I TAUGHT MYSELF TO BE A CHAMPION!

From the outback to rodeo centrestage, Tyler is taking her dreams across the world

- Katherine Chatfield

Most teenagers live on a diet of social media but Tyler Morton isn’t interested in living life through her phone. The 14-year-old is aiming to become a professional barrel racer and loves nothing more than being outdoors racing her horse, Storm.

Tyler lives on a cattle station near Winton, Queensland, with her parents and two sisters, and has been riding horses since before she could walk.

“Before I was a year old, Mum and Dad used to put me on a horse and lead me around,” Tyler tells Woman’s Day.

Tyler’s mum Meg, 39, adds, “We put all our girls on horses we felt were safe, and once they got more capable, they’d step up to the next horse they could handle. Horses really are in their blood.”

SKILLED & FAST

By the age of five, Tyler had started racing, and by the time she was 10, she'd sneak out of her distance learning classes to watch YouTube videos of barrel racing - a rodeo event where a horse and rider run a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels.

"You have to ride around the barrels in a certain formation," explains Tyler. “The fastest time wins.”