CONWAY -- Say the name "Miss Toby" around town, and folks will likely recognize the name even if they don't know the woman.
Toby Hart, 55, is a horse rider, a rodeo champion and a dance teacher, not to mention a poker player and a pool shark whose love for horses and other animals dates to her childhood.
"There's a picture of me in diapers on a horse," she said.
Over the years, she has won 16 saddles in horse- and rodeo-related competitions. She won her latest saddle as well as a buckle in November at an Arkansas Family Rodeo Association event in Midway, where she roped four calves and tied a goat for the first time in 15 years.
Her father was a veterinarian and took her with him on calls.
"Everybody thought I would be a veterinarian," she said during a recent interview at her ranch along East German Lane in Conway.
Instead, she combined her father's interest with that of her mother, a dance teacher, and eventually began teaching horseback riding as well as dance. She also offers birthday parties, pony rides and summer camps and calls her business Take the Lead Academy.
Hart's ranch has been home to more than a few four-legged creatures. She owns about 25 horses, a couple of donkeys, a llama, sheep and cattle, including a black-horned bull. She raises Australian sheepdogs, which she said "go with me everywhere."
At one time, she owned a "zdonk," a cross between a donkey and a zebra. She sold it, though, because she said it had a mean streak and she feared it would hurt one of the many children who visit her ranch.
"He tried to kick me," she said.
On the rodeo circuit, she has competed in breakaway roping, barrel racing, goat tying and team roping. Her many honors include several Arkansas Cowboy Association and Arkansas Rodeo Association championships.
"For probably 30 years," she said, she's been carrying the American flag as she rides a horse at the front of the Faulkner County fair parade in Conway.
Hart's dance classes are wide-ranging, from the cha-cha to country western and tap, and are for children and adults.
"I'll teach anything but belly dancing," she said.
Last year, she competed in a national pool tournament in Las Vegas. A couple years ago, she participated in a race that combined horses with dogs.
Hart believes she came by her competitive streak naturally.
"It's just my family," she said. "We were raised that way."
She said her parents taught her and her three brothers to cook, sew, hunt, fish and, yes, play poker.
Recently, she was the only woman playing poker in a Conway tournament until midnight. One of her brothers, Grant Hart, placed third, better than she did. He also rides in rodeos.
"I've been driven my whole life because of my brothers. We don't care if we win the tournament; we just want to beat each other," she said, joking.
Hart has faced her share of obstacles along the way.
When she was a child, her family had to move out of their home and leave most of their possessions behind because of a toxic chemical in the house's paneling, she said. Later, a house where she lived burned down.
In 2010, Hart learned that she had breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy and chemotherapy and is doing well.
"When I got cancer, it just changed everything," Hart said. "It knocked me down, but it allowed my friends to rise."
Gradually, she said, she learned to accept help from those friends and to keep going even though her doctor said she wouldn't be able to compete for a while. Later, a horse fell on her and broke her leg.
Jamie Pollard of Conway said she has known Hart for 27 years and considers Hart her best friend, but still calls her Miss Toby about 90 percent of the time. They first met in 1988 while Pollard was attending the University of Central Arkansas.
"Learning to ride was on my bucket list, and Hart's barn became my new classroom," Pollard recalled in an email.
Pollard eventually bought a horse from Hart, who helped her learn "more than roping and riding."
"I even learned to pull a horse trailer," said Pollard, who travels with Hart to support her in rodeos. "It wasn't long that I traded in my little Mustang for a huge Ford truck. I started helping with lessons as I grew in skills.
"Although my 'paying' job is teaching school, my 'playing' job is helping at horseback lessons, birthday parties, summer riding camps, and pony carousels."
Pollard said Hart is the most determined and competitive person she's ever known.
"If she has a passion for something, then either get on board or get out of her way because there's no slowing her down," Pollard said.
Metro on 01/11/2016