Madalyn Richards wasn’t even a top 100 breakaway roper in the WPRA when she rolled into the Greeley Stampede in Colorado, but that didn’t keep the junior in college from navigating her way through the go rounds and finals to clinch the aggregate championship June 29, 2023.

Richards entered the Greeley Stampede because it was on the drive home to Hereford, Texas, from the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming, where she won a reserve national championship in goat tying. She roped her Greeley calves in 2.8, 2.2 and 2.6 seconds for a 7.6-second aggregate time, earning $9,629 and bumping her to No. 34 in WPRA ProRodeo standings with $16,519 in winnings.

“Throughout the go rounds, I just tried to stay focused on the process,” Richards, 20, said. “A lot of things had happened personally, so I wasn’t really focused on roping. I was so surprised during my Cowboy Channel interview afterwards because my calf was not supposed to be a round winner. I think part of the success was that [my mindset] changed my roping because I was finally relaxed and not forcing it.”

“Dually”

Another factor in Richard’s success is a gelding that has been in her life for more than a decade—Dually.

Now 15-years-old, “Duallys Been Cattin” has come a long way to be the winning breakaway horse he is now.

“He’s always been crazy in the box, especially when I was younger and trying to rope on him,” Richards explained. “So, in high school and my freshman year of college, I just ran barrels on him. He was pretty good, and I roped on him a little, but I couldn’t practice on him because he was so much in the box. He’s finally old enough—and so am I—that we’re a little more mature.”

In 2022, Dually’s hocks began bothering him and he was diagnosed with a degenerative joint disease similar to arthritis that saw his hock joints fuse. His prognosis was uncertain, but after the fusion in December 2022, it became clear Dually was going to make a comeback.

“He’s made a huge difference in my confidence” Richards said. “The [backup] horse I had been riding was good, but not as good as Dually. You just have to be very quiet with him in the box.”

After so many years together, Richards knows how to get it done with Dually.

“I don’t mess around in there. I usually get in there and nod my head. When he gets in the corner, he stands like a statue, but it’s getting there that can be tough.”

Bred to the hilt to be a cutting horse, Richards says Dually scores for her because the calf is his focus.

It’s a good thing, too, because Dually’s part-time job is working in the Richards’ family feed yard in Hereford with thousands of cattle to move, doctor and keep an eye on.

The Panhandle made Richards

Hereford Texas is located an hour southwest of Amarillo, and has a people population of 14,000—and a cattle population several times that.  It’s hot, dusty, and—as the Pandhandle saying goes—a clear shot to Canada … save the barbed wire.

“I lived 30 miles from town—so the middle of nowhere,” Richards said.

Richards grew up running barrels and learned to rope from her dad, Joe. Barrels and roping were good, but goat tying was Richards’ passion.

“Tying goats is a big part of who I am,” she said. “Goat tying played a big role in my breakaway because I figured out my mental game tying goats at a very young age. Winning made sense to me in the goat tying, but breakaway is different. I am just figuring out how to win in the breakaway.”

The burgeoning breakaway star uses her rodeo experience on Texas A&M University’s team as a background for her career, where she plans to create positive change in the agriculture industry at a higher level.

What’s next for Richards?

“Rodeo has not been my main focus,” said Richards, who is majoring in ag communications and minoring in ag economics. “I really want a career and to explore different industries. There is a lot of world out there to explore—which I know is a privileged perspective because there are a lot of people who would have loved to have grown up the way I did—but I want a job.”

Richards is interested in ag policy and shadowed a Texas Cattle Feeders Association correspondent in the Texas capital earlier this year. She’s looking at jobs in law and economics for after graduation, too.

“What I want to change is how people view rodeo and other Western sports,” Richards said. “I hate that people believe that we treat our animals poorly when that could not be further from the truth. I also want to combat the negative connotations around the beef industry. Beef is crucial to feeding the world and does far more good than harm.”

As for rodeo, Richards is entered in Cheyenne Frontier Days and on the replacement list for Rodeo Salinas. If she gets into Salinas, she’ll fly to California to ride Madison Outhier’s horse. Originally planning to mostly stay home over the summer, Richards says she’s kicking herself for not entering more after her Greeley success.

Regardless, she’s taking each opportunity in stride as she finds her path in rodeo and the world beyond it.