Lindsay Branquinho

October 20, 2020 7 Comments

Lindsay herself has had quite the road to get where she’s at today. If you ask her though, she wouldn’t trade any of it.

Lindsay grew up in Prescott, Arizona as the daughter in a family that was heavily involved in the agricultural community and has been around horses for as long as she can remember. For her, 4H was the gateway drug to getting into equine competitions. She went from junior high rodeos, on to high school, then made National High School Finals three out of four years, and eventually found herself on the college circuit. Her time at the NIRA was short-lived though. Lindsay decided she wanted to up her game with the next level of competition and after just six months of college rodeoing, she got her pro card.

After being on the pro trail for six months Lindsay met tail-shakin’ Luke Branquinho in California during the spring rodeos. The couple met in June at the Turlock Rodeo, started dating in the fall, and then they were engaged just one year later during the same week of the Turlock Rodeo. Four months later, they married the weekend after Thanksgiving. As if that wasn’t enough of a whirlwind, Luke won his first PRCA world title just weeks later at the 2004 NFR.

For the first few months of their marriage, Lindsay and Luke tried to rodeo together and she remembers it being one of the hardest times for them. Especially when Luke tore his pectoral muscle from the bone the following summer, Lindsay made the decision to stay home with him for six months while he healed up. They immediately faced enormous challenges like where they were even going to live at since the newlyweds had been living in their trailer ever since they got married. Lindsay says, “That’s a good way to check your marriage! Live in a trailer for the first six months with a bunch of other bull doggers and then face a big injury on top of that. Plans went out the window really fast. We were really young when we got married and had to grow up together pretty quick.”

New plans were made and the pair went home so Luke could rest up. It wasn’t long though and devastation hit when Lindsay lost her good horse. Luke soon had to go back out on the road and focus on winning some rodeos.

As Lindsay readjusted to life at home, she began to realize another dream of hers that had been secondary to horses for a long time: fashion. She worked at that same boutique for five years doing the managing and buying. Eventually, she bought the business in 2013. “Now I own my own shop and I love it, it’s a huge part of who I am. Owning a small business is really hard sometimes and there are a lot of challenges that come with it but that’s where my heart is. It provides me with the best of all the worlds. I have a creative outlet and get to execute my ideas, I get to use my love of fashion, and it provides me the flexibility to be involved with everything else going on in our lives. I can help take care of the ranch, be as involved with our kids as I need to be, and travel with Luke from time to time.”

One of Lindsay’s ideas that manifested from her creative outlet is her blog. With the Branquinho Family living in California, they’re not at the epicenter of the rodeo world and a lot of the people around them just don’t get it.

“It started out as a way to tell my story and then to tell other stories. I just wanted people that weren’t familiar with our world to have a way in. Then if people are already involved, they have a way to learn even more. Every person that rodeos does it a little differently. Companion Pass came from knowing that there are so many women out there that I didn’t know personally, but I knew a bit of their unique story and wanted to know more and for them to be able to share that. I honestly didn’t even know what I was getting into but everyone that I’ve talked to has been beyond amazing and excited to share their story. When they start telling their background and their stories of being the companion person to these rodeo stars, it’s something that no one has ever heard before. It felt like these behind the scenes tales was an untapped wealth of stories. These women amaze me with their strength and love for their significant others and their words have blown me away. They sacrifice so much to be able to support what many would deem as crazy dreams. So many cowboys rodeo for YEARS before they ever find real success and there’s always someone at home keeping him going. No cowboy that’s at the top of his game has ever done it truly alone.”

It goes even further though…now she’s gone looking for other women’s similar stories. Not only that, but Lindsay learns from what they have to offer and helps them to showcase that so other people have the opportunity to learn as well. It takes a special kind of person to be able to fight their own battles with such strength and still want to share that with others in hopes that it will help. It takes 100 times that to have the ability to get takeaways from everyone else’s stories and give them support as they become public.

Instagram - @lindsaybranquinho

Article by Katie Armstrong @thekatielynn

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