There was no way for Cathy Errington-Coleman, 46, to prepare for the news her doctor delivered this fall. The cancer she defeated in 2002 had come back. This time, it was incurable.

But the cheerful, tough reined cow horse trainer from Gillette, Wyo., refuses to let the disease interfere with her full-throttle approach to life. The word “quit” has never been a part of Errington-Coleman’s vocabulary, and she’s not about to start using it now.

“I believe our mental state can change our survival, and I have a very positive attitude,” she said.

If anything, the assault on her health made her more tenacious and ambitious than ever. She has some promising 3-year-olds in training for the fall futurities, and rode in her usual dynamic style last year, marking a 150 down the fence at the Colorado Reined Cow Horse Association (CRCHA) show in November. That run earned Errington-Coleman the CRCHA Tom Wipplinger Memorial Trophy for the high-scoring fence work.

Errington-Coleman also is taking another shot at her fantasy prize in 2010: the World’s Greatest Horseman Championship.

“It’s always been my dream to win it,” she said.

If the judges’ score sheet had a column for “courage and optimism,” Errington-Coleman would capture the title, hands-down.

The diagnosis
“I hadn’t really even known anybody with cancer, up until the time I was diagnosed with it,” Errington-Coleman said.

The first round of unwelcome news – breast cancer – came in 2002. After a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, the nightmare seemed to be over. Then, seven years later, the pain came back. A positron emission tomography (PET) scan of her body revealed why. Cancer had invaded Errington-Coleman’s lymph nodes, brain, neck, back and other body parts.

“It’s pretty much everywhere,” she said.

Doctors said they could slow the cancer’s progression, but not cure it. However, no one put a limit on her life expectancy until November, when a new radiologist grimly predicted she had six to 12 months left.

That was the wrong thing to tell a Wyoming cowgirl.

“I don’t want that kind of bad news from a doctor!” Errington-Coleman said. “He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know how strong I am.”

Defiant instead of defeated, Errington-Coleman rejected the doctor’s prognosis. She also refused the recommended chemotherapy and radiation treatment, deciding on an herbal therapy instead.  She prefers to keep the specifics private, but believes it was the right choice.

“It was very painful, to the point where drugs didn’t even touch the pain. [The herbal treatment] has kind of taken the pain away. I’m thinking that it’s really working,” Errington-Coleman said. “I have a lot more energy again.”

She confronted cancer with the same upbeat attitude she applies to all elements of her life.

“Most people start preparing their funeral. I’m not about to do that,” Errington-Coleman said. “I have too much to live for.”

She is living full speed ahead.  Next stop for the durable competitor with the megawatt smile:  the NRCHA Celebration of Champions and World’s Greatest Horseman contest in San Angelo, Texas. She’s steering clear of any more medical tests until after the show. At that point, she might check in again with her doctor, to see how well the herbal treatment is working.

“I’m sure there are other [treatment] options out there. But until the World’s Greatest, I don’t want any more bad news. I just want to live my life to the fullest,” Errington-Coleman said.

The World’s Greatest Horse… woman?
With a barn full of the best show prospects she’s ever had, and a legion of devoted friends and family members behind her, it will take more than a few rogue cancer cells to knock Errington-Coleman off course. She capped a successful 2009 show season by qualifying two horses for the NRCHA Celebration of Champions. One of them is her favorite mare, which also won the 2009 NRCHA North Central Region Open Bridle Championship, SHS Oui Oui Blanton (Skoal Bandit Blanton x Wily Liberty Lady x Wilywood). Errington-Coleman owns “Roper” with her mother and staunch supporter, Frances Errington.

Errington-Coleman laughingly acknowledges her 9-year-old, $39,919 Equi-Stat money-earning mare has been successful despite her lack of a mainstream reined cow horse pedigree.

“I bought her [as a weanling] to be my rope horse, but she never grew. She’s probably 14 hands, real stout, but she’s not very big,” she explained. “She’s kind of like me. She’s got a big, huge heart and tries hard, is very willing and very aggressive.”

