story by Lindsay Humphrey
Deployments were never a good reason to keep a rope out of Val Baker’s hands during her time with the Air Force, Army and now Navy. In fact, while she was in Naples, Italy, for three years, it wasn’t uncommon to find Val on the roof of her rental home roping the dummy. “I thought I could go three years without horses, but I was only about two months into it when I realized that wasn’t true,” said the Minatare, Nebraska, roper. “I bought a grand prix jumper while I was in Italy. If I ever get to a place where I can’t rope anymore, I’ll go back to jumping. It definitely improved my roping because it helped my seat.” When you buy a horse in Italy, it automatically comes with a coach. Val’s coach always told her she rode like a cowgirl, which was and is exactly what she always wanted to be.
“I started riding nine months before I could breathe oxygen. My parents played polo when I was younger but didn’t find much of that once we moved to Nebraska.” The town of Minatare is as far west as you can go in the state before hitting Wyoming. It’s one of many counties chalked full of feedlots in the beef state. “The feedlot cowboys taught me how to rope. And I always laugh because I say I’ve learned to rope nine different times because every time I go to a school or rope with someone new, it seems like I learn a new way to do it.” As soon as Val could start roping competitively, that’s exactly what she did.
“I had a nomination and appointment through the Air Force Academy to attend college, but I decided on CSU. I got a degree in computer science, but it was heavy in engineering because that degree program wasn’t quite set up yet.” Val roped both steers and calves for the team and continues both events today. When there’s an all-around title up for grabs, she’ll knock out a clover leaf pattern or weave through the poles. Horses and rodeo were always within reach, no matter what base Val found herself at. “I wanted to be the first female to pilot the command shuttle for NASA and the best way to do that was through the Air Force. I started flight training and then broke my leg, so my pilot career was cut short.”
Even though Val didn’t finish her training as a pilot, her career has been anything but ordinary. “The amazing part of my career is I have flown or unofficially flown just about everything we have in our inventory because of the advisership and some of the things I’ve done working in communications. Even though I didn’t fly the jets I thought I wanted to, I ended up flying everything.” Thanks to her unique experience with pilot training and a wide variety of airframes, Val helped develop the curriculum student pilots are trained on to this day. As she reflects on her career, the heartbeat of almost everything she’s accomplished has come from the back of a horse.
“No matter where you’re at in the world you’ll make friends, and you’ll probably see them again one day. It was so cool, at that first senior rodeo, to see Larry Swanson still roping. I used to drive two hours one way when I was at Offutt [Omaha] to flank and tie calves all the time with Larry.” A long-time WPRA competitor, Val appreciates that the NSPRA presents more opportunities for her to compete close to home. “The senior pro is less of a hauling contest, and they have rodeos in Arizona. I fell in love with the desert, and I have a place in Arizona that I can go to in the winter. I’m looking forward to catching that winter run of rodeos in Arizona this year and meeting lots of new people.”
