Faces of the NRCHA: Bailey Carter

FACES OF THE NRCHA

Bailey Carter may be new to the reined cow horse arena, but she is all in for NRCHA.

Bailey Carter is far from her original career path, and that is just fine with her. The 24-year-old is the sponsorship, awards and youth programs assistant. Carter leaped into the office-based job with the National Reined Cow Horse Association though she didn’t have much experience with cow horses.

From Bowling Green, Missouri, Carter showed in 4-H and reining early on, then moved to barrel racing. Rodeo led her to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, where she majored in Animal Science. Her plan was to become an equine veterinary technician and specialize in equine sports medicine. But in 2022, she decided to pursue a career that was less clinic based and more office based.

“I decided that as much as I loved the vet tech side of the equine industry, I needed to develop more of a professional career,” she explained. “While I wasn’t familiar with the cow horse industry, I thought this position would be a great way to get started on that goal. Honestly, I didn’t really know anything about cow horse except that it was an event that had reining and cutting aspects and its own fence work. I hadn’t ever seen a cow horse show.”

Carter started with NRCHA during the 2022 Teton Ridge Stallion Stakes in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was truly baptism by fire, and it ignited a passion in Carter.

“It was super exciting even though [Stakes] was a blur! I met the whole team at Stakes. Getting to watch the first couple of runs was cool, and one thing that stood out was the energy in the building during the runoff between Justin [Wright] and Phillip [Ralls] for a spot in The Run For A Million,” she said. “I was a little terrified because it was so new, but I was also thinking that I could get used to this excitement!’

Interview and photograph by Kate Bradley Byars

Reined Cow Horse News: Tell us about your position, it involves dif-

ferent aspects of the association.

BC: I am the sponsorship assistant and work with Anna [Morrison, NRCHA executive director] on the deliverables and agreements on the sponsors. I work with Callie [McCarthy-Boevers, media and communications manager] to ensure those deliverables are coming through and then work with Anna to ensure contracts are ready when they come up for renewal. On the Youth side of things, I plan activities for the shows coming up, coordinate fundraisers and clinics, and keep track of the scholarships. Then, there are awards. I coordinate the awards for each of our premier events then the special awards like Million Dollar Rider, Sire and now, the Boss Mare dams.

RCHN: What were some challenges you faced starting without a

background in cow horse?

BC: What came easily was talking to our sponsors—they are amazing to work with and super helpful! Obtaining products from them has been super easy. The biggest learning curve was beginning to learn the industry—the classes, the limited aged events and horse show classes, and being familiar with those events. That was the start I needed, then building from there I was able to get a feel for the awards program for each of those classes. Figuring out the system here was a challenge. There are perpetual awards given every year, special awards and others that have a meaning behind the award. I dug through those to find out why we give some and what is the meaning behind it. The awards took a lot of research to see what was done last year or a few years back so that we can do as well or better in giving out awards that the members are excited to receive.

RCHN: You’re finding your feet in this job. What are your goals for

next year in this position?

BC: One thing I look forward to is getting to know our members a lot more. They are the reason we get to do the jobs we do. Figuring out what they like on the awards side and what we can do on the Youth side to help grow the younger association is what I am looking forward to. I continually learn about the association and its history and want to grow my cow horse knowledge.