Beasley Equine Podcast

From Barrel Racing to Silversmithing: Shaylen Rowland's Journey in the Equine World - Sponsored rider podcast

travis beasley

Shaylen Rowland might only be sixteen, but she's already mastering multiple arenas – from barrel racing to silversmithing to Future Farmers of America leadership. 

Behind the reins of her trusted partner Potato Chip, Shaylen navigates the competitive rodeo circuit while carefully managing his recovery from gastric ulcers. Their journey reveals the deep bond between horse and rider, along with the critical importance of recognizing subtle changes in equine behavior that might signal health concerns. "When you know a horse like I know Chip, you can tell when things are off," Shaylen shares, demonstrating wisdom beyond her years.

What truly sets this young competitor apart is her entrepreneurial spirit. As founder of Ranchy But Fancy Silver Co, Shaylen creates stunning custom silver and turquoise jewelry for the western community. After learning silversmithing through an online course, she's building a business crafting everything from statement jewelry to functional tack accessories. Her work exemplifies the creativity and drive flourishing among today's young western athletes who refuse to be defined by a single pursuit.

Perhaps most remarkable is Shaylen's clear vision for her future in equine sports medicine – a passion sparked by experiences with her first barrel horse, Reno. "She taught me not just about barrel racing, but about veterinary medicine," Shailen explains, crediting those early veterinary visits for revealing her professional calling. As she balances FFA leadership positions, rodeo competition, and business development, Shaylen embodies the multifaceted potential of rodeo's next generation.

Follow Ranchy But Fancy Silver Co on Facebook to discover Shaylen's custom creations and support this inspiring young athlete as she continues breaking barriers in western sports and entrepreneurship!

Speaker 1:

All right, we got Shailen Rowland here. How are you, Shailen Good? How are you Good? Thanks for coming by today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I'm really excited.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks for accepting our sponsorship this year. Are you pretty excited about some stuff coming up?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's been an exciting summer and so hopefully we're going to keep doing that and have a good winter too. Yeah, where are you going next? Um, let's, I guess we have a bunch of barrel races coming up about every weekend and some whippoorwill rodeos and some youth rodeos awesome.

Speaker 1:

And how old are you? I'm 16 16, because you drove here yourself today did yep, and mom let you drive all the way down yep, she did well, that's because she trusts you. You're a good kid. Let's talk a minute about Potato Chip.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, how's he doing? He's doing better, is he? Yep, I think we finally are on the right track and he's feeling lots better. Good.

Speaker 1:

Potato Chip unfortunately got diagnosed with some gastric ulcers this year and they have been a booger to fix like a lot of. The glandular ulcers are One of our first podcasts. We explain gastric ulcer syndrome in horses, if you guys want to listen to that. So how old is chip now? He's 13 and you've got. You've had him for how long? Four years, four years. He is really cool. We all like potato chip yeah, he is pretty cool is that his full name name Potato Chip or?

Speaker 2:

just.

Speaker 1:

Chip. Okay, so what all events do you do on Chip?

Speaker 2:

I do barrel racing and breakaway roping.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we had another girl in here earlier. What's?

Speaker 2:

your fastest time with a breakaway.

Speaker 1:

I don't know.

Speaker 2:

What do you want to do? I mean, you want to be as fast as you can be.

Speaker 1:

She said something like some people are two seconds. Is that true? Yeah, that's so fast, definitely yeah. Do they even get out of the box or do they just rope it?

Speaker 2:

I mean like one swing and go, I guess that's awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So if Chip could have a superpower, what do you think it would be, or what would you give him?

Speaker 2:

You can answer that however you want. I don't know. He's already kind of quirky and it seems like he has superpowers. I don't know, probably not get hurt. He seems he's really good at doing that.

