For Rebecca St. Martin, life has been anything but easy since her accident, and yet this cowgirl is clawing her way back into the saddle day by day.
Rebecca was used to feeling the wind in her hair, the sun on her face, and the rise and fall of a horse’s ribs against her leg. She was used to hearing the clink of the bridle, the creak of the saddle, and the booming voice of the announcer calling her name, and she was used to seeing horse ears swivel as she directed her equine partner into the bright arena lights. But in an instant, the sounds, sights, and feelings that were so familiar to Rebecca were stripped away, and her freedom was exchanged for hospital beds, unwelcoming fluorescent lights, and days of motionlessness. How does one cope with such a dramatic change? For Rebecca St. Martin, life has been anything but easy since her accident, and yet this cowgirl is clawing her way back into the saddle day by day.
Rebecca is from Louisiana, and she is a first-generation barrel racer who got her start in Western sports when she was nine years old. After competing at local barrel races for a while, she met her mentor Rita Shaw. Shaw assisted Rebecca extensively and helped her acquire her first competitive barrel horses, and she also hauled her student to high school rodeos after allowing Rebecca to move in with her when she was a teenager. St. Martin, under Shaw’s mentorship, went on to win the barrel racing titles for the Mississippi High School Rodeo Association in 2015 and 2016. Following her successful high school career, Rebecca took a hiatus from rodeo while in college, but she eventually returned to competition her senior year and received an NIRA scholarship to complete her master’s degree at the University of West Alabama. During her time at UWA, she won reserve champion for the Ozark region, and her horse, Checks, won Horse of the Year.
Rebecca has two main horses: Checks, registered as Happy to be Paid, and Maverick, registered as FantasiasFamousGuy. She bought Maverick, one of Shaw’s trainees, just after his futurity year, and according to St. Martin, the two of them have grown up together. Checks joined the team later; Rebecca says, “It was definitely a God-thing that Checks made his way into my life after trying a few horses that didn’t work out for various reasons.” When she was barred from riding them during her recovery, Rebecca cited her drive to get back on her beloved open horses as one of the things that kept her spirits up.
Back in July, St. Martin was involved in what she described as a “freak horse accident,” resulting in a fractured tibia and a shattered tibial plateau. She had screws, plates, and bone grafts installed in her leg and had to go non-weight bearing for nine weeks after her surgery. Because of this, Rebecca carefully chose a place to send her dear Checks and Maverick so she could focus on getting well. While she is now well on her way to completing her six-to-nine-month recovery, Rebecca says that at the beginning of her injury journey, she had to “basically forget about the horses and rodeo to mentally get through the first few weeks of lying down all day.”
As for Checks and Maverick, they ended up staying for a brief time at the Shumperts’ house in Mississippi. This family had purchased one of Rebecca’s previous horses, and after seeing online that the horse she had sold them was out with an injury, St. Martin quickly offered to loan her open horses to the Shumpert girls while she recovered. Checks ended up being a great fit for one of the girls, Sheridan Shumpert, and the pair went on a short win streak together. Rebecca says that Checks was “made to be a little girl’s horse” and that watching him compete with Sheridan brought her joy and gave her something to look forward to.
In October, Rebecca had healed enough to ride again. Determined to get back in the arena, she brought Checks and Maverick home, and by the following weekend, she was sending Checks up the alleyway at a rodeo. She explains that riding Checks again was “like riding a bike,” and even though she still has a ways to go to fully recover, she says her knee is continually improving.
Since reclaiming the saddle, St. Martin says her main goal is to return to normalcy. She remains in physical therapy twice a week, and because she had to move back home following her accident, many of her plans for the year have been shifted and compromised. Despite this, Rebecca says her family and friends help her stay positive. She is gradually regaining her freedom, bravely taking on whatever challenges come her way so she can feel the joy of horseback riding once more. Surely, there are riders around the country and the world who understand what drives Rebecca each day to keep clipping the reins, putting her feet in the stirrups, and pointing her horse into the wild arena of life.
Photos by Nikki Burns Photography and Ty Ferrell Photography
