How a 63-year-old cowgirl became the No. 1 barrel racer in Canada — and she's not done yet

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.

And the horse she'll be competing on is the same mount that raced her to the finish line last year; voted to have the "most heart" that season by Brodoway's fellow competitors. 

His papered name is Boots on Fire, but to Brodoway, he's called Cowboy.

When Brodoway leads him around her barn, she does so with the confidence of a person who's spent thousands of hours in the saddle over her lifetime. 

"I believe that Cowboy is a gift given to me by God," she said. 

"He's the kinda horse that when he turns down that alley, he runs hard and he turns hard. That takes a special horse." 

In barrel racing terms, the alley is the chute riders enter before they start their run around three barrels, completing a clover pattern. Rounding the turn of the last barrel, horse and rider reach a full-out gallop before crossing the finish line. 

The event is timed and seconds are added for