Submitted Photo Amberley Snyder, a rodeo professional and motivational speaker, loves horses and sharing positivity with others.

Amberley Snyder hasn’t let a paralyzing accident keep her out of the rodeo arena, and she encourages others to chase their dreams regardless of the challenges.

“The message that I want to share with people overall is they are not alone. Everyone is going to have challenges that they face and you really can handle and overcome the ones that are thrown your way,” she said.

Snyder will be sharing her story of resilience and determination in delivering a motivational message in Minot on Wednesday.

The event at Minot Municipal Auditorium begins with a meet-and-greet from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Snyder will be speaking from 7-8 p.m., and another meet-and-greet will take place from 8-10 p.m. Admission is free. The event is hosted by Brian and Deb Boppre of Minot.

Snyder said it has been a few years since she last spoke in Minot. Her talks are tailored to her audiences but her personal story of resilience and determination hasn’t changed.

“I loved horses my whole life. I started riding horses when I was 3,” she said. At age 7, she moved with her family from California to Utah, where she currently lives,

“I told my dad I would only move if he bought me a Palomino barrel horse when we got here. So thank goodness, he agreed,” she recalled.

She participated in barrel racing, breakaway roping, pole bending and goat tying. She earned place in the National High School Rodeo Finals and the National Little Britches Finals, and in 2009, at age 18, she won the National Little Britches Rodeo Association All-Around Cowgirl World Championship.

Her promising future in rodeo was jeopardized when, traveling to Denver for a job at a stock show, a brief moment of distraction caused her to roll her truck. Ejected from the vehicle, she hit a fence post and broke her back, resulting in a spinal injury.

“So at 18, my life had to start over. Had to figure out who I was, if I was now in a wheelchair, and what my life was going to look like. I made three goals, which is also the title of my children’s book and the title of the movie, which is ‘Walk. Ride. Rodeo,'” Snyder said. “It took me four months to get back on a horse to ride again. It took me 18 months to get back in the arena to compete again. So, now I’m the only paralyzed professional barrel racer in the entire United States. Haven’t got the walking goal yet, but I do have these cool robot legs that I walk in now.”

Fourteen years after her injury, she competed in the Wilderness Circuit, where she made the finals twice. When not participating in rodeo, she travels for more than 50 speaking engagements a year.

“I never thought I’d love something as much as I do my horses, but I do love my job,” she said.

Her first motivational speech came two months after her vehicle crash when she wheeled on stage to deliver her speech as Utah’s outgoing state FFA president. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education and a master’s degree in school counseling.

Snyder said returning to rodeo involved a lot of trial and error in assembling equipment to assist her in riding. Her lower body paralysis impacts her balance, which is a factor in riding. The emotional aspect was just as hard, especially dealing with the change in independence.

“The hardest thing is getting help, because I’ve been really independent with my horses from 7 years old,” she said. “To all of a sudden be in a position that help was required, that’s hard. I love my horses and I want to be on my horses, but I’m reminded every day that I’m not independent with them. I’ve taken days where I’ve done it all by myself, just so that I knew that I could. It’s really hard, and it takes a silly amount of time, and honestly, it’s pretty dangerous.

“Help is the better option,” she added. “That’s the hardest part is just battling with my own self every day.”

She wrote her children’s book in 2017 when temporarily disabled with a broken leg sustained when her horse fell. She also wrote the script, co-produced and performed the post-accident riding in the 2019 Netflix movie that tells her story. Her youngest sister was her pre-accident stunt double.

Interacting with people to see the impact her message has on them and to hear their stories has been one of the most rewarding parts of her work, Snyder said.

“The stories that you hear can be anything from empowering to heart-wrenching. It’s really those moments that I realize I’m where I’m supposed to be,” she said. “People can’t even talk. They just come up and they give me a hug and they walk away. So as far as ‘do I feel like I’m serving a purpose and giving people strength in their lives, or touching their lives?’ I definitely do. I think that’s why I love what I do. To know that I’m serving the purpose that God put me here for, that’s pretty powerful.”