Deaf woman faced criticism but overcame....

The 22-year-old of West Melbourne competes in barrel racing events at arenas around the state said: "A lot of trainers rejected me, criticized me, saying 'You can't do that, you can't do this,'" she said. "So one day I thought, 'You know what, I'm going to do this myself.'"

Some of her quotes:

"Some people just have no respect, and attitude, and that's OK, you know, I can't change that. I can't change myself."

"When people come here to board, they sometimes go 'Oh, you're deaf?' . . . They sometimes think, 'Oh my gosh, the world stopped,' and I'm like 'I don't have a gun, don't worry about it.' "

"That's fine,I have to learn to face that, too, because many times I've been rejected, and now I'm getting to the point where I don't care."

"A lot of people ask me, 'If you're on the horse walking and something behind you spooks the horse, how do you know, because you can't hear it behind you?" she said. "And I say, 'You have to trust your feeling."