For Professional Barrel Racer Stevi Hillman, the rodeo is a platform to reach people. As she says, “It is not who I am, but what I do.” Born and raised in Colorado on her grandparents’ farm, Stevi spent her days riding and training horses. In her teenage years she moved to Oklahoma where she was introduced to barrel racing and instantly knew she wanted to compete and did everything she could to get there. But first and foremost, her focus was on college where she graduated with a degree in radiology. Upon finishing college, she began training for the arena again where she met a horse on the track named Hammer. This was the first horse that gave Stevi the motivation to learn and grow in the arena every day. Stevi shared, “I am a firm believer that you must have the right horse and the right connection with that horse to truly be successful.” Her next horse, Truck (now 16 years old), opened the door to rodeo for her full time. She went all in, quit her job and hasn’t looked back since. Now raising and breeding studs of her own, there are plenty of horses and competition at Hillman Performance. As Stevi shares, becoming a barrel racer and working with horses was not how she was raised, it was “God’s journey that he had for me.”