Paralyzed Barrel Racer On Getting Back On the Horse

Nothing will stop barrel racer Amberley Snyder from riding horses — even the car crash that paralyzed her from the waist down.

Transcript

00:00But I mean, if you love something so much, I don't think you should be able to just give it up like that.

00:04I started riding horses when I was three years old and started competing in rodeo when I was seven.

00:22I mean, I absolutely fell in love with it from as far back as I can remember.

00:26And I felt like combining competition and speed and horses all in one thing was just perfect.

00:42When you're in the hospital, you feel like you're not in the real world.

00:45You feel like once you leave there, everything's going to go back to normal and your life's going to be back to what it was before.

00:51Obviously, that can't happen.

00:53I told them I ride horses and they said, well, you're going to need to find something else.

00:58And I remember thinking, well, that doesn't work.

01:01Like horses aren't just what I do.

01:03They're part of who I am.

01:04So you can't just tell me to become a different person because of an accident, because of a chair, because my legs don't work.

01:10And really, that was why I wanted to do it.

01:13Of course, it was a process.

01:15We set a lot of goals.

01:15We accomplished goals.

01:16We moved forward.

01:17The very first time I got back on one of my horses was at four months.

01:22You know, it was in that moment that I did realize every part of my life was different and I was going to have to figure it out.

01:28I have a seatbelt on my saddle now.

01:30I have Velcro straps around my legs.

01:32My feet are rubber banded in.

01:34I have a nylon strap buckled across my left hip and I sit on a seat of air, kind of like my wheelchair seat.

01:38It's called a Roho seat.

01:40All of those pieces came through a process of trial and error to get to where I'm at now.

01:46But 18 months after was the first barrel run I made and have definitely not looked back since then.

02:00So my very first day of therapy, my nurse walks into my room and she says, Amberly, we need to set some goals.

02:06I told her easy. Walk, ride, rodeo.

02:17I never imagined in my life that a movie would come of that.

02:25It was exciting.

02:27It was stressful.

02:28It was every emotion you can think of to make a movie about your life.

02:31If when I think about riding my horses, when I think about rail racing, I try to just compare it to how everyone has that passion, right?

02:38Everyone has something that is their freedom, something that is their go-to, something that is, you know, their escape.

02:45And that's how my horses feel for me.

02:46You know, I mean, I get to leave my wheelchair at the trailer.

02:49My horse becomes my legs and I get to have that freedom that I don't really get to feel everywhere else.

02:55And I absolutely love it.

02:56And it's one of my happiest places for me.

02:58So I'm not going to give it up no matter what.