Remember the names Bailey Searle, Sophie Edmonds and Lacey Besant. There’s a good chance you’ll be seeing a lot more of them as potential stars of the global rodeo scene.
Bailey, a 15-year-old cowboy from Willow Tree, New South Wales, has his sights on becoming the next Ky Hamilton, a Queensland export and the world’s best bull rider.
Just like Hamilton, the 2023 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Bull Riding World Champion, Bailey dreams of attending college in the United States and conquering the international rodeo circuit.
To make it big in the US, he knows he first has to get the runs on the board in Australia.
This weekend Bailey will take to the main stage to compete in the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABRCA) national junior rodeo finals in Tamworth, NSW.
“I was second in the steer ride and second in the bull ride this morning, and I missed my breakaway calf, but I will come back,” Bailey said.
“I am feeling confident, I can’t wait.”
The young cowboy started his career riding poddy calves.
“I remember my first ride on a poddy calf at a rodeo, I actually won it,” Bailey said.
Rodeos run in the Searle family’s blood.
“Dad was a bull rider for many years, he qualified for the finals 17 times, and rode bulls and bareback horses,” Bailey said.
“I look up to Dad a lot.”
With big plans for his future, Bailey works hard to perfect his sporting performance.
“I try and get on as many practice bulls as I can during the week, and my dad helps me with that by telling what I do do wrong and right,” Bailey said.
“I want to compete in the PRCA rodeo over there in the states and do what Ky Hamilton just did [winning the 2023 PRCA Bull Riding Championship].”
Barrel racer bound for Wyoming
Also destined for the United States rodeo circuit is barrel racing and breakaway roping star Sophie Edmonds.
The 16-year-old from Murrurundi, in the NSW Upper Hunter, has been rodeoing for eight years.
She is competing in the juvenile barrel race, junior breakaway roping and ladies’ breakaway roping at the ABCRA national rodeo finals.
Competing in two very different disciplines with different horses can be challenging but Sophie takes it in her stride.
She has won five national barrel racing titles and two Australian All Round Cowgirl national titles.
Sophie’s dream of competing in the US is close. She recently qualified to compete at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming in July.
“Hopefully while I am there I will get to check out a few colleges, and in the future will be living in America and pro rodeoing,” she said.
“My biggest dream is to win a PRCA national roping title.”
Dedication and DNA a winning combo
ACBRA chief executive Craig Young said 150 top class junior competitors travelled from across Australia, including WA, to compete at the national finals.
“We have third and fourth generation cowboys and cowgirls here, they were really born to do it. They have got the DNA, the ability and the opportunity,” he said.
He said many of the junior champions started riding rodeo at two-and-a-half years old, under controlled conditions.
“These kids have tonnes of ability, they are fantastic and it is amazing what they can do,” he said.
Rodeoing since two-years-old
Lacey Besant, from Cowra, NSW, started rodeo riding at just two years old.
“I’ve grown up around horses my whole life, I haven’t had much experience with anything else,” Lacey Besant.
Lacey was competing in the breakaway roping and barrel race.
“It was the first time we have competed in this arena at Tamworth and we did take out the win for a barrel race,” she said.
“In the breakaway, I did miss my calf, but I am determined to catch it.”
Lacey trains every day to stay ahead of her competition and like her peers, wants to end up in the US.
“I would like to go over to America for a couple of years but apparently it’s really hard over there,” she said.
“If that doesn’t happen, I’ll just stay here and rodeo.”
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