Kenny and Casey

Name: Casey Chapman.

Born: 5/5/87.

Current residence: Mechanicsville.

Family: My mom Jodi, my dad Gary, and my brother Gary Jr.

Pets: I have three dogs. I have a Catahoula named Tuff, a miniature Australian Shepherd named Zena (who went to college with me) and a Blue Heeler named Kippy (who also went with me my last year of college and took part in destroying my room on more than one occasion). I also have a goat named Daffodil, who I used for goat tying but now she thinks she is a horse and stays in the pasture with my horses.

Horses: I have 11 horses. I have my main breakaway and heel horse named Chance. I also have two tie-down calf-roping horses who are mother and son, PC and Ty. I have three barrel horses named Dyna, Kate, and Dually. In 2007, Dyna carried me to the National College Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo. The next year she was second in the region in the barrel racing when she broke her jaw and had to have surgery and was out the rest of the year. Dually is my colt that I just recently started on barrels.

Occupation: I am an elementary teacher. My current employer is the LEAD Center in Hopewell. I am the case manager for fourth and fifth grade. (The LEAD Center is a school that serves students with mental and emotional disabilities, according to its website.)

What is your “claim to fame”? I have won a lot of things from saddles to belt buckles, but I would not necessarily say any one of them in particular is my "claim to fame." I feel that my "claim to fame" won't be reached until I achieve my dream of training my own barrel horse and making it to the National Finals Rodeo.

Hobbies: Rodeo (barrel racing, breakaway roping, and team roping). I also love to give riding lessons to all ages.

Philosophy on life: One quote that I love to live by is; "Good, better, best; never let it rest. Make your good, better; and your better, best." I know that I live and learn, so I try to make each day better than the last and know that there is always someone out there who is working hard so I know that I have to work even harder in order to achieve what I want out of this life.

Best horse advice ever received: "Even the lightest bit can be rank in hard hands." From this I learned to be light-handed and let my horses work on their own. Once you teach a horse its job they want to do it and please you. I have come to realize that when most horses act up it is normally because they don't understand what you are asking and not that they don't want to do it. Another piece of advice I received is to have patience. This is critical in all aspects of my life (whether) it be teaching children or breaking and training a colt. I would rather spend a year training a horse to be perfect than spend 10 years fixing problems that arose from rushing things and not making things clear to my horses.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?: Even though I have been blessed in many aspects of my life, many people would be surprised to know that I have extremely bad luck —granted winning the Forever Yours Dream Wedding was not one of those. In college I ran through a good string of bad luck. First my barrel horse broke her jaw the year she was likely going to win the Ozark Region. Once she got all healed up and ready to get back to work I broke my thumb team roping and had to have surgery and pins put in my thumb (even with my pins and cast I continued to enter rodeos and rope, not necessarily great, but I tried). On the way back to school a semi-truck hit my dually and trailer with my four horses in it on the interstate (they all ended up OK!). And then to top it off I got mono. All in all I wouldn't be who I was if God didn't give me challenges to make me a stronger person. The positive about all of it is that I still ended up graduating college!