story by Riata Cummings
Gracie Backstrom is the daughter of Mike and Jodie Beckstrom of Spanish Fork, Utah. Gracie loves the good families and beautiful countryside in her neighborhood. Gracie is an older sister to Morgan and Kaiden. Kaiden plays baseball on an accelerated team and Morgan competes in high school rodeo with Gracie. She enjoys being the oldest child because she gets to watch and support her siblings as they chase their dreams.
Gracie attends Spanish Fork High School as a senior, and her favorite classes are psychology and math, both of which she is taking as concurrent enrollment classes for college credit. This fall she hopes to attend Utah Valley University, where she has already been accepted, and plans to study to become a school counselor.
Gracie has been riding horses since she was 6-years-old and began competing in rodeo event when she was 8. Since then, she has grown to love spending time with her family in the arena and helping young horses become amazing athletes. She now competes in the breakaway roping and barrel racing, but especially loves the barrels. “I have been competing in that longer, and it makes me really happy, even just to practice.”
Gracie’s horses are Slingshot and Earl. Slingshot is a little bay mare that carried Gracie to a short go-round win at the Utah High School State Finals last year. This year, she set a goal to win the state championship in barrel racing and qualify for the National High School Finals Rodeo. So far this season her and her sister are both in the top 5 in the barrel racing standings.
One of the most challenging experiences of Gracie’s rodeo career was the loss of her main mount just before Christmas of her freshman year. Gracie’s aunt lent her a horse for the futurity season, but the borrowed horse was the opposite in temperament from Gracie’s previous horse. The experience challenged her to become a better horsewoman. “It taught me to be thankful for what I have and never take it for granted because any run could be your last run.”
One of Gracie’s heroes is her Grandpa Mark. She looks up to him for his horse knowledge and life wisdom, and one day hopes to emulate his generous nature. Gracie lives by the saying, “Winners win, but winners also lose.” The quote from her grandpa reminds her not to give up when she is discouraged. “A winner is no higher or lower than anyone else. Anyone can be beaten or lose. So, no matter how you are doing you have to stay humble and work hard for every win.”
Gracie would like to thank her parents, grandparents and Aunt Marcie for helping and supporting her. “Thank you for being there all the time, thank you for helping me whenever I need it, and thank you for being great role models.”
