By Ruth Nicolaus
Beth Hiatt has found a new circle of friends, and they’re her type of people.
When she began rodeoing in the Colorado Pro Rodeo Association last spring, she was traveling by herself. In her first year of CPRA rodeo, she didn’t know many people.
But it didn’t take long till she was friends with several other contestants, and found good travel partners in the meantime.
Beth, who lives in Fountain, Colo., grew up in Iowa competing in high school rodeo. She graduated from Ft. Scott (Kan.) Community College with an Associate’s of Science degree in 2003 and got her Bachelors of Science from Colorado Technical University in 2015. She moved to Colorado in 2003 and began work as the director of Western Riding at the Fountain Valley School, a boarding school for high school kids. There are about twenty students in the program, doing everything equine related, including basic horsemanship, trail rides, and attending stock shows and horse expos. Many of the kids have never been around horses till they enroll in the program. “Most of them are city kids,” Beth said, “and the program exposes them to the agricultural way of life. Most of them have never touched a horse.” Her job is especially fulfilling when students, after being first introduced to horses at the school, compete at gymkhanas and do well. “To build that bond (with a horse) is good for them.”
Beth married Owen in 2011 and they have two daughters, Skylar, who is four, and Isabel, eighteen months. The girls have changed her significantly, as kids usually do. “Just how you look at everything, the choices you make, and how you spend your time,” Beth said. The girls love horses and playing with their friends at rodeos and jackpots.
Beth reached one of her goals last year, and that was to win the breakaway rookie of the year award. She loves the CPRA. “I made some really good friends last year,” she said. “I like the people, more than anything. They’re just good people.” She also loves the competition. “I love the challenge. Rodeo is a very humbling sport. I like pushing myself. You can always work on something. You can always work on yourself in some aspect of it.”
