Sometimes in life the plans we make just don't work out the way we think they will.

Just ask barrel racer Jeri-lynn Chavallier, of Tolfield Ab., who lost her left arm a year-and-a-half ago.

She was in High River to compete in the Seniors Rodeo last weekend and to complicate things her horse Paris also has limited vision in one eye.

Her journey started off with just a small accident. that turned into a case of flesh-eating disease.

"I got a little cut on my hand and I went to the hospital to get it cleaned out," said Chavallier. "They sent me home after cleaning it out and the next thing I know I woke up a month later with no arm."

Chavallier says barrel racing is what she has always done and the best thing that she does other than being a mom.

"I feel normal," she said when asked how it feels to be back barrel racing. "It is one of the most normal moments I have had since I lost my arm. I would like to try, if not this year then next year, to try get to a couple of pro rodeos next year."

To complicate things even more her horse Paris lost most of the sight in one eye when a cougar mauled it when the horse was being weaned.

"She had almost lost her eye and had a ton of stitches, my mom (who owned the horse) was going to put her down."

The plan all along was for Paris to be a barrel horse so Chavallier took her home and trained her.

In her derby year she fell and fractured her back leg, and once again everyone almost gave up on the horse, but she came back.

So did Chavallier.

"I jumped back on her and it was just like I had two arms."