old this year, too, at the City of Champions Professional Rodeo in Artesia, New Mexico.
About the Resistol Rookie of the Year Award
Shepherd will be honored alongside her fellow Resistol Rookies of the Year at the South Point Hotel & Casino on Dec. 12, 2023, during the ninth annual luncheon. There, the Rookies will receive trophy saddles and personalized Resistol hats, among other prizes.
Resistol has supported the Rookie of the Year award since its inception. The Rookie of the Year title was first awarded in the WPRA in 1967 to barrel racer Patti Mack-Prather, and the PRCA began consistently awarding the title in 1977. In 2021, Madison Outhier was crowned the first-ever Resistol Rookie Breakaway Roper of the Year.