Speaker 1:

I would give him an iron stomach.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would prefer not to have to scope him again. Stomach, yeah, that's up to me. Yeah, yeah, I would not. I would prefer not to have to scope him again yeah, that would be nice, but I think. I think we're almost there, yeah, and I think the protect gi is gonna gonna help prevent any more. You got any big goals this year as far as rodeo goes, you're doing a series or anything yeah, I have.

Speaker 2:

I've started a lot of goals for my young horse. I have a four-year-old at home and he's getting ready to go to roping school for a couple months, so I'm really excited about him and my goal is to have him going to start my winter season on him for little britches rodeos and hopefully use him to get me qualified for little britches nationals for this time next year okay, yeah, because that's coming up next week? Yes, I think it starts next week.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you said roping school, yes. What do you mean by?

Speaker 2:

that he's going to our good friend Larry Darnell's and he's going to spend at least a month there getting started on his breakaway career.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, he's going to the right place. Yeah, we.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that'll be well, he's going to the right place. Yeah, yeah, we went last night and roped and Larry seemed to think a lot of him. So I'm excited, I'm really excited about him.

Speaker 1:

That's good, and how long have you had him?

Speaker 2:

I got him in February.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so not very long, yeah, not very long.

Speaker 2:

Was he broke, I guess, when you got him, or not? Yeah, when I got. So he has a good start, just ready to be polished and given a job.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and put in an arena, yes, and put you in the winner's circle.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly, that's the goal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you also have a new venture. You're taking on a new business.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

And what are you calling it?

Speaker 2:

It's called.

Speaker 1:

Ranchy, but F silver co. That is awesome and it's silversmithing. Yes, would you like to define silversmithing? I know you and I we're having technical difficulties by the name of john. Anyways, we were talking about silversmithing and I was explaining that you and I know what that, what that is, but would you like to explain to john what silversmithing is?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So I guess you could say it's kind of like welding on a miniature level kind of. So I do a lot of soldering of silver together, sometimes copper and make. I make jewelry and for, like our horse people, conchos and head stall buckles and belt buckles and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, and I, I saw I just liked your Facebook page. You have a Facebook, people can go follow.

Speaker 2:

Yes, ranchy, but Fancy Silver Cup on Facebook. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

My kids are going to love that. Yes, there's a show on. I don't even know what show it's on, but it's called Fancy Nancy and it's all about this little girl that fancies everything.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I used. It was a noob, and I saw some turquoise. Yes, you're doing a lot with turquoise. Yes, that's popular, it is. So where do you source your silver? Are you mining that yourself? Is there any mines in Southern Illinois?

Speaker 2:

I'm not and not that I know of there might be, but I get it from different wholesale dealers on line. How did you get into this? Just something you wanted to do, or yeah, I've always kind of had, I've always liked turquoise jewelry and you'd like unique pieces, and now it's getting popular in the horse tech world, and I had a good friend that I went to school with. She lives not too far from me and she started a silversmithing business back in 2020 and then she recently came out with an online course to teach you how to do it.

Speaker 2:

So that's how I learned from my good friend Lindsay Lehman. She put out the course and I took it and it taught me a lot, and so then we kind of just jumped in and went with it.

Speaker 1:

Online courses are taking over everything, yeah they really are. I think, John, you did some online courses for learning how to set up all this podcast stuff. You did some on your own. And then John Heron over at Just Say hey, he helped us do a bunch of this stuff. So shout out to John Heron at Just Say hey, Hopefully the rain stops and he can get in the hayfield suit. I know all the farmers are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's not good.

Speaker 2:

And you live about. What an hour north of here.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it's like exactly an hour. Yeah, you guys have had a lot of rain too. Yeah, yeah, this is. I just went to the pharmacy the human pharmacy to get the sacrophate we like, yeah, and ran into a farmer there and he said he's never remembered a june this wet ever yeah, no, it's been hard, for I mean, we got to cut our hay when there was a little window for the first time, and now the rain, and it's good.

Speaker 2:

We want it to grow now, but we're gonna have to get in there and cut it again right it's also been hard for these outdoor rodeos oh yeah being in the mud all the time and yeah, will they.

