Meet Anita Ellis: Barrel Racing Superstar Who Dominated Calgary Stampede

The Calgary Stampede is a bucket list rodeo for anybody in professional rodeo to qualify for, and Anita Ellis not only got there but also won it. She set the barrel racing world on fire when she ran multiple sub-17-second runs on two different horses (including an arena record).

By the end of the week, she had won $71,000 after a clean sweep of her Pool and her win in the showdown round. As of July 24, she finds herself fifth in the world standings with over $112,000 won on the season.

But, before Calgary, there wasn't a ton of information that the barrel racing community knew about her, and Rodeo On SI has the exclusive.

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Part of the reason that it is difficult to know much about her career with horses is that there is quite a gap. She spent nearly 27 years away from barrel racing after some pretty drastic injuries.

At just 17 years old, she was in a car accident that caused significant damage to not one, not two, but three different discs in her spine. So, instead of continuing on with horses like she had pursued in high school she went to DeVry University to study business.

Some 20 years later, she took a nasty fall that would eventually lead to a broken vertebra and spinal surgery, which would keep her away from the sport even longer.

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Ellis has only recently been dabbling in professional rodeo, as this is her first full year on the road in her pursuit of her first NFR qualification. She didn't even buy her card until 2022 and she has spent significant time making sure she had two horses ready for the challenge.

RV Two Dash Ta Vegas, "Axe" (the sorrel), was a gift to Ellis from her parents as a yearling. She was able to train him in time for his 4-year-old futurity year in 2020, where he amassed nearly $200,000.

The grey horse fans saw her on, SGL Rico, "Rico", she acquired as a yearling. Rico had nearly as respectable futurity year as Axe when he earned nearly $180,000.

The 48-year-old mother of four currently resides in Blackfoot, Idaho and while three of her children are grown, she has a 9-year-old daughter who isn't always on the road with her and her husband. As a mother, she thinks the hardest part about being gone full-time is keeping her kids at the center and their lives as normal as possible.

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There's two more months left on the season and she has a solid plan moving forward:

"I’m just going to keep my head down, keep heading to rodeos and doing what I love. Not letting the pressure of the standings get to me and making sure I’m still having fun is important to me."

There are a lot of miles left to be travelled, rodeos to get to, and money to be won. The way it has gone recently, it would be hard to imagine not seeing Ellis run at the Thomas and Mack for the first time.

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