On February 23, 2008, Bess Chaney had an accident on the ranch where she works in East Texas. She was walking back to her house and tripped on a retaining wall, falling down the high side of it. The fall was only a few feet, but she fell onto her neck, causing a compression fracture in her neck. The doctors performed surgery on Bess, placing a rod in her neck. After surgery, and due to some complications, she had only involuntary sporadic movement in her right shoulder with no signs of any other movement and is paralyzed from the neck down. Since then, she has been working very hard in therapy and has achieved movement in her head, shoulders and the upper part of her right arm.

For those that don't know Bess, she moved to East Texas in 2005 from Temecula, California helping work on a ranch. She has frequented barrel races in Marshall, Texas and surrounding areas for a couple years now. There are several people that would know her if they saw her. She is a really quiet lady but extremely friendly, and an all around wonderful person. She has a dark complexion, dark hair and you would always see her walking through the arena at Marshall with her red heeler that just loved attention (and any food you would give him!). For those that know people by what they ride (and you know we all do that), she rode the neatest little blood bay gelding that was as honest as the day is long!

Bess grew up in the Pasadena, California area. Her love for horses brought her to a rodeo career starting in the early 1970’s. At that time, Bess’s mount was a 16+ hand sorrel mare she called “Mama”. Bess and Mama went on to qualify for ten consecutive Sierra Circuit Finals. Throughout the years, Bess continued to barrel race on a sorrel horse named Baby Jet and gave lessons to many in both horsemanship and barrel racing at Two Winds Ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. She is a very vibrant person, was always willing to lend a hand and you could hear her laugh among the crowd. You might remember Bess most recently riding a little bay horse, she called “T-Bone”.

Most of Bess' family and her many, many lifelong friends live in California. Bess doesn't have any family in the East Texas area outside of the people she was working for, which are very close to her. She is currently at:

and would enjoy visitors. For anyone wanting to make a delivery to Bess, there is a flower shop right down the street from Henderson Health and Rehab Center called West Main Country Flowers. Rhonda there is aware of Bess's situation and will assist you in getting the flowers to Bess. Bess is getting a lot of strength from the emails, notes, cards and visitors she has gotten since the accident, but she needs more every chance you get. It doesn't matter if you know her or not....we all know that in the barrel racing world, we "cowgirl up" when someone is hurt or needs strength. We ask everyone who can to please show your support for this wonderful lady as she has shown so many of us in the past.