by Kelsey Temmen
Gansevoort, New York native, Emily Fabian, has a talent for connecting with her animals and the sport of rodeo. This 24-year-old cowgirl is a team player and that include her best friend and partner. Her horse, CB Major King Aka Bubbles, is a 15-year-old sorrel quarter horse gelding that loves attention and has a huge personality. “He loves his job and always seems to get mad if I miss in roping. He starts to shake his head, grind his teeth, and swat his tail. Bubbles knows what we are there for.” She is drawn to rodeo for many reasons, but the thrill of competition is high on that list. “I love the gamble to win some money, take chances, and to go to a rodeo with my last sixty dollars that I know I shouldn’t be spending in hopes of winning. And then I can do it the next weekend.”
As an animal lover all of all kinds, Emily spends most of her life around her four-legged friends both in an out of the arena. “I took over a pet grooming salon after college. I thought horse people were crazy, but dog owners are worse!” Emily is a 2013 graduate from Ranger College in Ranger, TX, where she received her Associate Degree in Business. Her favorite subject in school was rodeo. “I competed on the rodeo team under scholarship. I mostly competed in breakaway and team roping. At first it was difficult because I was a New York girl that traveled all the way to Texas to go to college and rope.” Although she felt like things were tough for her, she kept her head high and a quote in her heart. “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise. My role model in the arena would have to be Lari Dee Guy, but my best support mentally is my husband, Eric. I love that in rodeo I have the support of my family and my rodeo family.”
Her passion for the sport didn’t get started until she was 15 years old, even though she had been riding since she was 5 years old. “I started off barrel racing because my sisters did it. I went to a local rodeo that had a youth barrel race and it started there. Then my family friend, Dee Burch, got me into breakaway roping.” Now that she has been in rodeo for almost ten years, her biggest accomplishment has been winning three consecutive year-end titles in breakaway roping in 2013, 2014, and 2015 with the APRA. “I used to do more barrel racing. When I can I borrow my sisters’ horses that they always keep tuned-up and ready to go.” When asked what her favorite event is she explained why she loved breakaway roping the most. “I love the chemistry behind it! You can break down everything into pieces and then try to understand why this happened and why that happened. It’s like a math problem and it’s a fast sport!”
