For Deanna Bailey, showing horses has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride, with extreme highs and some lows. The passing of her father and an injury almost had her sidelined for good, but with the help of her husband, Matt, Deanna is back in the saddle and loving every minute.

In 1994 Deanna was working her way through college at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, waitressing at a local golf course near her home in Cedar Springs, Michigan. One spring day a young man came into the clubhouse for lunch covered in mud from head to toe. The two were introduced and clicked immediately. They spent the entire summer together before Deanna left for a Orlando, Florida, as part of the Walt Disney College Program for a semester of college.

“It was a great experience but it was really tough to be so far away from Matt and my family especially since my dad had to have valve replacement surgery that year,” Bailey recalls.

After the semester ended Deanna returned to Michigan and three months later her father, the man who first got her hooked on horses, suddenly died from a major heart attack while loading a mare and her foal in a horse trailer at the family’s home. Deanna was devastated, but says Matt was her rock throughout the difficult time. He picked up and moved his entire life to the opposite side of the state to be with Deanna and her mother as they picked up all of the pieces of their new life without Deanna’s father. Even though they had only been dating a year and Deanna was still in college the couple got engaged that summer and were married the following August.

“I was the first of all of my friends to get married and I am sure that I was young and naive but I just knew that after all I had been through that with Matt beside me we could make it through anything,” Deanna says.

Deanna’s mother, Diane, sold all of the family’s horses except for one gelding they had raised. With Deanna’s busy work and college schedule she was unable to show or even ride much aside from the occasional trail ride. In 2007 she began showing again at AQHA events in Michigan and was totally hooked. In July of 2009 Deanna was leading the Michigan Quarter Horse Association High Point in Novice Amateur Hunter Under Saddle with her gelding, A Certain Step, when her world came to screeching halt.

“I was on an ATV trying to catch my horse that had gotten out. I didn’t realize that the lead rope had slipped down and it got tangled in the wheel and jerked me off by my arm going full tilt,” Deanna recalls. “I ended up having three broken ribs, staples in my head from where the gator had hit me and my arm was a mess. My circulation had been cut off and I had severe nerve damage. I went through six months of excruciating physical therapy where I had to learn to regain use of my left arm. The doctors told me they had no idea what to expect for my recovery because of the nerve damage, but I was determined to get back to doing what I loved and that was showing horses.”

In January of 2010 the Baileys purchased a very quiet, consistent all- around gelding named Lopin To Town. Together the pair won the MQHA Novice Amateur All Around title in 2010 and again in 2011. At the end of 2011 it was time for Deanna to find a new show partner and she enlisted the help of longtime friend Amber Hanson Pickard. Bailey saw a video of Born Hot Feelin Good, a 2006 red roan gelding by Born To Be Blazing and out of Good Graces. She knew immediately she had to have him. The next week Amber and her husband, Dwayne Pickard, went to look at him and brought him home for Deanna. By 2014 the pair really hit their stride and were named Champions at the AQHA Novice Championship-East in Western Riding as well as the Michigan State Quarter Horse Association Champion in the Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity and finished 10th at the AQHA World Show in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle.

This year the team continued with their successful career by being named Co-Champions at the Michigan Quarter Horse Breeder’s Futurity in the 4-and-Over Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity and finishing in the Top 10 at the Congress in the Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity. Bailey also has a new 3-year-old sorrel gelding, Total Hotness by Blazing Hot and Ms Surely Bars. She plans to start showing him in all-around events next year..

When she’s not at a horse show Deanna stays busy as a Clinical Science Associate for Genzyme, a Sanofi company. Genzyme makes enzyme replacement therapies for patients with rare diseases. Deanna works with patients and their physicians to help coordinate every aspect of care.

The Baileys also spend time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, especially during the gray whale migration season so they can see the whales and their calves jumping out of the water. They also enjoy spending time with their families and their five pot bellied pigs, four of which are rescues.

“I think one of my major goals in life is to have a good balance,” Deanna says. “I love horses and horse shows but the schedule can be rigorous and I try to find a balance between doing what I absolutely love and also my family, friends and animals.”