As a young girl, Michigan native Vanessa Hodgson started out riding steers at her family’s farm and knew immediately that she wanted to eventually be a professional rodeo bull rider. But, there weren’t any youth or high school rodeos that had rough stock events for girls so she had to content herself with riding the family’s steers while competing in local rodeos as a barrel racer.

That changed when she turned 18 and could join the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association which was organized to develop and promote the sport of professional rodeo for women.
  

She started out riding bulls but later decided to ride bareback bucking horses as well. Today she competes regularly in both events. At the WPRA 2004 National Finals, Vanessa placed fourth in the bull riding event and 9th in the bareback finals.
Vanessa doesn’t limit her competition to WPRA events. She also enters a lot of local “open” rodeos throughout the country where she competes head to head against the men.
When she isn’t on the road competing, Vanessa trains barrel racing horses.