ORR- In life, a horse named Chrome and barrel racer extraordinaire Laura Julkowski were what many would call a perfect match. But after her beloved horse’s untimely death, Julkowski found the time and drive to embark on a rewarding new path that marries Julkowski’s barrel racing knowledge and experience in an online coaching and mentoring venture, Badass Rodeo Company.
Orr native Julkowski got her first show horse when she was 10 years old, but a few years later she laid eyes on a neighbor’s bay mare, Nancy, that she “just had to have.”
“She was more than we’d ever spent on a horse,” Julkowski said. “[She] finally decided to sell her to me for a very discounted price. This horse was a superstar at barrels. We just started winning everything.”
Julkowski gives the credit to Nancy.
“She taught me how to win,” she said. “I feel like any top rider needs that horse that teaches them how to win. She taught me that it’s possible to win at any level.”
And win they did, amassing so many titles at local, state, national, and world events that Julkowski long ago lost count.
The seeds of what would eventually become Badass Rodeo Company took root in that success, as Julkowski soon had people coming to her for pointers, and conducting clinics and training horses quickly followed. Teaching suited her, but training horses did not.
“I’d train these horses and then they’d go back to their owners and they’d go back downhill,” she said. ”That was not only frustrating to me, but also the horses.”
After graduating from Orr High School in 2004, Julkowski attended UM-Duluth to study graphic design. As a senior design project, students had to come up with a business idea and design all of the branding for it.
“So, I’m like, what do girls like?” Julkowski said. Drawing on her own experience, she concluded, “They like to be badass and they like rodeo, so it’ll be Badass Rodeo Company. It was an imaginary clothing line. Another person and I did it together and designed it all.”
But the company was just a concept, and it stayed on the drawing board after Julkowski graduated and returned to Orr.
In 2011, she connected online with a guy from Cook, Jeff Julkowski. They had mutual friends and acquaintances, had both graduated in 2004, but had never met.
“I was a little rodeo girl and he was a shy guy that worked at the hardware store,” Laura said. “He would have never talked to me.”
“I knew her dad and uncle well, but I never ever met her,” Jeff said.
Laura didn’t do many barrel races that first summer the couple was together, Jeff said, but she was eager to do more, and he wasn’t quite prepared for what was to come.
“The next summer it was a little bit more, and then it just spiraled out of control,” Jeff laughed.
The couple got married in 2013, and their first daughter, Chesney, was born five years ago. Daughter Harley Jo was born three years ago.
And then came Chrome.
“My friend had this horse named Chrome, and she wanted me to ride her in the worst way,” Laura said. “She was very blown up, but she had won some major titles in her day. She was awesome, but scary at the same time. But I want a horse that’s going to scare me a little bit.”
Laura learned that Chrome had been used for winning, but her owners didn’t have any real relationships with her. As Laura and Chrome raced together, they bonded, and Laura bought her.
The timeline for when Laura started developing Badass Rodeo Company varies depending on her recollection of events and Jeff’s, but it was an injury Chrome suffered in May 2018 that inadvertently brought Laura’s interest in teaching and mentoring to the fore.
“It was our first run of the spring, and the first round she looked awesome,” Laura said. “The second run she came out three-legged. She ripped a tendon on the inside of her leg, and she still ran home because she was Chrome. So that’s when I had extra time and started the online coaching.”
Utilizing Facebook and the internet, clients sent race videos for Laura to critique. She set up a company, Laura Julkowski Barrel Horses LLC, but thought it sounded too boring.
“Nobody can even say Julkowski,” she laughed.
That’s when she dusted off her senior project and adopted the name Badass Rodeo Company.
“It was a little awkward for the first barrel race we put on,” Jeff said. “It was at a church.”
But Julkowski noted that the term isn’t derogatory. It signifies a confident attitude that’s necessary for success.
Jeff said the original concept for Badass Rodeo Company was to stage clinics and barrel races, as well as continuing Laura’s online critiques, but it morphed into a more formal online presence on Facebook through the creation of a private Facebook group facilitated by Laura that combines coaching, mentoring, and social support. Students can pay for different membership levels that come with increasing levels of coaching and support.
But another more tragic incident involving Chrome would lead to more heartbreak and more change for Badass Rodeo Company.
It was last October when Laura walked out to her barn and heard a “screech that sounded like bloody murder.” At first she thought it was her daughters inside the house, but it wasn’t.
“I walked outside and I couldn’t find Chrome,” Laura said. “She would never leave this place. She loved it here.”
They started a search, and they found blood on a fence. It wasn’t long before Jeff found Chrome in a patch of woods.
“Her leg was gone from the knee down,” Laura said.
The Julkowskis guessed that Chrome had been attacked by a mountain lion, and it was clear what they needed to do.
“A horse can’t be on three legs,” Laura said. “It was the most horrific thing.”
Making matters worse, Chrome was pregnant, so the Julkowskis lost two horses that day.
Laura had been thinking about writing a book, and in the aftermath of Chrome’s death, she knew it was time.
“That’s when it felt like the universe was just kicking me in the ass to write that book,” she said. “I didn’t want to write it.”
But write she did, taking only a month to produce “Barrel Racing IS Life,” a daily riding journal with stories, instruction, and goal-setting activities to help riders succeed. A companion journal soon followed, tailored for those who have more than one horse.
The online coaching group, along with instructional videos, remain central to Badass Rodeo Company’s future, because one goal is to reach as many people as possible.
“She wanted to see how she could reach out,” Jeff said. “This is something she can do anywhere.”
But there’s a market for the books, too, and also something else – a clothing line. Hats, shirts, and patches designed by Laura, the graphic designer who once upon a time had an imaginary clothing company called Badass Rodeo.
There’s plenty of room for growth, and the Julkowskis hope the company will generate a steady income that will allow them to do some of the things on their wish lists.
And through whatever transpires with Badass Rodeo Company, Chrome will forever be a part of it.
“That’s who’s on my logo,” Laura said. “That’s Chrome.”