It has been said that those who can’t, teach, but that’s not how it works with Lacey Coelho. This California cowgirl teaches, because she can, and she’s quite a master of the three Rs: reading, roping, and riding. Coelho (pronounced Kway-lo) has spent nearly every one of her 24 years in a saddle, starting out propped up on the back of a gentle mount while her family gathered cattle on their ranch near Ft. Klamath, Ore.

“They put me on a big old Paint Horse and said, ‘Watch the gate,’ ” she said. “I don’t even remember if I could walk yet.” But she does remember her legs sticking straight out off the top of Ol’ Paint the babysitter.

The Coelho family also had land in California where they spent half the year. After selling the Oregon ranch a few years later, they moved down to the Golden State, and Coelho’s mother, Barbara, signed her daughter up for riding lessons at Riata Ranch, not far from their Woodlake home.

Riata Ranch was the home of the Cowboy Girls, a highly disciplined traveling group of trick riding and roping performers trained by founder Tommy Maier. One day’s worth of riding lessons with Riata’s head instructor Jennifer Welch Nicholson proved that then 8- year-old Coehlo knew her way around a horse. Within two weeks she burst into the Salinas Rodeo arena in a flashy grand-entry hippodrome ride carrying the Red, White, and Blue.

“Salinas was my first rodeo,” she said. “I was eight years old, out at the rodeo with a bunch of older girls and I had to figure it out for myself how to be independent.”

Coelho credits the Riata Ranch and instructor Tommy Maier for her skills in and out of the arena

Nicholson recalls the athleticism and fearlessness of the Oregon youngster. “She was shy but she had no fear,” Nicholson said. “She wasn’t very big, yet she had those bright blue eyes and blonde hair. She was a gem of a girl.” Nicholson stepped into the Riata Ranch directorship following Maier’s death five years ago and still trains and tours with the performing Cowboy Girls today. Coehlo, she said, was unique. “You don’t find girls very often that young that are very confident.”

Coehlo was the youngest touring Riata Ranch Cowboy Girl and traveled with the group from 1991 to 2004. As a seasoned 10-year-old she proudly bore the Stars and Stripes into the Thomas and Mack Arena during the 1993 National Finals Rodeo.

A 1997 overseas tour in France and Germany soon followed for Coehlo and her older companions.

Today Coelho splits her time between competing in her own right and teaching both in and out of the arena. After earning her AA in Equine Science, she was headed for veterinary medicine when she redirected her career course toward education.

Winnings from weekend jackpots and ropings have helped finance her way through a bachelor’s degree at Fresno State University, where she graduated in December 2007. She’s currently wrapping up her final preparation as an elementary school teacher.

“I like working with kids,” she said, a fact proved by her half dozen or so riding students who range in age from adult to 4 years old.

“The best way to learn to ride a horse is bareback because it synchronizes the balance and movement between horse and rider,” Coehlo said. She wants her students to learn balance and confidence by using both their minds and their bodies—a concept she picked up from Maier in the show ring.

“He taught us that subjects are explored in such depth that students not only learn, but understand what they are learning.

“Tom’s philosophy was always: ‘Don’t just instruct, demonstrate; don’t just teach, mentor; don’t just educate, enlighten; and don’t just encourage, inspire.’”

This future classroom teacher said she credits Maier and the Riata philosophy with making her what she is today and for giving her poise as a public speaker and confidence in and out of the arena. “Everything came from them,” she said. “Who knows if I would have still been involved with horses?”

Good horsemanship requires more than just good balance in the saddle but in life as well. It’s all about common sense, Coehlo says, “Something I believe is lacking with youth today. I had such a great opportunity to be educated in traditional schools but also taught by a great old-school cowboy the ways of life. If I can incorporate that into my students and my teaching, then I feel I will be making a difference.”