Lynette Brodoway cuts a poised silhouette, standing outside her barn on a warm, autumn morning near Brooks, Alta. One hand is in her jeans pocket, the other holds on to a 1,400-pound, sorrel-coloured gelding alert by her side.
A blue cowboy hat so dark it's almost black carves away the sky from around her tanned face. "I've been looking for horses like this all my life," she said, pausing to consider her cherished horse named Cowboy. "I guess I got old waiting." It was a wait that turned out to be worth it, for both of them.
Last year, at the age of 62, Brodoway won the Ladies Barrel Racing Championship at the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR), competing largely against cowgirls half her age.
This week, she's heading to the same rodeo in Edmonton — the biggest on the Canadian stage — as the season leader after entering the pro rodeo circuit just eight years ago.