Rachel, Eliza and Rylie Bevill
– courtesy of the family
The three Bevill sisters of Calico Rock, Ark., were not born into a rodeo family. In fact, their parents had never had horses at all until the oldest sister, Rylie, 21, started begging for one as a child. Parents Mickey and Tamra caved in, and it wasn’t long before Rylie was teaching her second sister Rachel, now 19, how to ride, and the girls were getting their interest in barrel racing. Then baby sister Eliza, now 16, followed in their boot steps.
These days, rodeo and horses are a part of the family. Even the sisters’ brother Gabe gets roped in to helping out at rodeos.
The journey to barrel racing and rodeo success has been a self-chartered one for the girls, explains dad Mickey. “They ride almost every day,” he says. The girls have bred and trained their horses themselves over the years, though they have had help taking clinics from greats like Charmayne James, Connie Combs and Martha Josey.
All of their hard work is paying off. The girls have regularly qualified for the Arkansas Cowboys Association finals. Rachel won Rookie of the Year in 2012, and Eliza won the 2014 Barrel Racing Championship.
“I told my parents I just want to make the finals,” Eliza explains, but a big win jumped her to first place during the season. After that, she and her parents hit the road hard going to 26 rodeos [including some high school rodeos and barrel races] in the last month of the season. Still, the race was close between Eliza and two other girls. The fact that her arena rivals were actually friends is a testament to how close knit the ACA is, Eliza explains.
“It was really exciting, and I definitely couldn’t have done it without the help of my parents,” she says of her win.
With her big sisters away at college, Eliza, who is homeschooled, holds down the fort riding all of the horses and hopes to go to pro rodeos when she turns 18.
Horses aren’t far from Rachel and Rylie’s minds even though they are in their studies at the University of Arkansas. Rachel is double majoring in Ag Business and English and minoring in Equine Science and Marketing. Rylie is minoring in Equine Science and majoring in Animal Science, even excelling in horse judging competitions for her school. Like Eliza, both want to barrel race after college and they hope to grow their own breeding program.
Traveling is Rachel’s favorite part of rodeo, only second to spending time with her family. Rodeo has taught her valuable lessons. “It has taught me that a lot of hard work is involved, and you can do it without having a ton of money. A lot of it is just being willing to stay up late at night and work with your horse in the round pen with some lights on,” she says, and adds that it has also helped her learn to balance her time as she juggled basketball and rodeo in high school. “That was probably one of the biggest things it’s taught me, and it also taught me that my parents are great people,” she laughs.
For Rylie, the catalyst of all things horse related, having her sisters along for the ride has proved invaluable. In training and competition, they all have their own strengths. She’s the bit and tack aficionado, with over 100 bits and knowledge about all of them, so her sisters come to her for advice on that. She also starts their horses on groundwork, where Rachel shines at breaking the horses, and then Rylie and Eliza finish them out.
“We definitely help each other out, and none of the three of us would be where we are if it weren’t for each other and my parents,” Rylie says.
It’s as if the Bevill sisters make up their own perfect cloverleaf.
