"This baby is not going to survive this disease," Molly's mother, Kathy, remembers the doctor saying. "If she survives, she'll be on life support."

But the doctor didn't know Molly.

"Her personality, her will to survive," her mother said, explaining how the Clarkston girl dodged death after two weeks on intravenous medications in the hospital.

"We had to ride it out, and she survived it."

This weekend, Molly, now 14, will ride again - dodging barrels - as she races around a cloverleaf course in the Longhorn World Championship Rodeo at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The spinal meningitis left the homeschooler profoundly deaf in both ears, but Molly says her impairment gives her an advantage over competing cowgirls.

"I maybe don't get so distracted (by the cheering and foot stomping of the crowds)," she said. "I focus on what I'm doing."

And because she remains calm, her horse, an Arabian named Blissfield's Dejia, stays calm. "You're cool with that so I'm cool with that," Molly said, interpreting her horse's response to her lead while the two compete.

Molly has been riding horses since she was 2. Until this month, she competed in Oakland County 4-H events, regularly finishing the cloverleaf course in 13 seconds.

But Dennis DaSilva of Rochester Hills, a professional calf roper and 4-H volunteer whose daughter also is a cowgirl, convinced her she has the speed and form to join the International Pro Rodeo Association.

Molly, who wears a cochlear implant and reads lips to help her communicate, recently e-mailed DaSilva a photograph of herself rounding a barrel and asked him to critique it. "I was thinking he might say, 'Lift your hand here,'" she said, or offer some other suggestion.

But DaSilva, who saw the maneuver in person and has watched her improve over the years, told her he thinks she's ready for the next level.

"I know she has the ability," DaSilva said, adding Molly now just needs to shave 10ths and 100ths of seconds off her time.

DaSilva agreed Molly's hearing impairment benefits her as a cowgirl. Besides not hearing distractions, Molly is more tuned in to her horse through her other senses. "You need to feel the animal; you need to sense the animal," DaSilva said.

Molly, who always dreamed of one day going professional, competed in her first professional rodeo Feb. 4 in Ohio.

"I was expecting to do better," she said of her 18-second finish. But another horse kicked hers just before the race, gashing Blissfield's Dejia just above the knee. "She was very offended I let her get kicked," Molly said.

Joining the professional rodeo circuit means Molly, the second oldest of four, will have to give up some of her other interests - like competing in Scottish Highland dancing.

But that's OK by her.

"It's like the dream you never thought would happen," said the girl whose doctor thought would never survive to live it.

By Karen Smith