Bethany Iles preforms Trick Act at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) -From a young age Trick Rider, Bethany Iles, had a love for horses. She grew up traveling around to rodeos performing with her twin sister and younger sister. But, as the trio grew older Bethany was the only one who continued traveling around performing.

“I’m very blessed. I’ve been able to make a career out of it and travel all around the United States all year doing it,” explains Iles.

As the old saying goes, do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. Whether it’s doing a performance at a rodeo or training that’s exactly what trick performer Bethany does every day. Bethany works heavily with her horses; not only teaching them tricks but also, keeping them in shape for performances. And then in her time that’s not spent doing performances or working with her horses, Bethany tries to keep herself in shape lifting weights, doing yoga, and throwing in a little bit of cardio when she can.

“Every time I go in I’ve got butterflies. It’s nerves, it’s the excitement you know whatever it is. But I think if I didn’t have that feeling I wouldn’t want to do it anymore, you know, cause that’s what makes it fun. I can do this at home all the time, but when you’ve got the crowd there it’s just an incredible feeling. There’s no high like it,” says Iles.

The bond between any cowboy or cowgirl and their horse is something like no other and it’s no different for Bethany and her horses Cowboy and Vanilla. While Bethany is performing her tricks she has to be able to trust that her two horses are going to do what she’s trained them to do.

“With what I do I set him on his pattern and I let the reigns go and it’s his job to keep running. And often times my foot’s in a strap and I’m hanging upside down and my hair is dragging the dirt and I have to trust that he’s gonna run his pattern and he’s gonna take care of me,” explains Iles.

Bethany will be performing her act each night at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo and with no shortage of tricks or flips it’s sure to impress.

“So I just got a new one and it’s really really hard, but it’s one I worked hard on. It’s where I do, it’s called the cartwheel vault. Basically, you do a front flip off the horse and you land facing forward and you have to jump backwards to land back up in the saddle. It’s really difficult and it’s really rewarding” Iles says.

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