Karen Mitchell-Smith

Some things just run in the family. Like freckles, for instance. Personality traits, too. And horsemanship. Or, in the case of Lynn Saunders’ family, horsewomanship.

Saunders, her daughter, Denny Ralls, and 14-year-old granddaughter, Deven Riggins, share something many families share, a love of horses. But it’s what this three generation team does with horses that makes their story unique. All three women barrel race — against each other.

The story begins with Saunders, who by her early childhood was telling anyone who cared to ask she was going to be a jockey.

“In school, everybody would laugh at me,” Saunders said with a who-cares shrug. “You know, first grade and the teachers would ask us what we wanted to be. Johnny wanted to be a fireman. Joey wanted to be a policeman. Nancy wanted to be a housewife, and Susie wanted to be a nurse. Then came my turn. I would say I wanted to be a jockey.”

Never mind that Saunders’ family didn’t own any horses, or that not even her family’s friends owned horses. She just knew in her heart someday she would ride professionally. And by age 14, Saunders was on her way to her chosen lifestyle.

Friends, finally, with the right “horse people,” Saunders was introduced to the world of cutting horses and barrel racing. She began hanging out at her local race track, Rillito Park, in Tuscon, Ariz.

“It started out with walking hots, and that led to exercising horses, and that led to riding them in the races,” said Saunders.

It was while pursuing her dream at the broiling Arizona tracks she met race horse trainer Jerry Saunders, her future husband. Saunders believed in his wife’s dream and did everything he could to promote her both at the tracks and on the rodeo circuit.

For many women, the arrival of a family would end such an active career, but when the Saunders’ two children came along, the family traveled together.

“That was our business. Dad trained race horses, Mom rode races. We traveled all over,” said Ralls, who began her own riding career as soon as she could sit a saddle.

In fact, the family traveled both nationally and internationally, basing in Tuscon during the school year and summering in Prescott.

“Mom made history in Mexico when I was about 11,” Ralls said. “We had moved to Laredo and she was the first woman to ride in Mexico at Nuevo Laredo.”

But even with the accolades of the winner’s circle and history-making rides ringing in her ears, Saunders’ craving for equine speed wasn’t eased, and she continued barrel racing on the rodeo circuit, even while maintaining her standings at the track. She often attended several events each weekend, and raised a son and a daughter to follow in her footsteps.

Before long, Saunders’ kids were making their own careers, first on the AJRA circuit and at community jackpots, then at the North Side Coliseum in Fort Worth. Later, on the pro circuit, it was mom and daughter competing against each other on the barrels at many of the rodeos.

But the family spirit of friendly competition wasn’t to end there. Ralls produced a daughter of her own, a third generation to keep the passion for victory going.

By age 5, Deven Riggins was already earning her own place in the family trailer. At the Olney open rodeo that year she took second place in barrels, beating out many professional women. Ralls was back to the hectic schedule she kept throughout her own childhood, now taking her daughter to three and four events per weekend.

Today, with Riggins entering the ninth grade in Weatherford, one might think the schedule, down to typically one or two events per weekend, might taper off to only the occasional rodeo. But the 2008 Region III All Around Cowgirl who just won the second go-round at Stephenville in the end of June has no intention of slowing down.

“I rodeo a lot,” Riggins said with strong emphasis on the phrase “a lot.” “I do everything. I rope, I tie goats, I ride poles and I do barrels.

“I have a saddle for All Around Cowgirl in the Junior Wrangler Division, and I won the pole saddle, too. I broke my elbow in the middle of the year, so when I went to state I couldn’t tie goats, but I did everything else.”

Though all three women compete, it’s clear from the expression in her mom’s and grandmother’s eyes as Riggins talks about her wins that she is the star of the family.

The easy camaraderie among the ladies is in no way diminished by the fact they ride against one another, and if anything, it is enhanced by the love for a sport that brings the whole family together.

“It’s fun for us to go together,” Ralls said. “We always want one of us to win, but especially Deven.” And according to Riggins, she does usually beat the older women, which her mother quipped may have something to do with the fact they let her ride whichever horse is performing best on that particular weekend.

Kidding aside, the women gladly acknowledge Riggins’ talent, but treat competition seriously.

“We normally ride at the [Fort Worth] Stock Show and some of the jackpots, and then we do some of the bigger local rodeos around,” Ralls said.

“We all want to help each other,” Saunders added, “but when you come up that alley, that’s all there is, and it’s every woman for herself. My advantage is that I keep myself fit, and I still want to win. Lots of women my age still rodeo, but they do it more as a hobby or for socializing. I socialize, too, but I want to win.”

It’s that attitude that made Saunders a role model to many little girls through the years.

“I used to have little girls come up to me and ask if I’d teach them. I would, but I also told them this sport is hard on your body,” Saunders said. “A woman’s body is just not made for this kind of thing. I was fortunate to have such a good career in horse racing. I stayed in the top 5 in Arizona and took fifth in the world for quarter horse riders in the late ’70s. I won state many times and rode professionally for almost 20 years.”

Eventually, those years took their toll on Saunders’ body. A year ago in June, she had back surgery and took seven months off from rodeoing. The girls laughed that “Papaw,” usually a hard task master, took it “pretty easy on her” doing her recovery.

But with a trainer like that for a husband and so many years of experience behind her, it wasn’t hard for the 55-year-old Saunders to find her groove again, placing eighth out of 600 riders at the same Stephenville Rodeo where her granddaughter won the buckle.

She was all the while cheered on or, as the case may be, corrected by her husband.

“He keeps us on the straight and narrow,” Saunders said of her husband, who still trains horses at Trinity Meadows in Willow Park.

Riggins agreed.

“You hit a barrel,” she said snapping her finger and pointing, “and you know it’s going to be a long ride home. And it’s never your horse’s fault.”

The girls may tease about him, but it’s easy to see their affection for the man who is their greatest fan. Part-time chauffeur, part-time booking agent, part-time trainer and full-time cheering section, the women all credit Jerry Saunders’ love and support with their success.

It’s exactly that kind of support that gives Riggins, who recently picked up Pro Equine in Pleasonton, Texas, as a sponsor, the courage to set lofty goals. Like the short-term goal she has set for her ninth grade year — to be the only freshman in Region III to win the All Around in every event and qualify for state. But the granddaughter of the little girl who wanted to grow up to be a jockey set her own life goal at age 4.

“We were watching the National Finals Rodeo,” Saunders said, “and Deven said, ‘Grandma, will you take me to that rodeo some day?’ I told her if she practiced hard and got good enough I’d take her to that one.”

And when the kids at school talk about what they want to be when they grow up, Riggins always has the same answer — World Champion.

With her bloodlines, how can she lose?