Pro barrel racer joins PCC rodeo staff

For about as long as she can remember, Amy Prather has called herself a barrel racer. Now she can call herself a rodeo coach as well, after joining the Pratt Community College rodeo staff last month.
 
Prather, a 2006 graduate of PCC, will work with Pratt’s entire women’s team, though she says most of her experience is in barrel racing.
 
I’m helping the girls with the goat tying,” she said. “And I’ll help the girls team as a whole but my specialty is barrel racing.”
With over $1,800 in winnings at Womens Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) Prairie Circuit rodeos this season, Prather is obviously pretty good at her specialty event.
 
The Goddard native said she’s been barrel racing for 17 years, but never competed in high school rodeo.
As a freshman at PCC several years ago, she joined the rodeo team and never looked back.
 
After two years on the PCC team, she received a full-ride rodeo scholarship to Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla., and finished her college rodeo career there.
 
She completed her bachelor’s degree in agronomy in December 2008, spent a few months rodeoing full-time, and then accepted the agriculture teaching and rodeo coaching position at PCC.
 
Returning to Pratt made sense for several reasons, the first being that Prather enjoyed her years as a PCC student.
 
“I loved it. I love the area, the town, the school,” she commented. “We have some of the best facilities in the region for sure.”
 
With outdoor and indoor arenas, and plenty of stall and barn space for horses, PCC does have a great setup for its rodeo team.
 
The rodeo grounds are maintained by the rodeo coaching staff (head coach Doug Janke and Prather) and the team members. The coaches and team are also in charge of organizing the annual PCC rodeo, set for Oct. 2-4 this year.
Before coming back to Pratt, Prather traveled all across the midwest for rodeos in the Prairie Circuit.
 
Early in the season, she was riding “Gem,” a sorrel mare that she recently sold after winning thousands of dollars on the mare.
 
In June, Prather switched to another sorrel mare, “Dees,” who was originally a horse with issues.
 
“She was a fix-it project and she fixed very well,” Prather said of the mare. “I’ve been hauling her since June to pro rodeos.”
The pair won checks at Abbyville, Hardtner, and Mound City, Kan.; plus  Ponca City and Tulsa, Okla.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Sedalia, Mo.
 
They were a few out of the money at Dodge City, and would have placed at Coffeyville if they’d left the barrels standing.
Before jumping in to professional rodeos on Dees, Prather took the mare to a couple jackpots to make sure her problems were fixed.
 
“I hauled her to two jackpots and she placed in the 1D both jackpots, and I instantly took her to pro rodeos,” Prather said. “That’s all I’ve had time for. They keep you hauling.”
 
Her hauling schedule has ground almost to a stop now that Prather is settling into her teaching and coaching positions.
 
“I was hauling full-time until I got this position. Now it’s going to be a hobby on the side and I’ll focus on the job,” she said. “Over winter break, I’ll enter quite a few and start back up.”
 
With the break from rodeoing full time, Prather expects to fall several places in the circuit and rookie standings as other cowgirls continue to haul and win money.
 
“We were sitting in the top 20 in the Prairie Circuit, but that’s probably not going to hold since I stopped entering,” she said. “I was in the top 25 of the rookie, but again when you don’t haul through October, that’s not going to hold either.”
 
In the WPRA’s most recent Prairie Circuit standings, Prather was listed in 31st place among Prairie Circuit riders.
At PCC, Prather is teaching horse care & training, plant science, applied ag techniques (rodeo 101), and horse production.
By Melanie McGee