Amberley Snyder was born on January 29, 1991, in
California to Tina and
Cory Snyder. She is the second-oldest of her five siblings, Ashley, JC, Taylor, Aubrey, and Autumn.
Rodeo career Snyder first rode a horse at the age of three and began competing in rodeo barrel racing when she was seven years old. After that, she spent summer weekends barrel racing, pole bending, and breakaway roping. She won the 2009
All-Around Cowgirl World Championship in the
National Little Britches Rodeo Association. She was the 2009–2010 Utah State
FFA President.
Car crash and recovery On January 10, 2010, Snyder was driving from
Utah to the
National Western Stock Show in
Denver, Colorado, and did not fasten her seat belt after a gas station stop in
Rawlins, Wyoming. Less than 10 miles from the gas station, she looked down to check her map, drifted into the other lane, overcorrected, and her truck slid off the road and rolled seven times. She was thrown from the truck and slammed into a fence post, which crushed her T-12 vertebra and left her paralyzed from the waist down. With the help of physical therapy, and a seat belt on her saddle, she was later able to resume riding and competing in rodeo a year and a half later. She transferred from
Snow College to
Utah State University where she was captain of the school's
National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association team. In 2015, Amberley won a fan exemption to compete in
RFD-TV's
The American Rodeo at
AT&T Stadium in
Arlington, Texas, and made a time of 15.3 seconds with her horse Power, only 0.6 seconds slower than the winning time. ==Later career==