Speaker 1:

Will they cancel if it gets too muddy, or they just?

Speaker 2:

it depends. I mean, a lot of the amateur rodeos around here won't.

Speaker 1:

But do you still compete if it's super muddy?

Speaker 2:

No, not right now, not with Chip, I'm too picky with him.

Speaker 1:

I don't blame you. We see a lot of injuries from not good footing, and not only to the horse, but people too.

Speaker 2:

I ran at a rodeo last weekend and it didn't look bad, but two or three horses fell. It can happen anywhere. You a horse can get injured anywhere, but you definitely don't want to put on like an extra chance of getting it your horses are very good at getting hurt, yeah, without any other bad factors to to get in there.

Speaker 1:

So how long have you been riding?

Speaker 2:

um, I rode pretty much my entire life. My mom, she, grew up showing horses and barrel racing, so as soon as I could I was on a horse.

Speaker 1:

When did you start competing and doing barrels and stuff like that?

Speaker 2:

Well, first I started competing in like the horse show world. I showed pleasure and stuff like that and a lot of fun shows for H and I did that when I probably started that when I was around four or five.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

And then I started. I got my first barrel horse and started barrel racing and rodeoing when I was around 11 or 12.

Speaker 1:

Well, who was your first horse?

Speaker 2:

Her name was Reno.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I remember Reno.

Speaker 2:

Yep, she spent a lot of time here.

Speaker 1:

Yep, she was a little. She was well-seasoned. Yes, yep, and did you learn a lot from Reno? I?

Speaker 2:

did she taught me so much about so many different things, not just riding and barrel racing?

Speaker 1:

Do you still have her.

Speaker 2:

No, we recently gave her away to a little girl that just wanted a pasture pet, so she's just getting rode and rode bareback around the yard and getting brushed.

Speaker 1:

She's living the best retirement.

Speaker 2:

Yes, she is, I go see her some. She's living a good life.

Speaker 1:

That best retirement? Yes, she is, I get to. I go see her some. Yeah, she's living a good life. That's awesome. I bought a retired slash injured horse for my girls and I send the old owner pictures all the time. We get attached to these things and you really want them to go someplace that'll take care of them yes, yeah not, you know not.

Speaker 1:

We see a lot of horse traders and people that are always and I understand that from the the training and business aspect of it. But especially when a young girl is involved, you get their family?

Speaker 2:

Yes, they are.

Speaker 1:

So that's good news for Reno. Yeah, what are some of your goals outside of the rodeo this year?

Speaker 2:

Well, definitely keep going with my business and kind of get the word out with that, be successful with it. I'm really active in my local FFA chapter in Mount Vernon and so I do a lot with that. I'm currently serving as the reporter. I'm also on the section 21 FFA officer team.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

And I'm the section reporter as well, so I'm be really busy with that and I hope to get to do more competitions and do well with FFA.

Speaker 1:

Where is the? What is the mottos for FFA? Like stationed by the.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, like as a reporter, I'm stationed by the flag.

Speaker 1:

Stationed by the flag. I almost said that, which one's stationed by the door.

Speaker 2:

Sentinel, that was me.

Speaker 1:

That's what I did. I like the idea of being by the door so I could leave, yeah, but I did a lot in FFA growing up. I think that is a great, even for kids that aren't agricultural backgrounds. I think they do so much for leadership and team building.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's definitely something for everybody.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know, I think we're section 25 down here. I think so yeah, whatever that means.

Speaker 2:

That's all the state sections yeah, there's 25 sections, I believe, and five districts okay yeah, I remember a lot.

Speaker 1:

In fact, I want to get my old ffa advisor in here yeah, that would be fun yeah, and he's. He's kind of old and bitter now, so I think it'd be really really fun. Um, who are some of your heroes right now in the rodeo world, whether they're local or national, or who are you looking up to these days?

