Bayler Faulkner was expecting to sign a partial scholarship
During a March rodeo in Hobbs, she was signing a letter of intent for a rodeo scholarship. As she was signing, her father told her to, “read that middle line, where it says what the school is offering.”
“I had been competing all day out in the hot sun, so I was already pretty tired,” Faulkner said.
When she looked again, she realized it said it was a full-ride scholarship.
“It was definitely a surprise,” Faulkner said. “It makes it all so much easier to imagine. Now, I’m not having to worry about where I’m going to get the funds to go there and to compete in that region.”
Faulkner, a graduate of Escalante High School, will attend New Mexico Junior College on a full-ride scholarship to join their rodeo team.
“She’s a unique cowgirl,” said NMJC Women’s Rodeo Coach Alexa Wilcox. “She can run barrels, but then she’s also still interested in the roughstock events.”
Wilcox said that Faulkner’s versatility and interest in helping in different events will help the team during practices.
“But especially, she’s just a good kid,” she said. “We are just as committed to coaching champions in the arena as we are outside the arena. And so, we really felt like she’d be a great fit for our program.”
Rodeo has long been part of the Faulkner family. Her father and both of her grandfathers competed in rodeo.
Most of her family competes in the saddle bronc (riding a bucking horse), but that event is often not open to women, so she had to change course. In her event, barrel racing, she has to ride a horse through a route of barrels in the lowest time.
As a junior, Faulkner started the Escalante High School Rodeo Team — most compete outside of the school at various events in their area. She wanted to bring the community together and provide a support system, while potentially inviting new competitors.
At the collegiate level, Faulkner will compete in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and in the competitive southwest region, with many competitions in western Texas. (The region also includes Eastern New Mexico University, and several in Texas).
“We compete against schools of all levels … we also compete against larger universities,” Wilcox said. “Bayler will be competing against horses that are in the top 30 of the professional standings, maybe even horses that are making the NFR (National Finals Rodeo).”
Rodeo is much more common and popular in southern New Mexico, but there is a contingent in Rio Arriba County — often in Chama or Tierra Amarilla or other small towns — that competes with the best.
Faulkner said she has friends, many from southern New Mexico, who are attending various colleges.
For her senior year, Faulkner also tried basketball, where she had played some in middle school, though she left basketball early to prepare for rodeo, and she learned from participating in a team sport with elite competition.
“It was nice to be a part of that team in an aspect that I hadn’t really done prior,” she said. “Playing with Brycelyn (Martinez) and Cippy (Garcia) and Emma (Maestas) and all of them was really nice, and I learned a lot that I can apply to my rodeo career. You have to be aggressive and want it, and that’s something that I can lose sight of when I go and run barrels.”
Next up for the Faulkner family is Bayler’s brother Monte, a rising senior at Escalante, who won the state championship in saddle bronc for two straight years. Bayler said that he has plenty of college interest.
Faulkner plans to study criminal justice, and wants to be a police officer, like her father, after growing up watching cop shows.
“They have a very nice facility, and I look forward to getting to work with Coach Wilcox,” Faulkner said. “The southwest region is notoriously one of the harder regions to compete in. There is such a large mass of contestants, people that are going to that region and are already at such a high level. I’m excited for the competition.”