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Amberley Snyder

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Amberley was born in California and moved to Utah when she was seven. She is the second of six children in her family. She started riding horses at the age of three and competing in rodeo at the age of seven. Amberley competed all through junior high and high school qualifying for numerous national rodeos. Amberley has won multiple titles including the Finals and World All-Around Cowgirl for the National Little Britches Association. She also served as the Utah FFA State President. Amberley just graduated from Utah State University obtaining a degree in Agricultural Education and is now pursuing a graduate degree in School Counseling. She was involved in a paralyzing car accident in 2010. The odds were against her as she began life in a wheelchair. Amberley returned to rodeo 18 months after her accident and in 2015 ran in the world’s richest one-day rodeo called The American. She ended her final college rodeo season fifth in the Rocky Mountain Region in the barrel racing. She is now competing on the amateur and pro rodeo circuit. Amberley travels the nation sharing her story of triumph over tragedy and hopes to inspire others that no matter what happens, they have the strength to overcome it.



Hope can never be taken away… with Amberley Snyder #isharehope Episode 118

Summary: Amberley’s answer to the five questions! Listen to the full conversation on the player above; also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Question 1: How do you define hope or what is your favorite quote about hope?

Amberley Snyder:

“Miracles happen to those who believe in them.”

I have that hanging on my wall. I see it every single day and I’ve always thought about believing in miracles or having hope is one of the only things people can’t take from you. You can have your legs taken away, you can have certain things that people control, but nobody can control the amount of hope you have. Nobody can tell you what you can have of that and nobody can tell you to not believe in miracles.

Question 2: Who has shared the most hope with you?

Amberley Snyder:

My mom. She is the one who hung the quote on my wall. She is the one that told us they can’t take our hope away. They can take the odds away, they can take anything they want, but they can’t take our hope away.

Question 3: How have you used hope to make it through a difficult time in your life?

Amberley Snyder:

When I got into my car accident and right before I left, I had brought in all my saddles, all my tack, everything in my room and cleaned it. It was sprawled across my whole room and when I got in my car I told my parents don’t touch my stuff, I was going to get it when I get home. The first time I wheeled into my room was a hard day. To wheel into your room and to know that the last time you were there you were walking is definitely a difficult moment. As I’m sitting there looking at all my stuff on the floor, I felt like I was looking at the pieces of my life and I didn’t know if I was ever going to get back. I couldn’t even pick those back up myself.

I was sitting there and I had the feeling to look behind me, my scriptures were by my bed and I go and I open them up and I have highlighted and bookmarked a scripture right before I left. It was “With God nothing is impossible”. That was my ray of sunshine on a cloudy moment. I was sitting there wondering if I was ever going to get back to riding my horses, ever going to get back to doing what I love to do and had to have that moment of “it’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out” and I’m going to be able to do what I want to do.

Sometimes you feel just like an uphill stinking battle, but I’ve learned that even though when the situations aren’t ideal, you get to keep going because you’re alive and you get to be here and do what you want to do.

Question 4: How are you sharing hope today?

Amberley Snyder:

I’m really, really lucky that I have a social media following that I do. I have over 200k people that follow me on all my social media sites. I’m really lucky to have a following like that that I get to post the daily struggles or the daily life triumphs with these people and remind them that no matter what they’re going through, they can keep going and have the strength to get up and go through one more day. I feel like I’m blessed that I get to share that bit of hope and motivation with them. I’m a motivational speaker too. I speak a lot.

I get up in front of people and I tell them about my accident. It wasn’t a goal. It wasn’t a goal to be in a wheelchair. It wasn’t a goal to have to go through the challenges, but when you have a story like that, you actually have an opportunity to make a difference. I think that’s the part that I try to focus on. I have been blessed that I get to inspire others because of my journey.

Question 5: How should I (the listener) begin to grow in hope or share hope today?

Amberley Snyder:

(1) Don’t be afraid to be upset sometimes.
(2) When you have the dark days, have the hope that tomorrow can be better.

Listen to the full conversation on the player above; also available on iTunes and Stitcher.