Speaker 2:

As far as like is what most people would call the professionals, the people that are pro rodeoing now or even used to. I really look up to Sherry Servi. I like the way that she rides and how she handles her horses. I like the way her horses move and I watch a lot of her podcasts that she does or any videos that she puts out on YouTube. I like watching how she trains her horses and you know they're team roping horses before the rail horses and they're really all around and have a good foundation and that's what I like to see in my horses, and so I really look up to her in the way she does.

Speaker 1:

Are you thinking about?

Speaker 2:

team roping at all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, maybe here and there a little bit yeah well, you know where to go, yeah, where your horse is gonna be. Larry taught me and my brother how to rope from a young age and I still think if he put I haven't roped in, oh, probably 15, maybe 20 years, I think if he put me on a good heel horse I could go catch two feet.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Because he didn't teach me how to miss.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I did a lot of. Does he still make people do push-ups?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I do push-ups and run yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I used to think that I think he gets just big square bales now, but it used to be the small square bales now, but it used to be the small square bales and me and my brother hauled a lot of hay for him. So I think he made us do pushups and do all that because he was training his hay crew so we could get done quicker.

Speaker 2:

Maybe. So yeah, I wouldn't doubt it.

Speaker 1:

Where can people buy your jewelry? Because I want to get some, yeah, so right now on Facebook, I'll be posting.

Speaker 2:

I'll post pieces that I have already made available, and then I also am doing a lot of custom work. So if you have something like a custom piece in mind that you want, message me and I can definitely do it.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, I'm going to get some. So that first horse, Reno did you win anything good on her? Do you remember what's the best memory of you and Reno?

Speaker 2:

It's a tough question know it is, I don't know honestly, and this might kind of seem odd, but, like I said, she taught me not only a lot about braille racing, but she you know, we were here at the vet a lot and that's kind of what sparked my interest of veterinary medicine and that's kind of what sparked my interest of veterinary medicine and that's kind of what started. I'm like, hey, I kind of want to have a career in this, so that's kind of like my favorite thing about her is that she taught me a lot about what I want to do for the rest of my life and what do you want to do after high school?

Speaker 1:

I?

Speaker 2:

want to work in equine sports medicine.

Speaker 1:

Awesome rehab oh, and you can get certified in that. Now there's lots of places and the rehab is really taking off because we are seeing more and more older horses. My dad always tells a story when he first started one of the first rope horses he worked on because this was primarily racehorses back in the day that he was working on, one of the first rope horses he worked on was like a teenager, like 15 or 16. And the guy wanted to do everything he could and I remember my dad telling me like why does he want to spend all this money on this old horse? And now it's like 15 is nothing.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of horses in their mid-20s that we work on that are still competing and winning, and a lot of that is the advancements we've made and knowledge as far as how to take care of them, preventative stuff and 20 years ago we had steroids that's what we put in joints. Now we have I can't even keep up with everything. So there's a lot of the regenerative stuff. So I think by the time you get to where you want to go, there's going to be so much more that we can do for these horses to keep them going which is awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm so excited. I enjoy coming here with my horses and I've got to learn a lot about equine medicine and the whole rehab and keeping older horses sound for as long as you can and keeping them feeling good.

Speaker 1:

Yep, and the old adage no foot, no horse. You've got to be here on farrier days and watch Steve Summershine work his magic. We're fortunate he's come down here and he's been coming here long enough. It's been fun to watch these horses with. I guess you just call them bad feet and then watch. You know know the term corrective shoeing gets thrown around, but just correct shoeing with the biomechanics and how that foot's supposed to be shaped and how it's supposed to be used. It's fun to watch horses that he's taken from what people just say, oh he has bad feet to getting them healthy and watching them. From what people just say, oh he has bad feet to getting them healthy and watching them grow.

Speaker 1:

So never take a good farrier for granted, and there's not too many farriers around.

Speaker 2:

No, there's not.

