Erika grew up in Victoria on a seven hundred Cow Dairy Farm. She now resides in Corbie Hill, New South Wales, where she breeds and trains barrel racing horses and running her own business as a barefoot trimmer and contract cattle AI and preg testing.

Erika began her career by attending her first ABHA Barrel Racing weekend nearby and got the passion from then on to compete at APRA rodeos. In 2019, she competed on a mare she bred and trained, which led to success at her first Pro Rodeo and has been consistently placing from then on.

We asked Erika to best describe herself in five words, to which she replied: passionate, driven, reliable, honest, and friendly.

Erika has always admired Hailey Kensil and credits her as one of her biggest influences.

This talented barrel racer said some of her most memorable moments competing recently was Warwick Rodeo in 2024,where she was second in the final round and third in the average. Having placed fifth in the average at Equitana, recently, is also mentioned as a one of her most memorable moments. Here’s a fun fact about Erika, she’s an American citizen!

We love this part of the interview with our professional riders, when we ask them to show some support for the next generation in their chosen sport, which is barrel racing in this case. We like to give our professional riders the opportunity to offer some words of wisdom for their journey ahead. This is what Erika had to say: “If you put the hard work in, you’ll get the results you want! Listen to your mentors and consistently follow your dream!”

We can’t help ourselves, when catching up with our professional riders we just must ask what their best fashion tip is! Erika’s fashion advice is, “to colour coordinate and to always wear a sports bra or singlet under your rodeo shirt when barrel racing.” With western fashion trends as our main focus, it’s always interesting to hear about fashion ideas, especially from our riders.

With the 2025 competition year heating up, Erika’s main goal is getting around as many rodeos as she can down south and then heading up north for the big event over winter and hopefully bringing home some money, she’s got a new green horse that she has trained and is showing a lot of potential. Erika has set the goal of making the APRA Finals at scone at the end of November. She also has a four-year-old gelding that shows a lot of potential to take to the barrel racing futurity events especially the ABHA finals in November.

Exciting times ahead!