Flathead High School sophomore Zoey Bruyer is a rising star in the rodeo world. The 15-year-old sponsored cowgirl qualified for the Women’s Rodeo World Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Bruyer is an all-around cowgirl who competes in breakaway, barrel racing and team roping, but this season, she decided to focus on breakaway, the event that involves horse and rider working together to rope a calf. The rope breaks away, hence the name of the event. 

“There's a string ... you tie it onto the end of your rope and then you tie it onto your saddle horn,” Bruyer explained. “You do two or three knots in it, and it just stays on and once you catch your calf, the momentum of the calf keeps the rope going and it just breaks.”

At the beginning of a breakaway run, the horse and rider back into a box near a chute that holds a calf. On the rider’s signal the calf is released and gets a short head start before the horse runs into the pen where the rider ropes the calf. 

Bruyer’s description of the sport is more profound. 

“It's a good way of bonding with your horse,” she began. “You're backing up into the box and you have to really know that your horse is going to do its job, and your horse has to know that you have to do your job to really become a team. I would say it's a real partnership.” 

Her partner, Shyster, is a handsome bay quarter horse. The two have been a team for about 10 years, but their connection may have begun earlier, because the two share a birthday, same day, same year.  

Though they collaborate beautifully now, the early days of their relationship were not rosy. 

“In the beginning, when we first met each other, we honestly hated each other,” she said. “But after a while, we kinda got used to each other and were like, alright, I can deal with this weirdo.” 

The two work together brilliantly, exploding from the box, running full tilt, gracefully casting the looped rope over the calf’s head, and coming to an abrupt stop.  

At the beginning of a run when horse and rider are in the box, the rider nods for the calf’s chute to be opened, then signals her horse in a way the two have practiced, sometimes for years. 

“You let your hand drop and you ride,” she said. “Each horse is different. You have to really kick, or you kiss to them. Mine is, you drop your hand, you kiss, you kick, you ride to your position, and you rope your calf.” 

For the uninitiated, the hardest part of breakaway might appear to be roping the calf, but Bruyer says the crucial part of breakaway is getting out of the box and into the right spot to throw as quickly as possible. 

“I really have to break to the pen faster,” she said. “I think that's my biggest goal right now because it's not the fastest swing. It's more of how fast you can get to your pen and how fast you can get in the position to be able to rope that calf.” 

Time starts when the rider breaks for the pen and ends when the string holding the rope snaps. A flagger at the end of the arena watches and signals to stop the clock. 

Most professional riders complete a run in under 3 seconds. Bruyer consistently posts times around 2 seconds, while the fastest riders see times around 1.8 seconds. 

It’s a sport where a fraction of a second can be the difference between winning and going home with empty pockets. At the 2025 Women’s Rodeo World Championships, the top two breakaway competitors were .01 second apart. The winning time was 1.81. 

The qualifier last month, the Priefert Ranch Open, was the biggest step in Bruyer’s career, and she earned her biggest cash winnings, $3,080. She said the money will go toward traveling to the next rodeo.  

Priefert, a farm, ranch and rodeo equipment manufacturer, sponsors the young breakaway star, as well as Team CSI, Marsh Performance Horses, Smarty Rodeo and Diamond T Ranch. 

In May 2026, Bruyer will head to Fort Worth for the Women’s Rodeo Championships, a groundbreaking event with a mission “to create more opportunities for women in rodeo and elevate their presence in sports.” 

The stakes are high at the championship. It features a payout of over $800,000, and the winner in each event will take home $60,000.  

The final rounds of the Women’s Rodeo World Championship will be held at AT&T Stadium in conjunction with the PBR World Finals Championship, and all the action will be broadcast on the Cowboy Channel and the Cowgirl Channel.  

    Zoey Bruyer and Shyster in action during a breakaway competition. (Emily Hobbs Photography)