Shelby Boisjoli is originally from Langdon and went to high school in Chestermere.
Now she's a Ladies Breakaway Roping champion.
The Calgary Stampede recently announced that it would add the program to its list of sanctioned events for the 2025 Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
"I've been going and watching the Calgary Stampede since I was a little girl," said Boisjoli, whose mother was a Stampede Princess.
Boisjoli called the addition of the event a significant win for women in rodeo.
"The fact that they're adding one more event in all the rodeos across the country and that the Calgary Stampede is acknowledging it as an equal event and paying equal money to the women, it's a huge deal," she said.
Boisjoli won her first Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) title in 2023, wrapping up the season with a record $197,706.
According to the WPRA, she has earned $646,380 in her career by the end of the 2024 season.
Last year, she also won the Governor's Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the second straight year.
"I grew up playing sports and just a lot of competitiveness that way," she added. "Breakaway roping really wasn't that big in Canada yet or anywhere around Calgary. It was pretty advanced and pretty big in the United States."
She went to college in Ranger, Texas, and now lives in Stephenville.
The athlete explained that breakaway roping is a little like calf roping.
"Once we rope the calf, we stop our horse, and our rope's tied onto the saddle horn with a little cotton string. When your rope breaks from the saddle horn your time stops, and the time starts when the calf leaves the chute, and the barrier pulls."
Boisjoli has already qualified for this year's Ladies Breakaway Roping event at the Calgary Stampede.