Not a lot of grass gets a chance to grow under 18-year-old Sonoita resident Addison (Addie) Tomlinson’s feet. A high honor student at Tucson’s Salpointe Catholic High School, Tomlinson successfully manages her studies while assisting her family at their Vera Earl Ranch and working with her performance horses, getting them ready for competitions throughout the southwest.
Addie’s great-grandfather Burton Beck founded the Vera Earl Ranch in 1968. The ranch grew to be a successful horse and cattle operation, breeding and training many performance horses, along with continuing their successful beef operation. As the horse venture became less productive it was discontinued until 2012 when five-year-old Addie became enamored with the horses and became the catalyst for the rebirth of the Vera Earl Ranch performance horse program.
“I always knew horses were in my heart from a young age,” Addie said. Participation with the local 4-H added to her equine experience as she grew into a talented young horsewoman.
When Covid hit and closed her school, Addie found herself ‘cowboying’ horseback and helping the ranch hands with the herd. The experience of riding different ranch horses as they worked the cattle on the vast ranch added to her riding ability.
Addie has grown into a serious competitor. She has participated in National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) competitions all over the southwest with a great deal of success. Her most recent win was at the December show in Cave Creek, AZ where she won the Arizona State Cutting Horse Association $15,000 Amateur Rider award, riding her horse Blu Masterpiece. Earlier this fall, Addie and her eight-year-old mare, Smooth Cat Voo, whom she has worked with for a year and a half, won reserve champion in the 18 and under non-pro division of the reined cow horse competition in Montrose, CO. In typical humble horse lover fashion she stated, “It’s more the horse than me.”
Competitors in reined cow horse competitions are judged on their performance in three areas: herd work, rein work and cow work. Herd work is where the horse and rider approach a small herd of cows in the arena and separate a single cow without disturbing the rest of the herd. Rein work, the only phase that does not involve a cow, is sometimes likened to figure skating. Speed and finesse in these maneuvers are the goal. Cow work, also called fence work, is the final phase. A cow is herded along a fence line at speed and then ‘turned back’ by the horse and rider, demonstrating the rider’s control of the cow.
Having competed in events in California, Colorado, Texas, and Arizona, Addison has amassed a lot of experience and successes in her young life.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with my dad on the ranch and riding horses,” she said. “I have enjoyed competing and as I have done it more, I don’t appear to get as nervous.
“I’ve known I wanted to be involved in agriculture and the ranch was always a straight path for me to achieve that. I would like to win a world championship at the NRCHA Celebration of Champions sometime in the future. I am looking forward to attending the U of A and expanding my education and horizons.”
Tomlinson plans to attend the School of Finance at the U of A with the goal of one day taking over the business side of the Vera Earl Ranch. With her drive and love of horses and cattle and ranching, that would appear to be a perfect career for her.