FLORIDA RODEO ATHLETE BECOMES PART OF HISTORY

AMANDA COLEMAN RANKS 9TH IN NFR’S NEWEST EVENT

With COVID-19 closing down professional rodeos from mid-March to late May, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rallied to ensure that the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo would proceed. And with the temporary relocation to Globe Life Field (home to the Texas Rangers baseball franchise) in Arlington, Texas, for the 2020 event, the organization has made a historical change in adding women’s breakaway roping to the line-up of events.

Only the top 15 contestants compete at the NFR, and the Sunshine State is proud to have Melbourne native Amanda Coleman in that group for the inaugural event. Only 19 years old, she currently ranks ninth in the world in breakaway roping—a lot to have accomplished in a mere 16 years.

Coleman started rodeoing at age 3, when she ran barrels, poles and goats in the peewee/tiny tots division. When she was 6, she picked up a rope to imitate her dad, John, who was a team roper—and her fate was sealed!

First up was All Florida Junior Rodeo, then three years in Cinch Junior High Rodeo, with Florida High School Rodeo as a finale, winning the All-Around Cowgirl title several times at both levels. She was a member of the National Barrel Horse Association, taking home the 2D National Champion title in 2013 on “Alive With Chaos,” owned by Heather Fleckinger. For six consecutive years, Coleman was a multiple-event qualifier at national finals—in breakaway, barrels, team roping, goattying and ribbon roping in junior high, and breakaway, team roping and goat-tying at the high school level.

While making the short-go rounds several years at National High School Finals Rodeos, her crowning achievement came during seventh grade at the Cinch National Junior High Finals, where she won Reserve National Champion in—what else—but breakaway roping. And all of this was done while also competing in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association events and U.S. Team Roping Championships.

After her third year in high school rodeo competitions, while a national championship in breakaway roping was easily within her grasp, Coleman decided to “go big or go home.” With the blessing of her loving parents, the aforementioned John, and Patti, she completed her senior year of high school online from Texas, where she’d relocated to focus on her roping career.

Clockwise from above left, Coleman competing in last year's Wrangler National Finals; showing perfect breakaway roping form at the 2018 Florida High School Rodeo in Ocala; waiting with JJ Hampton at January 2020's Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo; with her roping horse, "Bubble Freckles 210," known as "Cheeca."

While 2020 is a year many would gladly forget, it's just the opposite for Coleman and Cheeca.

In roping, a trusted equine partner is a necessity. Coleman was using her own horse, “Chicken,” for team roping and goat-tying when Fleckinger loaned her a roping horse called “Tombstone,” for breakaway. For eight years, this pair worked wonders together. According to Coleman, “Tombstone will always hold a special place in my heart.”

In the meantime, Coleman’s parents had purchased a 2-year-old from Buck Daniels Ranch in Okeechobee for only $800. “Bubble Freckles 210,” affectionately called “Cheeca,” then spent a year with Travis Dorman in Dade City to learn how to track the dummy steer, as well as to rope live cattle.

From there, she returned to Daniels’ place, where roper Jason Hanchey took over the training of both horse and rider. Coleman calls this “Blood, sweat and tears—learning how to finish Cheeca, and hours in the roping pen, following Hanchey’s daily routine.”

While 2020 is a year many would gladly forget, it’s just the opposite for Coleman: This is the second year she’s qualified for The American Rodeo, set for March of 2021; and in May, she won the average in the fourth annual Charlie 1 All-Girl Challenge as part of Wrangler BFI Week, for a buckle, trophy saddle and a purse of $10,000. After that, she won her first PRCA rodeo, in Gooding, Idaho.

While not competing in Las Vegas with all of its glitz and glamour, Coleman knows it will be just as exciting with the electrifying energy that surrounds the NFR. It’s something she’s dreamed of as far back as she can remember. And she thanks her rodeo idols—Jackie Crawford and JJ Hampton. “These two ladies, along with others, have paved the way for many women like me to make a career in roping,” states Coleman, “and for that I am truly blessed.”

Amanda Coleman and Cheeca—make Florida proud come Dec. 3 to 12, 2020! FCM