Haley Johnson is recognized as a talented breakaway roper and western lifestyle photographer but few people realize how much perseverance and determination brought her to where she is today. Despite the various obstacles that have happened in her journey, she credits God with guiding her and putting kindhearted people on her path to help her along the way.
Growing up in Simpsonville, South Carolina, Haley didn’t come from a horse family, but even as a little child she would always get excited when she saw a horse in a field. She was being raised by her grandmother, and knew money was tight and owning a horse wouldn’t be possible. When she was in middle school, she had a school project come up where she had to work a set number of hours and write a report. She knew of an older man named Henry Forrester that lived a few miles down the road from her and had a boarding barn. She approached him and asked if she could help clean stalls and feed horses for a few weekends for the project. He agreed; little did they both know this was the start of a long friendship.
Haley fell in love with time at the barn and the comforting presence she got from just being around the horses. Henry began mentoring Haley and teaching her all he could about the horses. She was soon there every day and after a while her grandmother signed a permission slip to have the school bus drop her off directly at the barn rather than taking her home.
One day, Henry surprised her by gifting her with a paint horse named Cisco that had been abandoned at the barn. He let her work off the board and Haley began planning how she was going to put the missing pieces together to chase her horse dreams.
A farrier and an old school roper, Henry didn’t think Haley would ever make much of a roper–in fact, at sixteen he said she had the worst swing he’d ever seen–something they can both laugh about now. But realizing she wasn’t very good at something, whether it was the riding or roping, only made Haley want to get better, which was exactly what she did.
The paint had a lot of issues and they both decided she needed something a little safer to learn on. They sold Cisco and found a Craigslist ad for a few horses. They went to look at them and found the horses in horrible condition, rail thin, and bought them both. On the way back they stopped at a Waffle House and decided to name the two new horses Waffles and Biscuits because as Henry said in reference to their need to gain weight “they sure looked like they each needed one.”
A $425 horse, Waffles would become Haley’s first youth rodeo horse. The first couple of months with Waffles was tough. She had been mishandled and bucked and ran Haley into trees and gave her all kinds of adventures.
Dillon Lawless, a farrier in South Carolina at the time (now in Georgia) began giving her some horse training advice, and Waffles slowly started making progress. Through another job at Solid Rock Stables under the guidance of Pam Riddle, Haley continued to grow as a horsewoman.
Her uncle gifted her a 1995 Ford F150 that didn’t run, and she spent a few years working to get it running, and then purchased a $500 two horse straight load trailer. Once these pieces came together, Haley and Waffles started competing. Waffles was a 3D barrel horse and a 22 second pole horse. They had a blast competing in both, but Haley soon realized with funds being tight she wanted to start doing something where she might win back some money without being “outhorsed”. So she started roping. Kolby Whitesell and Cord Webb were kind enough to help her with her roping in exchange for work around their place. They also trained her current mare Sally for roping.
While working on her roping, Haley was also working on her horsemanship and her photography skills.
She had the opportunity to intern during the summer with reining trainers David and Diana McBurney at Rollback Ranch in Palo, Iowa and went on to do several other internships. While in Iowa, she rode a special little mare named Sally who her cousins Denise and Diane Clinton suggested might make her a nice rodeo horse. They owned Sally, and let Haley ride her for the summer, and would later sell her to Haley.
Her photography journey was started by her grandfather. Although her grandparents were divorced, he was around the house a lot and was a professional wedding photographer. They bonded over photography and one year for Christmas he gave her her first camera. Haley believes taking a picture is capturing a moment that can then be relived with those same emotions felt. She treasures every opportunity to document both her life and the lives of others.
She also found that at most of the smaller horse events she was at there weren’t photographers on-site, so she began taking pictures and giving them to her friends. She always did it for fun or as a side gig. But then after years of riding colts she got hurt from a buck off and had a lot of time when she couldn’t ride. Then, she was involved in a terrible car accident when she rolled her truck down an 8 foot embankment and was again out of riding for a year. This really gave her time to focus on her photography.
Haley moved to Fairview, Kentucky after meeting her boyfriend and continues to pursue her roping and photography there. She became a full-time photographer in 2022 and after the first six months was completely booked out the rest of the year. In 2023, she shot 93 equine events, totaling 119 days of shooting, traveled to 9 different states, and did 68 personalized sessions.This year she has every weekend booked as well from rodeos, barrel races, portraits for seniors and even the occasional wedding–anything that fits into western lifestyle.
In addition, this is the first year she has been an active competitor on the International Pro Rodeo Association (IPRA) and the Lonestar rodeo circuit after a significant setback with her horse.
Her current competition horse is a mare named Sally, the same one she rode while interning in Iowa. Sally is an amazing little worker mare. When they first started competing together, Haley was bouncing back from the mental and physical struggles associated with her accident, but they were starting to hit their stride and roping in the mid to low two second range.
Unfortunately, Sally suffered a freak accident and had to take some time off. Thankfully, she is now going strong.
Today, Haley and Sally are back on the circuit, and when Haley isn’t roping she is taking photos to help others remember these moments. Haley is a testament to dedication and determination to go after what you want–keep an eye out for her powerful photos!
Haley Johnson Photography:
