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This article won 2000 First Place Feature Writing from the Texas Press Association and inspired later articles in 2001 and 2002 by the Dallas Morning News, Readers Digest, and a television segment on PAX-TV.

Young rider maneuvers obstacles in and out of arena
Christopher Amos
The Community News
July 13, 2000

     It may be early in life to be calling Brittney Holland an over-achiever, but unquestionably, the energetic 10-year-old is full of surprises.
     Brittney is an award-winning rodeo barrel racer, an enthusiastic cheerleader, and dabbles in basketball when she has time. She organizes school fundraisers, is a natural at both water skiing and snow skiing, and greets you with a firm handshake and a brilliant smile as though she can see you.
     Brittney is blind.
     The energetic student was born with coloboma, a disease that has left her totally blind in one eye and with almost no use of the other. But for Brittany, all her beautify eyes need to do is augment her charming smile because the child doesn't slow down long enough to consider her problem a drawback.
     "I can see about two feet in front of me, so I use a magnifying glass when I read the paper," said the Aledo, Texas fifth grader who is also exciting about getting a new video magnifier to help her do homework. Brittney said she doesn't think of herself as handicapped - she just has to do things differently.
     "We went to a family camp in Arkansas two years ago. That is where I started water skiing and I got up the very first time," Brittney said as she brushed her horse, Big Red. "I have been ridding horses since I was four and won my first award in barrel racing when I was five."
     The young cowgirl's inspiration for horses comes from her mother, Susan, who was a talented barrel racer in professional rodeo.
     "I wear a walkie-talkie and my mom talks to me while I ride," Brittney said as she felt for the saddle horn. "She tells me when I need to turn and gives me instructions during practice."

    With a firm grip on the saddle horn and a boot in the stirrup, Brittney takes three hops on one leg and slings herself on top the gigantic animal. She makes a clicking sound with her mouth, and she and Big Red quickly make dust across the arena.
     As a member of the National Barrell Riders Association and the Central Texas Barrel Racing Association, Brittney and her family are often on the road attending rodeo competitions. One of her favorite awards is a dazzling belt buckle from the Pro Youth Rodeo Association, although she admits that her times are a couple of second off what big sister, Hayley, can accomplish in the arena.
     Brittney is equally energetic about helping others. Last year at the Texas Lions Camp in Kerrville, a summer retreat for children with special needs, Brittney received the Distinguished Camper Award for aiding a new friend in a wheelchair throughout the camp while learning to sign language so she can communicate with another disabled child.
     "You can't help but admire her," her mother said while watching the child bouncing at a full gallop. "At the beginning of camp, they went around to all the kids and let them tell what they would change about themselves if they could. Brittney said, 'I'd like to be taller, because I can handle being blind, but I don't like being so short.'"
    She looked across the arena at her daughter and sighed, "You gotta love that."