Speaker 1:

Because that is have you ever pulled shoes or anything like that? No, that's about as far as I will go with shoeing. I can pull a shoe, but those guys, they're just built different, they're tough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And they wrestle 100-pound animals all day and beat steel. Yeah, those aren't the guys you want to tangle with. Not that you'd ever get in a fight, but if anybody wants to pick a fight, don't pick a fight with a farrier probably.

Speaker 2:

Probably not.

Speaker 1:

Odds are, they're tougher than you. If you could trade places with anybody in the rodeo world right now, who would it be?

Speaker 2:

I don't know, probably Jackie Crawford.

Speaker 1:

And who is Jackie Crawford? Do you want to tell us about her?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she is a professional breakaway roper and I think she might be the winningest breakaway roper in history.

Speaker 1:

Do you know how old she is?

Speaker 2:

I don't.

Speaker 1:

Maybe John can find out yeah. Find out how old she is. John, yeah, and there's a lot of I don't want to say old women, but older people that are still competing and going.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's definitely a handful of professional breakaway ropers that I really look up to because they've paved the way to get breakaway as one of the professional events of rodeo.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was in the NFR this year. Right, yeah, was that right.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, it's not officially in the Thomas and Mac yet, but it is in the NFR.

Speaker 1:

I guess you could say yeah, it'll get there, I think.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I hope so. I know they signed the contract so at least it won't be for the next. I think it was for six years is what the contract was.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but hopefully soon yeah, and you've got to go to the NFR, didn't you?

Speaker 2:

yes, I've been twice, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

And what did you think of Thomas and Mac when you walked in it's?

Speaker 2:

so cool? Yeah, it's definitely. It's smaller than I mean. It looks small on TV, but it's smaller than you would think that's what everybody says.

Speaker 1:

That's yeah, I haven't got to go, but my brother and dad have been, and that was their reaction. Like it's way smaller than it looks yeah, and the energy is crazy.

Speaker 2:

Like it's so small and there's so many people and the energy is so high, like it's pretty cool. I definitely it's one of my favorite places I've ever been in las vegas.

Speaker 1:

I've been in las vegas during the nfr but I didn't get to go. But that whole town, like what do they call that? The cowboy christmas thing? Yeah, did you go to that?

Speaker 2:

it's crazy yeah, there's so cowboy christmas, christmas is all the shopping, and so they have like the main convention center and then several of the hotels. They also have their own shopping, and then out at south point they have the team roping I think some sort of team roping world finals out there and then they also have a lot of shopping there too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you think ranchy but fancy will be set up there someday selling stuff. I don't know, maybe. I guess we'll see when you're not, when you're not competing in the bar you can go.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there we go, sell your silver. Sounds like a great plan, yeah I love it.

Speaker 1:

So I think, uh, we're gonna check potato chip again in a couple weeks yes and I really hope, his ulcers yeah, me too are gone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he acts like he's feeling a lot better, so hopefully that shows on the scope yeah, what were some of the signs that you noticed?

Speaker 2:

that said, hey, you know, maybe we should scope him yeah, overall, I mean, he's pretty a good, friendly, nice horse and he was just kind of being kind of grouchy and not himself didn't really want you messing with him, which is unusual, like, and when I would tighten his saddle he was kind of cinchy and didn't like to be messed with and he would hold his tail out away from him, like when I'm loping circles.

Speaker 1:

He would want to break down and act like you know kind of gassy and just hold his tail out and not really wanting to go yeah, there's so many different signs or symptoms of ulcers, yeah, and then a lot of times some of the symptoms don't may or may not match up with what they look like on camera too. We get some that we think maybe he's got ulcers, let's check. And we get in there and they're terrible. You wonder why this thing's even still eating yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And have you ever had heartburn? No, you're probably too young for that. I never had heartburn until I had kids, but I think it was last winter. I woke up in the middle of the night and had heartburn and I couldn't lay down. I had to sit up in a chair like this and I just ate crackers from about midnight until I had to go to work. From about midnight till I had to go to work, and all I could think of was all of those horses that we've scoped and I was like man. If somebody put a saddle on me and tightened it around my chest right now, I'd probably punch them in the face. And these horses' pain tolerance it varies, but they're really good at hiding pain. So I think that's something that kudos to you guys for recognizing. Like hey, I think something's off with this horse. Yeah, but when you know a horse, like you know Chip, you can tell when when things are off.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, so I'm hoping our scope is clean, and today you were going home with a. I think there are 11 pounds yeah, 11 and a half pounds of ProTech GI.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. We can definitely use that.

