17-year-old Carter Garren is a true all-around horsewoman, excelling in both the English and Western disciplines. She climbs in the saddle with a quiet confidence and smile that draws others to her. Her power comes not only from her natural talent but from hard work and a mindset of constant improvement.
Her love for horses started at a young age. Her parents, Hunt and Julie Garren, grew up riding and actually met at a barn as teenagers. Hunt has competed in a variety of rodeo events and worked on ranches across the West. Julie was a competitive English rider, and a breakaway roper, and is also a practicing veterinarian.
As an animal-loving family, Carter remembers there always being horses around when she was a child, and cites a special moment when she was five years old and was riding her pony Guy. She was sitting a trot on Guy, and her mom came up to her and asked if she knew how to post. She said she didn’t, and her mom taught her right then. True to her nature, Carter kept practicing and soon was posting like a pro.
The more she grew, the more she learned. Her all-around skill set continued to develop with her parents’ teaching and encouragement, and several years down the road, Carter began competing in the Junior Southern Rodeo Association competitions. She’d had a babysitter who barrel raced and thought it looked like fun to try and discovered an interest in goat tying and mutton busting as well. So, she turned barrels, tied goats, and rode sheep. It was a lifestyle for this young cowgirl, and she remembers spending nights on the kitchen floor at their house with her goat tying dummy practicing. These three events carried her through several years until one moment made her pause.
In 2014, she was at the SRA finals and was sitting on her dad’s horse. The horse suddenly freaked out, and she was thrown, hitting her head on concrete and suffering a concussion. This accident led to a break from horses and rethinking her approach to riding. She gained a new interest in the importance of helmets, and so it seemed like a natural fit to try out the English discipline. Knowledge in this realm was close by, as her mom also has a background in the English world, having competed on the collegiate equestrian team at the College of Charleston.
Carter’s love for the English discipline grew, and she began exploring different events. While hunter jumper is her main focus, she has also dabbled in jumpers, equitation, and dressage over the years.
While she continued to ride Western on the side, she wasn’t doing any rodeoing and hadn’t played with a rope much since she was a young child, until a few years ago. On New Year’s Eve of 2022, she was with her mom and dad at a roping at Livengood Arena. Her dad suggested she hop on a horse and try to rope a calf. At first, she wasn’t sure she wanted to, but then she decided she might as well give it a try. Not only did she try, but she did exceptionally well, and it was the first calf she had ever caught. She enjoyed the adrenaline rush and the experience of roping but didn’t think much about it til later in the year. At that point, her dad began helping her with her roping more, and she entered the world of breakaway roping.
Now, Carter actively competes on the rodeo circuit and in the hunter jumper world, often leaving school to go practice on her jumping horse, Captain, and then going to bring up calves and rope on her main breakaway horse, Coal. Weekend competitions in the English and Western world are frequent. You can find her roping at NC High School Rodeos, Southern Rodeo Association (SRA) rodeos, and Turkey Creek Rodeos, normally with a Striker 10.0 in hand. And she does all this while also taking a full load of AP classes and excelling in school. During her summer break, she helps at the vet clinic her family owns, assisting the vet techs. She also enjoys playing golf when she has the time.
Two recent successes for her have been competing at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Tryon, North Carolina, and competing at the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
On her first trip to Tryon, her horse, Captain, wasn’t a fan. The walkways above the arena spooked him. He’d never seen people over his head like that and couldn’t seem to settle to the idea. But Carter stuck with it and kept exposing him to it, having the mindset she was the leader and letting him know that while he could be scared of it, she was going to guide him through it, and they were going to do it anyway. Finally, on a return trip to the ring he hated, she and Captain won Reserve Champion in the Hunter Jumper show.
This victory was especially meaningful to them both, as Carter felt like she had made progress in learning not to let her emotions take the reins. In fact, she’s learned how to prepare her mindset depending on the event. For Hunter Jumper shows, she knows she needs to be calm and prepare herself to think logically so her horse will remain calm and grounded. On the opposite side, when preparing for rodeos, she tries to hype herself up and remember she is going to push herself to take two swings and throw her loop.
Having this courage, level of self-awareness, and intentionality paid off for her in Oklahoma at the International Finals Youth Rodeo as well. While she didn’t enter it with any particular expectations, after having been trying to work out of a roping slump, she wound up catching both of her calves against tough competition and girls who were way more experienced and knowledgeable. She accomplished this alongside her horse, Coal, and with her dad there as coach.
Her attitude is the kind every coach looks for. She always speaks with respect and admiration towards her competition and says that she believes anyone struggling should remember they aren’t competing with the girl next to them, they are only competing with their own last run and making this run better than that one.
Even with those victories, Carter doesn’t stop preparing or dreaming for the next big thing. Her ideal life involves a ranch out west where she can sit on the patio with her morning coffee and watch the horses graze and play. Until then, she plans to attend college and perhaps become a radiologist. She’d also like to compete in the Maclay Finals, the Junior Hunter Finals, and the National High School Rodeo Finals, and is working to qualify for all of them.
Whether in school or in the arena, Carter stays motivated, knowing someone else is out there practicing every day, and so she is going to work even harder to be at the top of her game. She’s grateful for the knowledge and support of her mom and dad, and the ability they have to help her troubleshoot and improve her riding.
Carter is an awesome young lady who has lots of wonderful things on the horizon. Keep an eye out for her and go cheer her on.
Photo credit to Mels Media, 870 Sports Photography, family, and friends.
