Tragedy to Triumph
A Southern California Girl Born To Ride
Amberley Snyder was born in January of 1991 in southern California. Amberley and her five siblings lived there during her dad’s Major League Baseball career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the age of three, Amberley began riding lessons and developed an unyielding passion for horses. After her dad’s retirement from baseball, the family moved to Utah. Amberley was seven years old and would only comply if she was promised a barrel racing horse when she got there, she got her wish, and that was the beginning of Amberley’s rodeo career.
The Value of Hard Work
Growing up, Amberley’s family environment was very competitive. Her siblings participated in everything from sports to gymnastics, but Amberley found her niche in rodeo. From a young age Amberley had a great sense of communication with her horses and connected with them on a very personal level. Her mom really had a hand in cultivating her passion, and before long she was competing in barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, and goat tying. In 2009, she qualified for the National High School Finals in the pole bending and won the National Little Britches Rodeo Association All-Around Cowgirl World title. Her parents had reinforced in her that, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. That was Amberley’s objective every day during practice and in competition which accredited to a large part of her success. Amberley was very active in FFA during her adolescent years, and in 2010 was elected the Utah FFA State President. The leadership and communication skills she gained in the organization have been invaluable to her and thus the organization is very dear to her. Amberley was excited for 2010 and had her sights on college, finishing out her FFA office term, competing in college rodeo, and preparing for the upcoming changes in her life. She was completely unaware of the magnitude of the change to come.
Life Changed in an Instant
On January 10th, 2010 Amberley was on her way to the Denver Stock Show and Rodeo. As she was passing through Sinclair, WY she took a look down at her map. After only seconds she looked up and realized she had faded into the other lane, headed towards a metal beam. In an effort to get back in her lane, Amberley overcorrected. Her truck slid off the road and rolled and she was ejected from the vehicle. She was slammed into a fence post that broke her back and immediately she lost feeling in her legs.
After five hours of emergency surgery the doctor’s prognosis was she would never regain use or feeling below her waist. He told her if she had worn her seatbelt, she would still have use of her legs. The one mistake she made that day changed her life forever, but it has not defeated her competitive spirit. The top priority for Amberley was not even to walk, but to ride her horses again. Remarkably after only 4 months after the accident, she was back on her horse.
New Challenges, Same Amberley
Through all the challenges and adversity Amberley has had to face, it hasn’t stopped her from achieving any of her goals. In May of 2015 Amberley graduated college with a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education. In 2018, she earned her Master’s Degree in School Counseling from Utah State University. Amberley’s hard work ethic hasn’t wavered, and one could argue has even gotten stronger.
After the accident Amberley realized she had a unique opportunity to reach out and inspire people with her unconventional situation. Her first step to that was her Wheel Chair Wednesday’s video segments on social media. She would perform everyday tasks that have now become more challenging, but not impossible, after her accident. These range from how she gets on her horse to how she fills her truck up with fuel and her short videos have become a popular fan favorite on social media resulting in over 400K fans on Facebook.
Never Slowing Down
In 2015, Amberley was voted the fan exemption contestant at the world’s richest one day rodeo, comparable to the Super Bowl, RFD-TV’s The American. She competed with the best in the industry and was just 0.6 seconds short of the winning time and received a standing ovation from over 40,000 fans in AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Amberley would secure a spot in the top 5 for the Rocky Mountain Pro Rodeo Association and win her Women’s Professional Rodeo Assoication card in 2016. Six years after her accident, Amberley’s story would be featured on the Today Show on NBC.
In 2019, Netflix released the film Walk Ride Rodeo, a biopic based on her life that has reached over 350 million wordwide. Along with co-producing the film and performing her own stunts, Amberley co-wrote the song “Ride” for the soundtrack with Emmy-nominated actor and rising musician Max Ehrich. Amberley would also publish her first book by the same name, Amberley Snyder’s Walk Ride Rodeo. Amberley returned to the screen in 2020, this time inspiring characters in the Paramount Network show Yellowstone, Season 3 episode 10 “The World is Purple”.
Not slowing down, Amberley would appear in the 2020 Rose Bowl Parade as part of the Cowboy Channel’s float “Walk Ride Rodeo”. The float which recieved the Showmanship Trophy, featured a larger than life floral rendition of Amberley atop her horse.
Always an Athlete at Heart
Always a competitor, Amberley qualified for her first Pro Rodeo Wilderness Circuit Finals in 2021. She continues to compete as a professional athlete and has become one of the most sought-after social influencers and motivational speakers in western sports.
