MaryBeth Beam is leading the breakaway Resistol Rookie of the Year field by $2,781, a feat that becomes even more impressive when the context of a catastrophic hip injury and recovery is added to the equation.

Beam, whose family runs a cow-calf operation in Terrell, Texas, was roping and loading wily yearling cattle into a trailer. In a “swamp bottom,” in early September 2022, things came undone.

All hung up

“I’ve been in quite a few wrecks in my life, but that one tops my list,” Beam, 18, said of the fateful day. “I was gathering some yearlings in the pasture. There were some wild ones we were roping, tying down and dragging into the trailer. I was pulling one into the trailer and it cut behind me and got the rope under my horse’s tail. He got scared and took off bucking. I was trying to bail but I was tied off in the saddle. I eventually shot off to the right side and my foot hung in my stirrup, flipping me and dislocating my hip.”

Beam sustained what was likely a fracture in the head of her femur in her right hip, according to Doctor Tandy Freeman—although they didn’t know that at the time. It felt deeply bruised, but she could hobble around on crutches. As her last “first” high school rodeo approached days later, Beam was determined to compete.

“I won the rodeo the first day, and the second day I stood up to run my second one across the line—and everybody heard my hip pop,” Beam said. “I’d gotten what they call a trauma injury. The impact of the dislocation and concussion when I stood up in my saddle split the ball of the femur open like an orange with a slice out of it.”

Beam was wheelchair bound and ordered to be non-weight bearing on her right leg. For the teen with Resistol Rookie of the Year dreams, the news was a speed bump in her fall plans.

“I had a ton of rodeos planned out in the fall, and when I got in my wreck and we had to keep pushing the days till I could compete back, I was thinking Rookie was not in the books for me this year,” Beam said. “But there was hard headedness in me, that I had set my mind to going for the Rookie and nothing was going to change my mind.”

MaryBeth Beam’s coming back

Beam began roping the dummy from a seated position almost immediately. The family opted out of hip replacement surgery because of Beam’s young age and the 10-year lifespan of hip replacements. Instead, Beam was going to heal naturally.

After a month in the wheelchair, she began using crutches. Using MagnaWave PEMF, red light therapy and anti-inflammatory medication, Beam began getting stronger—her upper body especially due to her seated roping skills.

In November she began to rope the sled at a walk on her horses, taking care not to put pressure on her right leg. By December she was off crutches and roping a near-full speed again.

Beam began gaining momentum in late spring, her earnings climbing from $4,000 territory to their current $13,727. She caught checks at Texas Rodeos including Rodeo El Paso, Johnson County Sheriff’s Posse Rodeo in Cleburne, and the Mt. Pleasant Rodeo. One of her biggest moves so far was advancing to the short round at the Reno Rodeo, where she earned a total of $1,368.

MaryBeth Beam’s horse string

Beam has two main horses with different strengths; 18-year-old Spike and 26-year-old Get Around.

Spike, registered as “Playing Spades,” (Justa Hickory Spade x Golden Playgirl 107 x Docs Stormy Playboy) was used as a head horse by five-time NFR header Tyler Wade in 2016. A big, sorrel gelding with a blaze and no tiedown, Spike is memorable.

“He won’t push into a tiedown, so I don’t ride him in one,” Beam said. “He’s great for shorter scores because he doesn’t like running that far down the arena.”

Beam’s second horse is Get Around, a tall and lanky gelding she’s used as a barrel horse for more than a decade—and now uses for longer breakaway setups.

“He’s not very pretty but he gets the job done,” Beam said. “Before I had him, some college kids had him and they did everything on him. Headed, heeled, bulldogged, tied goats—anything you could do they did on this horse.”

Get Around was named for his ability to “get around” a barrel, and he’s sired by Playin Safari, by Freckles Playboy. On the bottom side Get Around has names like Doc’s Lynx and Doc Bar on his papers.

With her two geldings in the trailer, Beam is keeping words from fellow ProRodeo ropers Danielle Lowman, Nicole Baggerly and Hope Thompson close to her heart.

“They told me I couldn’t back down, and I had to go after every calf like it was my last,” Beam said. “I tell myself that every time I back in the box—I am going for No. 1 every time I back in the box.”