Speaker 1:

We reached out to these companies and told them we were fortunate enough and in the position we could sponsor some kids, and the response we got was awesome. They loved it and they all. Just the next thing we knew, we had all these boxes from all these great companies with a bunch of stuff. So you're going to get some hats, some towels, lots of stickers, water bottles, the protect gi backpacks I think there's a pulse vet t-shirt in there awesome and pulse vets, the shock wave and, if I remember right, you got to shockwave reno a couple times, didn't?

Speaker 2:

I love that.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty cool yeah and, I think, a lot of people. The term shockwave is a little bit misleading. When I first heard about it I was thinking we were shocking these horses. But do you remember what?

Speaker 2:

what it actually is it's like electromagnetic pulses or something it's actually an acoustic sound wave that's hitting the horse.

Speaker 1:

It uses um electricity, like a high voltage components and a high voltage spark plug, to generate a sound wave, and what they've figured out is how to direct it where it doesn't just scatter, to direct it in one direction, and that we can control the depth of it. So if we're doing something really superficial like a wound, we can hit that, and then we can even go 80 millimeters down there and treat SI joints and stuff like that. That's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we've had a lot of good luck with that. And then there's Hilltop Bio sent some stuff. They are in the amnion market. They make some really cool stuff. The stridoflex is stuff we can put in joints, regenoflex is stuff we can put in tendons and we can do regional lymph perfusions, and they make stuff for eyes and wounds, and that's that's some of the most recent stuff we've got. And then, um, also noltrex, which is a synthetic polyacrylamide hydrogel that lubricates stuff. So, like I said, the market out there there's so much that we can keep these horses going with, and especially if we get bright young kids like you to learn even more about the rehab and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

That'll be awesome and I think there'll be a lot of opportunities at horse clinics for that too, for ones we're rehabbing or that have an injury that we really need somebody that knows what they're doing, that can that can help rehab these horses. Yeah, we've learned a lot about that in the past decade or so. You know, used to it was. Your horse has a tendon injury well, put them in a stall for six weeks or six months. Now we know the importance of it was. Your horse has a tendon injury Well, put him in a stall for six weeks or six months. Now we know the importance of keeping that horse moving and everything.

Speaker 1:

So we got the backpack for you stuff full of all of this stuff Awesome. We got patches for you, we got stickers and then anything you need. You just let us know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, thanks, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, thanks for stopping by. Yeah, we'll hopefully have you back and maybe we can learn more about silversmithing.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

My mom used to make jewelry. Oh, really Not. I don't know if it was silver or not, but it's pretty fun. Yeah, she had one of dad's old gun cabinets. It's converted to a jewelry case. That that's all stuff she's made. So, and dad's doing leather work, did you?

Speaker 2:

know that?

Speaker 1:

no, I didn't yeah, maybe you guys could yeah collaborate, make something really cool yeah, that could be that'll be available this year at the cowboy christmas right? So, shaylin, thanks so much yeah, thank you guys, I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and I hope chip's ulcers are healed up yes, me too and I hope next time you're here you show us a big old belt buckle right, yeah, that's the plan all right. Well, thanks for tuning in and until next time, take care of your horses and yourself.

Speaker 2:

Retina surgeon or start to come quick. Draw the syringe and give it a flick. Bring your little black bag with the medicines in. Bring the tranq and the crank and the penicillin.