AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A REAL OUTDOORS WOMAN – January/February 2022

 I AM 33 YEARS OLD, born and raised in New Mexico. I grew up living with my mom, brother, and sister in the city of Albuquerque.

My mom’s family is mostly non-hunters, but they support wildlife conservation. There are several hunters in my dad’s family, some of which also raise various farm animals for natural food sources and harvesting.

I was never exposed much to the hunting culture growing up. I was very rarely exposed to firearms; however, I shared the interest of fishing with my dad growing up. He passed away when I was 23.

Growing up I was always told that hunting was too dangerous for girls. They were not allowed on the hunting trips. I never found the interest to learn about it, and I stuck with fishing instead until just recently.

With my kid’s dad, I currently co-parent two amazing kids, my son 10 and daughter 9. Over the last year, I moved in to my own home with just me and my kids.

I started finding new hobbies and interests. Recently, I learned to shoot a traditional bow and participated in a bow shoot this last year. A friend, who is now my mentor, started showing me how to track and hunt turkeys with my bow.

Over the last several years I’ve acquired some really bad food allergies to preservatives. and it’s been a challenge for me to find natural foods. So, when I started learning more about bow hunting, I started getting very motivated to take home my first turkey. I then grew more interested in bow hunting and started asking my mentor more questions about hunting bigger game to bring home natural meat for me and my family.

It was such a coincidence of timing when my mentor, then received an email from the Wild Sheep Foundation about an opportunity for women to participate in a new hunter program called “Women Hunt,” founded by Renee Thornton of the Wild Sheep Foundation. It is designed to teach women like me about ethical hunting, wildlife conservation, and harvesting animals to provide natural sources of food.

I applied for the opportunity to learn. I was one of 12 women chosen to participate in a new hunter program at the FTW Ranch in Texas and be a representative of the Women Hunt program with the Wild Sheep Foundation.

 

 

This opportunity has changed my life. It has prepared me to spread awareness of wildlife conservation and ethical hunting to others. I seek out women who, like me, had had no exposure to the hunting culture, but who want to learn how to provide and prepare food for our families.

Not only did the Women Hunt program teach me how to hunt (which ultimately prepared me to take home my very first whitetail doe), but it helped me build my confidence to seek out my interests. Now, when anyone tries to convince me that “some things are too dangerous for women,” I challenge that statement and make a judgment for myself independently.

I don’t believe in categorizing anyone based on gender, age, race, or religion. I think anyone should go out and try something new they find interesting, and I did just that.

I came back home from hunting in Texas and provided food for my kids, and more importantly, came back with more knowledge than I expected about hunting and wildlife conservation. I now have more respect for the hunting culture and enough knowledge about it to share the awareness about wildlife conservation with my kids and family.

After my experience at the FTW Ranch, I immediately went to my state affiliate of the Wild Sheep Foundation and asked how I can get more women involved here in my state of New Mexico. I plan to share my experiences with other women, children, and anyone else interested.

I feel that there are people out there that are in the position I was in wanting to eat natural, and provide food for our families. I want to be a role model for my kids and inspire them to chase their dreams and be independent human beings that can provide for themselves. Most importantly, I want to teach my kids the ethical ways and reasons for respecting the culture of hunting and how we, and the next generations to come, can continue to support wildlife conservation.

 

—story by BEA SEGURA

 

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