Unfortunately, soundness issues have sidelined Roper from the NRCHA Celebration of Champions, where she would have competed in the Open Bridle World Championship class and the World’s Greatest Horseman.

Instead, Errington-Coleman will show her mother’s horse, R Bruce Almighty (Like The Best x Miss Solisa Jess x Freckles Tivio Jess) in the Open Hackamore World Championship class. Her World’s Greatest Horseman mount will be a 7-year-old gelding she trained and showed as a 3- and 4-year-old,  Smart Freckles Image (The Smart Smoke x Freckles K Lena x Freckle Image), owned by Vern and Joyce Schild of Wyoming.

“I am pretty confident in this horse. I don’t think of him as being a superstar, but he’s good in all four events. I think it’s all about being consistent in all four events,” she explained.

It will be Errington-Coleman’s third attempt to reach the World’s Greatest finals. She was oh-so-close in 2006, finishing 12th in the preliminaries. Only 10 went to the finals.
“Hopefully, this year, I’ll give them boys a little more run for their money,” she said.

Living her dream
Errington-Coleman, the youngest of four children, knew from the beginning how she wanted to spend her life.

“I wanted to be a trainer since I was a little kid. I’ve always loved doing the reined cow horse,” she said.

After graduating from high school in Wyoming, she moved to her parents’ original home state of California to work for NRCHA Hall of Fame member Kenny Pugh Sr. Three years later, at age 21, she moved back to Wyoming and started training on her own. The work was so rewarding, Errington-Coleman found it difficult to ask customers for money.

“The billing part is hard for me. I love it so much that I don’t want to overcharge people, yet I have a hard time making a living, too,” she said.

She describes her training facility as “ranchy,” with outdoor paddocks and arena. Her cattle pen is full of challenging critters: her husband of 18 years, Tom Coleman, raises bucking bulls. Errington-Coleman uses the yearling stock to train her cow horses.

“They’re a little bit waspy, but if you can handle them, you can go to Texas and work something with a little bit of an ear,” she said.

She has a lengthy list of mentors and close friends in the horse business, who helped her on the path to the $98,322 she has earned in the show pen since 1985, when her Equi-Stat record began. Errington-Coleman expressed her appreciation for fellow trainers Sandy Collier, Bobby Ingersoll, Tim Unzicker, Monty Bruce, Frank Kenzy and Glenn Barlow. Many other advocates, old and new, have come forward with emotional and monetary support in recent months.

“It’s amazing how many people have helped me financially. It’s been the greatest thing in the world to realize I have this many friends and people who really care. I’m just really lucky. The reined cow horse people, it’s amazing how small this little industry is, and how much people mean to me, or I mean to them. It’s truly amazing,” Errington-Coleman said.

Along with horses, Errington-Coleman’s family and friends have always ranked at the top of her priority list. A flood of financial support from loved ones has helped fill the void created by treatment costs.  Although Errington-Coleman has health insurance, the additional expenses have drained her operating budget.

“I struggle with gas money and entry fees and that kind of stuff. It does take all our extra money to pay the doctor bills,” she said.

Longtime friend Clint Lay organized a roping in Colorado to raise funds for her in November; Errington-Coleman was an enthusiastic participant as well as the beneficiary.  Lay, the high-scoring header, won a trophy saddle at the roping, but didn’t keep it.

“He gave it to me. That’s what an awesome friend he is,” Errington-Coleman said.

Residents of her home state rallied to her cause after her brother’s girlfriend, Joy Mathews, wrote a letter to several publications requesting support that Errington-Coleman won’t ask for herself.

“I have always been very close-mouthed about it, because I don’t feel like I’m dying,” she said. “I don’t want people to feel sorry for me. Even if I did pass away, I’ve had the greatest life ever, because I’ve gotten to be around horses and people I loved all my life. I’ve known since I was diagnosed that I might not live as long as the next person, which isn’t a bad thing, because I think I’ve lived twice as much as most people get to live.”