5-foot-3 former rodeo queen likes horsepower, finds plenty with dozers

An old nursery rhyme asks, "What are little girls made of?"

Had anyone posed that to Kasey Barker Herndon as she grew up in Oakdale, her answer might have surprised them.

"I love to play in the dirt, to ride motocross," the 22-year-old former valley resident said. "I have a Harley and I drive a Ford F-350 (one-ton pickup truck)."

The upshot?

"I like lots of horsepower," she said.

Tons of it. Herndon is a bulldozer operator for a construction firm that builds pipelines and does other infrastructure work all over the country.

So much for "sugar and spice, and all that's nice," as the rhyme concludes.

Herndon loves moving dirt and shattering the stereotype in the male-dominated world of heavy equipment. She's always been a rugged individualist without losing her feminine touch. A former rodeo queen, she used to design her own outfits for competitions; her grandmother, seamstress Linda Aiken, would make them.

Herndon reigned (under her former stepfather's last name of Smart) as the 2001 California State Horseman's Association queen, and runner-up a year later, trained horses and spent more time than most in the saddle.

But it's the saddle of a D-8 Caterpillar bulldozer she enjoys most, working all over the country for Price Gregory Services, a construction company based in Houston. Kasey said she earned a six-figure salary in 2008, plus traveling expenses.

Construction is a family thing. Her mom and stepfather, Vicki and Ed Fournier of La Grange, work for the same company and they frequently travel together. And Vicki introduced her daughter in 2007 to Mike Herndon II, a foreman whom she married this past New Year's Eve.

Q: How did you become interested in driving heavy equipment?

A: When I graduated from (Hughson) high school, I started driving a water truck for Quicksand Express sand and gravel company out of Hilmar. Then I worked alongside my dad for Ross S. Carroll, out of Oakdale, driving a water truck. One day they called and told me I'd been laid off (because of the slowdown in home construction). My mom and stepfather called and wanted me to come work with them in Utah. I oiled heavy equipment.

Q: How did you move up to operating bulldozers?

A: After we finished the Utah job, we went on to (Rollins) Wyoming, and my boss, Barry Smith, put me on a dozer.

Q: Where were you trained?

A: I just grew up around it and took to it. There's no license. I just worked my way up the chain. You have to be part of the union (Operating Engineers No. 3).

Q: When was your first job running a dozer?

A: October, 2007. I run a D-8, which is a pretty good size. As far as we can tell, I'm the youngest female to run a dozer in United States.

Q: What do you like most about it?

A: It's an adrenaline (rush). For me, being a woman, I get a lot of respect from my elders. I work in a man's world. It's not a battle every day, but it takes a lot of effort. I have to do it better or I won't have a job. Men around me fight every day for this position. I have an excellent boss (Barry Smith) who's given me a chance.

Q: What do you least like about it?

A: Lots of long, hard hours, six or seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. We're traveling all the time. We're home (now Parker, Colo.) and off for a few weeks, then we're off to Michigan for another job.

Q: What's the general reaction you get from men when you tell them what you do?

A: They'll say, "No!" How do I put it without being arrogant? ... I've been in beauty pageants, and when you think of a woman working with heavy equipment ... people look at me and gawk -- "There's no way!" I'm 5-foot-3 and about 150 pounds. I'm a little girl. And there's so many people on our jobs -- 300 to 400. When we pass by a crew we haven't seen before, they're looking at me like they've seen a ghost.

Q: What would you be doing for a living if you weren't driving a bulldozer?

A: I'd still be in construction running some kind of equipment. That's all I know -- that, and horses. That's it.

Q: Any plans to start a family?

A: We're young. We're away from home so much. We want to enjoy it while we can before having kids. When we do, I'll stay at home until the kids are old enough to go to school, then I'll go back.