I RUN A BEAUTY SHOP AND… BREED BUCKING BULLS!
From painting nails to wrangling bulls, it’s all in a day’s work for Heidi Yates
When Montana-born beautician Heidi met handsome Aussie cowboy Eric Yates at the professional bull riding finals in Las Vegas, she was instantly smitten.
And while she tried to resist falling in love because of the 13,000km distance between her US home town and Eric’s home in the tiny rural town of Gloucester, north of Sydney, she agreed to marry him just 12 months later.
Even Eric’s shock diagnosis of a serious heart condition on the eve of their whirlwind wedding couldn’t stand in the path of their love, with a heavily medicated Eric flying to Montana for their nuptials in December 2000.
The couple returned to Australia to start a new life in the beef belt on the NSW Mid North Coast, with Eric starting a bucking bull breeding company after he was forced to retire from riding because of his heart condition.
Heidi started her own beauty salon in Gloucester, while Eric poured his energy into his dream of breeding bulls – in the hope that one day he could supply the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) circuit with his own home-bred stars.
HEARTBREAKING LOSS
But tragedy struck the family on January 22, 2018, when Eric, 47, suffered a massive heart attack and died while out cutting timber. Heidi was left to take on his burgeoning bucking bull breeding business – on top of running her beauty shop from home and raising their two daughters, Miranda, 15, and Reannah, 14.
“I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I just thought, ‘I couldn’t let his dream go that he’d worked so hard for,’” says Heidi.
“I had to befriend these bulls and learn their character and their personality... that was scary at times, but they’re kind of like your four-legged children, too.”
There were lots of early starts and long days for Heidi, 45, who, while still in mourning, had to juggle waxes and manicures for clients in between never-ending farm work. She had to learn how to care for, handle and breed their 40-plus herd of heifers and bulls.
There was also the work required as a stock contractor, supplying her best bulls for rodeos and bull-riding events, training and trialling young bulls and navigating her way as one of the few women in the male-dominated industry.
PBR Australia general manager Glen Young says Heidi is one of the pioneers for women in the sport.
“She’s not only taken on just the bulls, she’s taken on the blood, sweat, tears and heartache that comes with it – the tough times, the good times and it’s really made her a strong woman,” says Glen.
Heidi has faced many challenges since she took over the bull breeding business, but the biggest test of all has been surviving Australia’s devastating drought, which stripped the paddocks of feed and drained the dams of water.
ROUGH RIDE
Heidi also lost the lease on a parcel of land where they kept most of their stock, forcing her to sell all but three heifers and her nine bulls of varying ages.
Months later, her prize breeding heifer passed away after it got stuck in a half-empty dam and was unable to be rescued.
Just one of these natural events alone would be enough to test the strongest will of any experienced farmer.
“When I survived the first year of drought, I thought, ‘Wow, we’ve done it, girls. We’re going to be OK,’” recalls Heidi. “And then we moved into the second
‘I couldn’t let his dream go that he’d worked so hard for’
year and we lost the leased land. It’s been hard and if I didn’t have my girls and the bulls, I don’t know where I’d be.
“Every night that I go out there, [with the bulls] I feel I’m with Eric,” the mum-oftwo admits.
“That’s why I don’t want to give it up, because he’s still with me, he’s still guiding me and he’s still there.”