The Australian nurse who lives and breathes rodeo | ABC Australia

Rodeo rider Erin Beattie is as tough as they come!

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The nurse from Mount Wallace near Ballarat lives and breathes rodeo and has had more than her fair share of broken bones and injuries thanks to her beloved sport.

“Every barrel racer has got big dints out of their shins and bruises on their legs because when you hit them, they don’t tickle,” Ms Beattie said.

She said that there is still stigma that rodeo is a sport just for men, but that there is a growing number of women competing with the best of them and breaking stereotypes — along with a few bones.

Ms Beattie's specialty is barrel racing, where she and her quarter horse LD weave between three barrels racing against the clock. She also competes in breakaway roping, where competitors throw a lasso to rope a calf.

“The thing I like about rodeo is you run against the clock. There’s no judging on how you do it, how you turn, or what you look like. It’s just fastest time wins,” she said.

Prize money in Australia varies from $1,500 to $3,000 an event, a fraction of the winnings on the US circuit, where it is possible to make a living from rodeo.

“Here you can go from rodeo to rodeo, win them all and still not make 40 grand and it would have cost you twice as much to get down the road,” Ms Beattie said.

It’s the passion, not the prize money that motivates Ms Beatty and her husband to spend most of the season on the road — sometimes travelling up to seven hours to compete in a 20-second event.

“You have a big community on the road. It’s your life. It costs a lot of money to do it. It’s not just something to do on the weekends. It’s who you are and what you do,” she said.