Martha (a similar line will be available to the public soon). Also, the mare has the extremely rare ability to run with her body fully flexed, and she's super smart.

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In addition to needing no seasoning or time to learn a reverse pattern, Martha uncannily knows when to flip the turbo switch. "Lindz," a soft-spoken cowgirl with a penchant for high fashion and alternative rock, rides quietly but focuses hard prior to a big short round, and she says somehow that determination transmits to her horse.

"She knows when things are big," Sears says of Martha. "She loves to win. She loves the attention."

She also loves Sears, because Sears's non-aggressive style fits perfectly with the mare's uber-aggressive, all-out "try."

"It's the opposite of what you would think," says Sears, who grewup 35 miles outside Nanton, Alberta, and has a winter place near Lubbock, Texas. "I can't try to make things happen or try to be fast on Martha. Instead, I try to back off and do everything perfectly, and she'll stop the clock. You can't go out there and gas it on her. That's not her style, and it's not my style."

The photographs on the following pages capture the style that led to Sears' record performance at RodeoHouston, her huge sweep in her home province of Alberta and her first championship at the Daddy of 'em All.

Winning Cheyenne Frontier Days
This was one of the smoothest, most flawless runs I've made on Martha. This is really good body position for her -she can keep her forward momentum around the