Texas-born Martha Wright began life with rodeo in her blood. The granddaughter of famed rodeo producer Everett Colborn, and the daughter of two-time World Champion Cowboy and six-time World Champion Bull Rider Harry Tompkins, Martha started rodeoing as a youth. She achieved early recognition as a barrel racer when she helped clinch the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Championship for Tarleton State University’s women’s team in 1971, and was subsequently named WPRA Rookie of the Year at the National Finals Rodeo.
Martha has qualified numerous times as a barrel racer in the PRCA’s Lone Star Circuit Finals and has been a regular participant in the Texas Barrel Racing Association Futurity. Since 1978, she and her husband, Ed Wright, have specialized in training champion barrel horses at their Slash W Ranch in Stephenville, Texas. Through the 1980s and 1990s, they built an impressive record of victories at major barrel racing futurities around the country. They have built a multi-faceted breeding and training program for barrel horses that includes sales, private lessons and custom equipment, as well as clinics across the country and their book, Barrel Racing: Training the Wright Way.
For her outstanding contributions to women’s rodeo sport, Martha Wright received the Tad Lucas Memorial Award in 2000.
