Rescued Horse Competes In The International Finals Rodeo

A horse rescued from Hurricane Katrina is now competing in the International Finals Rodeo. News 9's Anjelicia Bruton spoke to his owner about what it took to prepare for this competition.

Thursday, January 14th 2021, 5:55 pm

By: Anjelicia Bruton


A horse rescued from Hurricane Katrina is now competing in the International Finals Rodeo. His impressive journey is being called a miracle.

Rachel Bryant said her relationship with Derby has always been quite the adventure. They met when he was about a year old.

“In 2005, there was Hurricane Katrina and after the hurricane Mr. Marvin had called my dad and asked him if him and some buddies could come save some horses because the water was rising. Derby was one of the horses that we saved. He does like the water now he loves to play in the water,” Bryant said.

Bryant said she grew up with Derby. A couple of years ago Derby suffered an injury to one of his back hoofs.

“He had gotten away from me and a railroad spike got stuck in his foot and had nicked his coffin bone. It was pretty slim for him to come back,” Bryant said.

Bryant said she never lost hope. It took about a year for Derby to recover, then it was back to competing as normal.

“He came back pretty good and now he made me my first IRF finals so we're a rookie here,” Bryant said.

Bryant and Derby will be competing in the Breakaway roping category.

The competition kicks off Friday and will end on Sunday.

Anjelicia Bruton

Anjelicia Bruton joined the News 9 family as a multi-media journalist in December 2020. She came to Oklahoma City from a station in Columbus, Georgia. In Columbus, Anjelicia covered stories on post at Fort Benning, deadly tornadoes in Alabama and an array of other stories.

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