Isabella Miller (barrel racer)

Pearl Isabella Hamilton was born on 28 January 1941 in Alberta, Canada to Ruth (née Johnson) and William James Hamilton.[1][2] She grew up in DeWinton, Alberta, where her parents operated a ranch.[2] Her father had been a bull riding champion in the 1920s and was a chuckwagon driver. Her grandparents manufactured Red River carts in Calgary.[3] Hamilton began learning to ride when she was 2 years old.[4]

Hamilton was one of the founders of the Canadian Girls' Barrel Racing Association, which formed in 1957 and was elected as the organization's president for 1959.[1][5] The goal of the association was to promote women's participation in rodeo and to be allowed to compete in the Calgary Stampede and other regular rodeo events.[6][7] From 1958, they won the right to participate in the Stampede.[8][9]

In 1960, Hamilton won the Canadian Barrel Racing Championship, having owned, trained, and ridden her own horse.[10][11] Around 1962, she married and began competing as Isabella Miller.[12] She won the women's All-Around title five times — in 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969.[13][14] In 1963, she was also named as Calgary's Athlete of the Year by the Calgary Sports Women's Association.[4] Despite a vehicle accident in which her horse died during the 1969 season, Miller repeated that year as Canadian barrel racing champion.[3][14][11]

Miller raised three children, Tyler, Bobbie June, and Billie Ruth Miller, as a single mother and to make ends meet, drove a school bus for 15 years.[1] As she made little money from barrel racing, she also raised horses, trained them, and worked as a stunt rider in films. She continued to compete in barrel racing events into her 60s and was often ranked among Canada's the top ten women in the sport.[9][15][16] In the early 1980s, she became president of the barrel racing association for a second term, serving from 1981 to 1986.[6][17] In 2002, she married Arnold Haraga, a former Canadian All-Around champion and steer wrestler and sculptor.[8][18] After their marriage, the couple wintered at their ranch in Arizona.[9] She was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2005.[9][11]

In 2007, Haraga was injured in a fall from her horse on her ranch in Maricopa, Arizona. The fall caused an aneurysm[8] and Haraga died two days later on 26 January 2007.[1][9] Her children and grandchildren have continued the tradition of competing in rodeo events.[19]