Faith and family help pave the way for Makaela Lively

BY BRENNA DEMPSEY / Multimedia Journalist

Makaela Lively is making her way to the next chapter of her story: graduate life.
 

She is excited to be earning her degree in animal science with a concentration in production along with an equine certificate.
 

This is her senior year, and she graduates on Dec. 13 where she will pursue a career centered around breeding and training horses.
 

“I would love to end up owning my own business where I breed and train horses,” Makaela said. “Mainly quarter horses and paint horses too, for roping and barrel racing.” 
 

Two years ago, Makaela took a class that changed her perspective: Horse handling techniques with Bobbie Walton. She knew she wanted to breed and train horses but after the class, she discovered her interest in raising foals.
 

“I thought it was going to be like riding and stuff but whenever I took that class I kind of learned how much I liked working with the babies,” Makaela said. “So, I was like ‘I’ll breed my own and train the babies before I sell them to other people, so they have a better start in life and so they’re more likely to have good homes and people don’t have to struggle if they’re new to horses.’”
 

This is also something that brings her closer to her family.
 

“In the breeding aspect, my great grandpa bred horses. I never got to meet him, but I always just thought that was really cool he did that and so that kind of fueled that side of my passion,” Makaela said. 
 

She has known this was the field for her ever since she was a girl.
 

“I grew up around animals, I did 4H, stock shows and livestock judging and all the horse stuff so it kind of just was a given going into ag,” Makaela said. 
 

She was raised close to what some people call the heart of Texas about 15 minutes east of Llano at Buchanan Dam.
 

Her family has been there to inspire her throughout her childhood and into adulthood.
 

“My dad was really big into cowboying and stuff growing up,” Makaela said. “He worked with his dad on ranches and stuff and so I kind of got the whole horse bug from him. He got sick of it because he had to do that for work all the time as a kid and so he grew out of it growing up but they– my parents– got me a pony whenever I was little and so it kind of was just a domino effect of like ‘yeah I’m not getting out of this any time soon.’”
 

She and her family have a close bond, and she is thankful for the support her parents show her.
 

“They are so supportive of like helping me out with tuition and rent and stuff and horses in general especially. They are definitely my number one supporters for sure and so it’s just great being able to have parents like that because I know not everybody is as fortunate,” Makaela said. 
 

Even though she knew nothing about Tarleton before her mother suggested she apply, Makaela knew it was going to be the right fit for her and the goals she has. She knew the second she stepped on campus this was what she was looking for.
 

“The first time I ever visited campus actually was for orientation and so that kind of just solidified everything. Like I love how small the campus is like while it’s expanding now, it was small,” Makaela said. 
 

It gave her a sense of community that you just can not find on a bigger campus.
 

While Makaela is not on the Tarleton Rodeo team, she goes to jackpots on her own to enjoy time with her horses and practice. Makaela got to hone her craft after the COVID-19 lockdown.
 

“I’ve been heading and team roping for four years, I guess, almost five. I started whenever the pandemic hit, and everything shut down. I was like ‘well, I guess I’m going to do something new’ so I got into that and then just recently this summer I started barrel racing and then I started break away roping this semester,” Makaela said. 
 

Makaela faced some challenges along the way especially when it came to horses injuring themselves. 
 

She learned a lot from her first roping horse Vander. He was 21 when he first came to be a part of their family. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire after sustaining an injury from slipping in the mud while out to pasture. The adjustment was a struggle for Makaela to make because of all the time they had spent learning together. 
 

He is still comfortably living on their farm and enjoying the fruits of his hard work.
 

“He was amazing for teaching me the ropes to learn how to get up to the steer, rope it, dally, turn off and stay controlled and stuff and so he was really great,” Makaela said. 
 

Another roadblock she faced was during the summer of 2023 when she went to buy a horse to fill Vander’s shoes. 
 

The seller was dishonest about an old injury the mare, Stormy, had. Makaela still loves her dearly and said she would have still got her even if the injury had been disclosed. 
 

Since Makaela was not told about the injury, she could not help prevent it from getting worse.
 

During spring break in 2024, she had gone lame and after a visit to the vet, she found out that half of one of her joints had calcified together making it so she could not work anymore.
 

Makaela now has a colt to work with named Sparrow who is almost six months old. She has known him since he was seven days old. 
 

She is also in the process of buying a mare named Shaggy to ride in break away and barrel racing events. 
 

These challenges she faced taught her different lessons that will follow her into the future. It has also spurred her desire to learn more about how to care for the variety of things that can happen when someone deals with horses.
 

Makaela is finishing an equine sales prep and marketing class with Walton at the equine center where she works to train and get the groundwork done for the yearlings there. 
 

She gets practice through this class, and it has opened the door to gain experience for things she will be doing in the future. The class took the students to the sale where she got to learn the process.
 

At the sale, Makaela got to experience what to do when selling horses. She personally worked with the yearlings at Tarleton raising them up over the semester and preparing them for the next step in their lives where they go on to their new homes.
 

While Makaela is very passionate about equine and rodeo, she also has a love for art and is working on exploring where that takes her. She has found some mediums she likes to work with.
 

“I mainly do graphite, acrylic paint and then I’ve kind of done some pastel pencils,” Makaela said. 
 

Makaela said she feels called to pursue art but is not sure where or what her plans with it are yet.
 

“Life’s just been kind of crazy, but I do hope if like the horses don’t work out or something or if I’m like in a middle between job season or something that’s something that I could fall back on to,” Makaela said. 
 

Her faith in God has helped her navigate life and the difficulties it has thrown at her by finding security in his presence.
 

“It’s just helped me to be like ‘okay so, whatever happens, happens it’s all going to work out fine in the end.’ Especially with exams and stuff, I used to be so stressed out but now I’m like ‘okay, I study to the best of my ability and God please help me remember that it’s going to be fine’ and it’s just helped lower the stress in my life a lot through that and helped me through like other life issues outside of school,” Makaela said. 
 

The youth pastor at the church she went to in high school recommended she check out the Baptist Student Ministries (BSM) at Tarleton and so she did.
 

Makaela ended up volunteering by starting out with the “noon lunch bunch” and worked with that for two years. Part of what she did would be working with the local churches to set up and bring free lunches to the students here at Tarleton every Wednesday. 
 

Makaela was also a team lead at the BSM where she got to share the love of Christ with her fellow students. The team leads were behind all the planning, organizing and many other assorted things. She did this for two years as well.
 

“When I was on the noon lunch crew, me another girl had met this girl and basically –like not it was our doing, it was definitely God, but we were able to like share the love of Christ to this girl and the entire trajectory of her life was completely different and so just seeing God work through even little situations like that where we’re just talking to somebody at lunch and then Jesus just like changes their life completely. It’s crazy so it was and is awesome to see that stuff,” Makaela said. 
 

She later went on to become part of the 402 crew who set up, plan and take down everything for the Bible study they host on Thursdays.
 

Her priority after graduation is to find a job.
 

She submitted her resume to a position with a barrel trainer which she is really hoping to get.  
 

“It depends on what God wants me to do and where he wants me to go. I’d love to stay up here and work because there’s like so much rodeo central stuff here and like I just want to stay in the industry, but I mean there’s also stuff back home.”
 

A verse that inspires her to keep moving forward despite the uncertainty is Jeremiah 29:11.
 

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future.’ That’s one that I heavily rely on especially these past few years when like everything would just like go up in the air and I’m like I have no clue what I’m going to do but it’s all going be okay,” Makaela said.