story by Ruth Nicolaus
Rodeo has been part of Toni Forrer’s life since she was a little girl.
The daughter of Don and Arloa Coffell, who both rodeoed, Toni still competes in the barrel racing, breakaway roping, and times rodeos, as a member of the American Pro Rodeo Association.
While living in Arizona, Michigan, and Ohio as a youngster, the cowgirl competed in a few junior rodeos and in high school rodeo in Indiana, as the family lived in Michigan at the time and Mich-igan didn’t have a high school team.
In junior rodeos, she and Barbie Zaleski were the only two girls who rode barebacks and junior bulls, riding one-handed while the other girls rode with two hands. “We were bad asses,” Toni laughed. In high school, she competed in the National High School Finals Rodeo in the barrels, breakaway and team roping in 1976.
After high school graduation, she moved to Florida, then, while back in Ohio for a wedding, she met Tom Forrer, another rodeo contestant, in 1982. Two years later, they married.
They both competed in the APRA, she as a barrel racer and breakaway roper, he as a tie-down roper, until their daughters, Randi and Dani, began high school competition and they hauled girls to rodeos. About two years after the last girl left home, they joined back up.
Toni is also an International Pro Rodeo Association member. Living in Dalton, Ohio, she’s on the western fringe of the APRA rodeos. She goes to a few APRA rodeos, but usually hits more IPRA rodeos, since they are closer together and she can rope and run barrels at those.
She’s driven school bus for over thirty years, in the Kidron, Ohio district. She loves it. “We just have good kids, good families. It’s a Christian community, and it’s great.”
Tom no longer competes but judges, and a few years ago, Toni began timing. She times at the rodeos she runs barrels at, having someone else take her place for the barrels while she runs. Judging and timing are good retirement plans, she said. “Eventually, when I can’t ride anymore, we can still be a part of rodeo. It’s been such a part of our lives forever.”
In her spare time, she loves to throw pottery. She and a very good friend, Sue, who also loves pottery, took classes, and each now has their own studio. Toni’s first artistic creations weren’t the best: her daughter has a sugar bowl made by Toni that is “hideous,” she said, “but she claims it’s the most beautiful thing ever,” she laughed. Now her artwork has progressed to where she sells her work. She loves it. “It is so much fun when you’re opening the kiln,” she said, to see her creations.
She’s competed at the APRA finals about three times, twice before she and Tom took a hiatus for their daughters’ high school competition, and again in 2017.
The couple has six grandkids. Randi and her husband Seth McCoy have a daughter, Larami, a son, Pistol, and another son, “Angel Lane,” who passed away at the age of three.
Dani, who married Shawn Myers, has two daughters: Mallory and Macy.
She and Tom also have an adopted son, Lincoln, who is married to Jasmine and has a son named Jadyn.
Toni has been an APRA member for over 35 years. She’s loved her time in rodeo, especially the people, “the lifelong friends,” she said. “It’s a small world in the rodeo world.”
