Hope Thompson wasn’t born with a rope in her hand. In fact, she wasn’t even born into a rodeo family. However, once her mom started rescuing horses, it didn’t take her long to pick up a rope, and she hasn’t looked back.
“We didn’t even have a fence. And then my mom rescued some horses and my dad had to build fence. That is how I got into the horses and further along I ran barrels and poles and did the speed events, but I always wanted to rope. They said I carried a rope around all the time,” Thompson said.
She’s still carrying a rope, and she’s taken her rope and her skills around the world to help others. Thompson met the right people near her hometown in northeast Texas, when she was 10 or 11 to start taking roping lessons. Fast forward 25 years, and for the past decade, she has been giving roping clinics across the world, from her current home in Abilene, Texas to Hawaii and across the globe to Sweden and Australia.
With a combined passion for horses and helping others succeed, Thompson enjoys watching her students progress.
“The best part is taking someone who doesn’t hardly know which end of the rope to use and then seeing them later and having them compete against you and seeing their progress. Some of the coolest stuff though, is hearing stories on how you have touched someone’s life way deeper than just roping, and I feel that they do that for me as well,” she said.
In addition to the 10 or so clinics she gives each year with Lari Dee Guy, Thompson is an avid trainer and competitor, both in breakaway and team roping. She won her first breakaway World title in the WPRA in 2013. She captured the WPRA World title in the team roping in 2017 with Whitney DeSalvo.
Valued Partnerships
Thompson said she values the partnerships of good horses and good roping partners. She has been breakaway roping on her main horse, Ink, for eight years, and has had great success with the mare that has won the AQHA Reserve World Show title. Ink is versatile and although Thompson only breakaway ropes from her, the mare is trained in multiple disciplines including heading, heeling and tie-down.
“There is no amount of money that can buy her from me. We’re a team,” she said of the horse she has trained.
Although she never team roped early on, she started team roping when she decided to train horses. It’s a decision she’s glad she made, as she cherishes the camaraderie that it involves. Her number one heeling partner is DeSalvo, although she also ropes with Rylie Smith and Kelsie Chace.
“I love that I get to share all the highs and lows with a partner. They are also some of your best friends. There is nothing better, even though you go through some lows, you get to celebrate and enjoy all your wins with someone as well,” Thompson said.
Her heading horse, Andre is another partner that she values. She also trained him, and though cross-trained, prefers to keep him focused only on heading. Andre typically gets anxious when traveling and will stop eating and drinking when being hauled, so Thompson was looking for a solution to get him back on feed and water when they are on the road. That is when she heard about Vitalize® products.
“One of the huge reasons, when I heard about Vitalize, I thought I would try it is the horses can’t talk to us; we just have to pay attention to them and notice those differences. Just like that horse not wanting to eat or drink so I was onboard to try the Vitalize, and the results speak for themselves,” she said.
Thompson, the newest Vitalize Ambassador, has been giving her horses Vitalize® Equine High Performance, Vitalize® Alimend® and Vitalize® Equine Recovery Gel. She likes the combination of the products that contain Amaferm®, a precision prebiotic designed to boost animal resilience to challenges. It is research-proven to improve gut integrity and immune response. The Vitalize High Performance is a highly fortified, pelleted product that contains organic trace minerals to provide comprehensive nutrition when the diet needs additional fortification due to high performance. The Vitalize Alimend is a natural unique blend of: MHB3® Hyaluronan, H. erinaceous (Lion’s mane) extract, and Amaferm that provides continuous stomach comfort and relieves equine gastric issues commonly associated with training, traveling, and performance without altering stomach pH or hindering digestion.
“My favorite product right now is the Vitalize Recovery Gel because of the fast results I see from it. Andre is a very anxious horse that does not eat or drink well when we are traveling. I give it to him before we leave and when we get somewhere. His demeanor is better. He feels more settled in and is less anxious. I give it to all of the horses when we are traveling but notice huge results on him because he is so anxious. The Recovery Gel made him so much better,” Thompson said.
The Vitalize Equine Recovery Gel is a quick-response product to help horses get back on their feet after stressful situations like hauling, sickness or performance. It contains Amaferm as well as MOS to trap and expel pathogens, limiting their ability to do harm, antioxidants to protect and boost immunity and other valuable nutrients needed during stress.
Just as Thompson describes her partner and fellow Vitalize Ambassador DeSalvo as “genuine,” the Vitalize products with the Amaferm advantage are the real key to giving all of Thompson’s horses the #goodgutfeeling they deserve. The Vitalize Team is proud to have a passionate partner like Hope Thompson on its Ambassador team.
