story by Lily Weinacht
Mady Swayze started off her rookie season in the KJHSRA by winning the average in the pole bending in Canton, putting her in the lead in her favorite event. The 13-year-old from Freedom, Oklahoma, is also sitting in the top five in her other events of breakaway roping and barrel racing. “Rodeo is just really fun and I enjoy it,” says Mady. “My cousin Kayla used to do high school rodeo and said it was really fun, so I wanted to give it a try, and my horse likes the different events.” Mady also enjoys competing in playdays in Buffalo, Oklahoma, through the summer, and enters the Young Guns Winter Series.
“In the last year, Mady has really started taking rodeo a lot more serious and being a lot more dedicated with her horse and practicing. I get way more nervous for her than I do running a steer for myself,” says Ryan Swayze, Mady’s dad. He competed in the KHSRA as well growing up, and later college rodeoed for Fort Hays State University. He currently steer wrestles in the PRCA, KPRA, and CPRA, and Mady spends her summers competing in her own rodeos and traveling with her dad. She also looks up to her aunt Terri Olson, and her cousin Kayla Olson. “My dad helps me keep my horse in shape, and the weekend he’s at the KPRA finals, my aunt Carey will take me to my rodeo. My grandma, Linda Swayze, helps me get my horse and takes me places. I have to give a lot of credit to Kim Harland, who’s helped me with my horse, and Kayla, who’s told me what I need to do to make her go faster to make improvements.”
Marge, Mady’s horse, is an all-around hand in the arena, competing with Mady in all of her events. “I started riding her about a year and a half ago, and she’s turned out really good. She’s 13, and she’s really fast and can turn good,” says Mady. “I have a dog, Holly, and we have a whole bunch of other horses since we run a ranch with cattle. I like moving the cattle, and working them in the summer or the spring.” Mady lives with her mom, Crystal Swayze, during the school year, and practices on weekends on the ranch. Her step-mom, Paula Swayze, videos runs for her so Mady can study them afterward.
An eighth-grader at Hooker Junior Senior High School, Mady especially enjoys her math class. “We’ve been doing fractions and adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing them. My teacher makes it really fun. I play basketball for the Bulldogs—we’ve started practicing, and our first game is November second. I also run track, and I’m a sprinter. It keeps my legs strong for rodeo.” If she’s not on her way to another rodeo, Mady enjoys spending time with her friends and family, and going to the movies on occasion. She never leaves for a rodeo without her roping dummy to practice on, and her goal is to compete as long as she can and qualify for the NJHFR in any of her three events this season.
