Steinhoff to participate in second rodeo since accident

“It was devastating,” said Pratt Community College barrel racer, Tanya Steinhoff. “I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t be able to ride for two years.”
Steinhoff, who is from Vinita Okla., was in an accident while running barrels in January and was told she wouldn’t be able to ride for two years after lacerating and bruising her liver. She spent a week in the hospital and then couldn’t leave her house for a month and a half.
 
The accident happened in Lincoln, Neb., where she was barrel racing at a Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association event. She was racing on a friend’s horse because hers was hurt. The horse was running back to a closed gate when he got spooked and threw her into the bucking shoots. 
 
After being off of horses for nine months, Steinhoff went against doctor’s orders and decided it was time to get back in the saddle in August. She participated in her first rodeo since the accident this month, where she got third place in the long, fourth place in the short and third for an average.
 
“I was pretty pleased with that,” she said. “Since my accident I have a little different outlook and no longer have to get first every time. I just want to do my best.”
 
Steinhoff was homeschooled and joined the PRCA right after she graduated. She said she decided to come to PCC after the accident because she knew she couldn’t be on the road every weekend for a rodeo like she was before the accident.
 
“Being here allows me to rodeo and not be gone like I use to,” she said. “It allows me to get an education as well, which is good.”
 
Steinhoff said she started looking into PCC after head women’s rodeo coach, Amy Prather, called her sister who graduated in May to see if she was interested in coming. When her sister turned the scholarship down, Steinhoff called Prather and talked to her about getting one for herself.
 
After graduating from PCC Steinhoff isn’t sure if she will continue with school or go back to the PRCA. She said her ultimate goal is to ride in rodeos and work on the ranch with her dad.
 
“We’ll just have to see how things go and then go from there,” she said.