What Happened to Anita Ellis? The Barrel Racer’s Career-Threatening Fall and Fight Back

Barrel racer Anita Ellis was at the top of her game. Having secured her first qualification for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR), the 2025 season was supposed to be her moment.

Then a brutal fall changed everything. Training her futurity horse in South Jordan, Utah, Ellis was thrown and landed hard on concrete, instantly shifting from contender to patient.

So what exactly happened to Anita Ellis, and can this “comeback cowgirl” defy the odds once again?

Let's take a closer look at her accident, the recovery ahead, and the resolve that might bring her back to the barrel race winner’s circle.

According to her husband Brandon's Facebook post, Anita fell from her horse on Nov. 15, 2025, in Utah. She hit her head on concrete, which resulted in multiple brain bleeds and fractures to her facial bones.

He wrote she had a "fall from her futurity horse and hit her head when she landed on the concrete while entering the arena in South Jordan, UT. She was taken to the hospital and is currently in the ICU. Her first scan showed a small brain bleed ... Her follow-up scan showed a few additional small bleeds and some fractures on the right side of her face from the impact."

By Nov. 18, she had made some real progress. Brandon posted an encouraging update on his Facebook page.

He wrote, "The neurosurgeon says she is graduating out of ICU today. She’s been able to feed herself ice chips and is resting a lot. She’s still confused, agitated at times, and her brain is working hard to come back online — but she’s fighting, just like we all know she would."

And the following day, he wrote, "She’s been cleared to be transferred to an acute rehabilitation center to continue healing and rebuilding her strength."

Anita already carried a legacy of physical setbacks that led to strong comebacks. Her Women’s Professional Rodeo Association bio lists two previous back injuries and a spinal fusion surgery that delayed her return. With her season culminating in an NFR qualification-quality rank, the fall halted not only her rides but her dreams. The timing could not have been worse.

Beyond the physical damage of brain trauma and facial fractures, the psychological toll is real.

The very success she built might be interrupted indefinitely as she heals and rebuilds her strength. But history suggests she fights back. Her comeback style had been so strong that her horse, Rico, became a futurity winner and a record-holder. Her husband said after this fall, "her confidence in herself is so strong it makes me question my own reality sometimes."

She is fighting back and fiercely independent, so if anyone can recover from this and continue their career, it's Anita.

This is a harsh reminder that in rodeo, each run carries extreme risk. Her fall left her in the ICU, robbed her of a chance at the NFR, and put everything she’d built on pause. Yet her story is only paused, not finished. With community support behind her and a record of comebacks in her past, the world of barrel racing is watching and betting that this comeback cowgirl still has one more to show them.