Even with genetic heart disease, Bedke leaves Idaho State as one of its most prolific cowgirls

It wasn’t exactly the ending Zoie Bedke envisioned.

The former Idaho State national champion didn’t even make the breakaway roping short go round in her final appearance at the College National Finals Rodeo (June 9-15) at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper. But it was hard to be too disappointed, especially when she could have very easily not even been there in the first place.

A little more than four years after nearly dying from a genetic heart disease, Bedke leaves as one of the most decorated cowgirls in program history.

“I think she lives life to the fullest and I’m sure learned a lot from that experience. I think her overcoming that has been an inspiration to not only me, but everybody that knows her,” said ex-teammate and roommate Kaylee Cornia. “I mean it’s pretty amazing that she could go from having that accident to winning nationals, which is what everybody that college rodeos is going for.”

Bedke was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the fifth grade. It’s a condition that affects the left ventricle, which is the main pumping chamber of the heart. Her mother has the same disorder, as well.

“It turned out that I was the lucky one of my two siblings that had both of the genes,” Bedke said with a laugh.

So she had to have a defibrillator put in three years later. But Bedke never let any of that slow her down.

She started out by roping dummies on her parents’ ranch in nearby Oakley before her first official breakaway roping competition at 8 years old. Bedke turned into a three-time all-around district champion and a four-time state qualifier at Oakley High School.

“I’ve been pretty much doing it my whole life,” Bedke said. “I’ve been around horses, animals my whole life. I’ve always helped my dad out on the ranch and it’s just something my family always did. So I grew a love for it and just kept doing it.”

Yet, all of that was almost taken away from her.

It was the spring of 2020 − Bedke’s senior year of high school. She was helping her father out on the ranch about a mile from the house. He told her to meet him after she finished herding up the cattle.

Only Bedke never showed.

He found her unconscious and not breathing. So Brandon Bedke quickly grabbed his phone and dialed 911.

No service.

So he gave his daughter CPR while simultaneously checking his phone for any sort of bar. He ended up doing this for an hour before emergency personnel arrived.

Brandon had to do the same thing years earlier with his wife. His quick-thinking saved both of their lives.

“He can hold his own under pressure. I would say that all day long,” said Idaho State head rodeo coach Kindee Wilson, who has known the family her whole life. “I think that’s something that honestly comes out of rodeo and the mindset that we’re all instilled with: ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’”

Bedke has no memory of it or of the previous day in fact. She spent the next five days in the hospital with doctors offering up little to no explanation as to why it happened. They only said that Bedke was lucky to be alive.

“It just kind of comes with the condition. It can just kind of happen out of nowhere,” Bedke said. “Nothing really triggers it. It’s not like exercise-induced or anything like that. It just kind of happens randomly.”

Doctors did change up the settings on her defibrillator and altered her medication to prevent it from ever happening again. However, there were still talks about whether or not Bedke should ever do rodeo again. She did miss nearly her entire senior spring rodeo season.

“I think that was probably the hardest hit she took. Because in a family like hers, you eat, drink and sleep rodeo. You eat, drink and sleep roping,” Wilson said. “That was a hard year anyway with COVID. So it was one thing after another for every kid and then you have a kid like that who has everything taken away in a blink of an eye.”

But just a few short months later, Bedke was back out there. She actually still qualified for state in team roping due to the points she earned in the fall.

Bedke didn’t register a single point in any one of her three gos. It resulted in a tie for 26th place. None of that mattered, though.

“I think my parents were a nervous wreck because they were just like, ‘We don’t know if we should let you do this,’” Bedke said. “But I definitely am not a person that really worries too much. I’m a go with the flow person. I don’t really get worked up about much of anything.

“I was just happy to be back for sure. It was a great feeling.”

Bedke had originally committed to South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, where her older brother competed. So she already knew the coach and a few people over there. But because of her health, it was decided that it was in the best interest for Bedke to stay closer to home. So she signed with Idaho State, which she had already previously considered due to her connection with Wilson.

“It was one of those things where they felt more comfortable being able to send her away from home and not have to monitor and have someone else kind of be able to be that liaison,” said Wilson who is also a certified athletic trainer with medical training. “I had everyone on my team get CPR certified as well. So we had all the training and a game plan in case the worst happened again.”

Thankfully, it never did.

And Bedke was on top of the world just a year later.

She won both regional and national titles for the Bengals in breakaway roping during her freshman year in 2021. Bedke entered the short go round just three hundredths of second behind the leader. She roped her calf in 2.4 seconds to finish with a total time of 10.3 − a full second ahead of anyone else. It made her the first Idaho State cowgirl to win a national championship in breakaway roping since Kimberlyn Fehringer did so eight years earlier in 2013.

Bedke also joined her father who won a national title of his own in steer wrestling for the College of Southern Idaho in 1990. Following multiple rounds of interviews, she finally made her way to him and gave him and the biggest hug.

“It was extremely special just because it was crazy. And my dad was there for it all,” Bedke said. “He was the one who pretty much saved my life. He’s my biggest fan and my biggest supporter and he pushes me to do the best I can. I was just happy that he was at nationals with me when I won it. So we could celebrate it together. It was a great time.”

But Bedke struggled the following year.

She first had to give up goat tying because of concern for her health.

“It’s like running track off of a horse pretty much,” Wilson said of the event. “So there were so many different risk factors that we were worried about. If she took a fall, her pacemaker could be damaged and stop working. So we just kind of decided to set her up for better success that way.”

However, Bedke admittingly struggled with the decision. It took a toll on her for the rest of that year. She wasn’t top-2 at regionals and barely made it back to nationals in breakaway roping at that.

So Bedke didn’t offer up much of a title defense. She didn’t even make the short go round and had to settle for a 33rd-place finish.

“I was fighting my head and I wasn’t roping as good,” Bedke said.

But Bedke was the regional reserve champion (runner-up) in each of the next two years, including this past season. And at this year’s nationals, she finished tied for third place in her first go with a blazing time of 2.2 seconds. Bedke then put up a 2.4 in her third go for another top-12 placing.

Unfortunately, she hooked her calf too deep in her second go, resulting in no score. It took her both out of the running to make the short go final and win a second national title. So instead, the final collegiate rodeo of Bedke’s prolific career, saw her amongst the bottom of the standings at 44th.

“I definitely was bummed out with it being my senior year,” Bedke said. “But it probably didn’t hit me until like a day after when I was just watching the rodeo. I was just like, ‘Wow, it’s my last run at it.’ But it’s been good the past four years. And I guess it’s just kind of time to move on to better things.”

Bedke is hoping that’s a successful career in professional rodeo.

She’s already been doing it over the last four years, too. Bedke was the 2023 Wilderness Circuit breakaway roping champion. It’s the professional circuit for Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah. Bedke has also won Utah’s Fort Herriman Rodeo and taken the silver medal at the Utah Days of 47 Rodeo.

She’ll next be competing at the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, that runs from July 9-13.

“I think there’s many people in the world that would take something like that and wallow in it,” Wilson said. “But she took every bit of bad that happened and she’s managed to turn it into good. I think she does that every single day because she finds her joy and her happiness on the back of her horse. She’s just gonna keep thriving for years and years down the road as long as she keeps that mindset going.”