story by Lily Weinacht
Sr. Girl World Breakaway Roping Champion
Sami O’Day is the 2018 NLBRA Senior Girl World Champion Breakaway Roper. For the last two years, the 19-year-old from Stewartsville, Missouri, has finished fourth in the world breakaway roping standings, but this time, she clinched her first world title. “I knew I had a really good chance this year, but it seems like everyone is always bringing their A game,” says Sami. “But I knew I had a chance if I did what I could do. My first run I was disappointed with—I got out a little late—but the second round I was a 2.2 and I won it. I knew in the short go I didn’t have to be fast, but if I made a solid run, I’d have a shot.”
Sami discovered her love of rodeo through watching RFD-TV, and when her horse fever only increased, her parents, Joe and Jill O’Day, jumped into the rodeo world with Sami and she joined the NLBRA in 2007. “My parents have always been in my corner and done what they can to find people who knew what they were talking about, and I can’t thank them enough for that. Tyson Durfey’s dad, Roy Durfey, lives 20 miles from my house, and my parents took me to him and he taught me everything I know.” Sami competed in the NLBRA through the Little Wrangler division, then took a break after 2011 to junior high rodeo before joining Little Britches again in high school. The 2019 season is her last, and she’s already qualified for the finals in three of her five events. “I do team rope as well, and I run barrels and poles and do trail course, but breakaway has always been my number one thing. In roping, if my horse is a little off, I can correct him and reach, and if I won or lost, I knew I did it.”
Wrangler, a 15-year-old paint quarter horse, has carried Sami to every breakaway buckle or title she’s won thus far. “I started riding him in sixth grade. He was a team roping horse from a local guy that a rodeo friend told my dad about, and he bought Wrangler without me even riding him,” Sami recalls. “He hadn’t done breakaway, and we took to it and bonded over the years. He’s the biggest blessing in my life ever.” She also used Wrangler in the trail course last season and made it to the short go, but rotates what horse she uses in the event so they all have a change of pace. These include her barrel and pole horses, Dino and Rocket, who are half brothers that Sami and her dad trained together. “I love riding my horses. Seeing them succeed is really cool for me because in the end all this hard work I put into something when I was younger didn’t go to waste because I grew out of it. It makes me want to keep going and succeeding because I still love it.”
Her horses are all with her at Kansas State University, where Sami is a freshman studying animal science and a member of the rodeo team. She plans to become an equine chiropractor and is also sitting in the top three in the breakaway roping standings for the Central Plains Region. “They (the NLBRA) run everything really professionally, just like a college rodeo, so when I came into it, I already knew how everything was going to be run. They did a really good job of preparing us for that,” says Sami. “I hope to win my region in the breakaway roping, and go to nationals and hopefully get a title in the breakaway roping for the college.”
