Consistency and Work Ethic: Get to Know Emilie Veillette

Emilie Veillette is a professional barrel racer and horse trainer, and is the first and youngest Canadian to be ranked in the world.

Emilie grew up in a barrel racing family – mom was a barrel racer and breakaway roper, and dad was a bulldogger. The family rode together, traveled to rodeos together, and supported Emilie as she turned her passion into a career.

“Mom is the one who inspired me the most and she is still my biggest support.”

Winning is always a goal for Emilie, but she sees winning as an extension of her relationship with her horse – the result of good training and communication. And when she doesn’t win, she focuses on learning so that she can do better next time. 

“My biggest goal is to take the time it takes to train a great horse. It doesn’t matter the level. They are not all going to be pro level, but (I) train him to the best of his capabilities.”

Emilie has had many industry mentors over the years, and has learned that consistency and work ethic are what’s most important, and what’s going to get a horse to the next level. And, she believes that horse love to learn. That – like most people – they are smart, want to work towards things, and are proud of what they accomplish. 

“When the training is solid in my horses, when I ask them for something, they are so happy to do it for me because they are like ‘yeah, mom, we got you, we know how to do that’.”

Emilie’s favorite thing about barrel racing is that it everyone can compete – kids to grandmas, amateurs to professionals – and that everybody can win, as long as they have consistency and work ethic themselves.  

“This is what I tell myself every day, is just work on yourself and the horse will follow. Every day, every horse, every step the horse takes, I try to make sure that I am the best rider that I can be, and the horses follow that, for sure.”

It was Emilie’s focus on consistency and communication in training that led her to create her own collection of bits, spurs, and stirrups in collaboration with Metalab. You can learn more about Emilie’s Barrel Racing Collection here, or shop it here.