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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 365
    
| My family barrel races so I was always at horse shows. My mom bought me a pony and I've been doing it ever since. I grew up with everyone around here that shows and I'm just used to it. I love the sport, I've been an NBHA member for years and now IBRA too. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
    Location: White Mountains of AZ | ctdrumrunr - 2015-02-04 4:17 PM
I live in New England and the burbs, when I was 12 I asked my Dad for a horse. He asked who was gonna clean the poop and I told him, he was. No horse for me. Fast forward years later, my 7 yr old was taking lessons and I wanted to ride too. Started taking lessons and got bored with WTC so the instructor said there are games you can do, so she taught us to barrel race. Loved it from the start. All 3  kids rode lesson horses but I was the only one that stuck with it and got my own. started barrel racing in 1987 for real, did ammy rodeos and actually won some money. Now at 66 I still ride and love to barrel race but not as fast. Not bad for coming from a very non horsey family. I was just born in the wrong part of the country. sigh!!
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Haha I your answer to your father made me laugh!! | |
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 I don't want to screw up!
Posts: 3881
         Location: North Dakota -> Colorado | I didn't grow up in a rodeo family or even a horse family for that matter, but my parents had friends that had horses. Ever since I was little they would stick me on the horse with their daughter and eventually I started to love horses more and more. I never really got over that addiction. I begged until I finally got a horse. She was by no means a barrel horse, she was just an old pleasure horse. I went to a barrel clinic I think the 2nd year that I had her, and I have been hooked ever since. We bought a 12 yr old Team penning horse that I retrained for barrels. Looking back, it was a miracle she turned out as good as she did. Now 19, she is slowing down and no longer can clock 1D/2D all the time, every now and then she'll turn out a blazing run that makes it all worth it. When I was 15 I bought a young horse to finish and season, I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot about what to do with a younger unfinished horse. I never really clicked to get her in the 1D and unfortunately I lost her last summer on the road to a twisted gut. I have been blessed in the last couple of years. I have had the opportunity to ride and run some top caliber horses, and get a feel for what a horse like that feels and runs like. Last fall, I bought a new horse that I am starting to run, and so far she ranks in the Top 3 of best barrel horses I have ever swung a leg over, and I've swung my leg over some greats. I can't thank the people that have given me all these opportunities enough. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
    Location: White Mountains of AZ | TurnNBurn-3Barrels - 2015-02-05 8:48 AM
I didn't grow up in a rodeo family or even a horse family for that matter, but my parents had friends that had horses. Ever since I was little they would stick me on the horse with their daughter and eventually I started to love horses more and more. I never really got over that addiction. I begged until I finally got a horse. She was by no means a barrel horse, she was just an old pleasure horse. I went to a barrel clinic I think the 2nd year that I had her, and I have been hooked ever since. We bought a 12 yr old Team penning horse that I retrained for barrels. Looking back, it was a miracle she turned out as good as she did. Now 19, she is slowing down and no longer can clock 1D/2D all the time, every now and then she'll turn out a blazing run that makes it all worth it. When I was 15 I bought a young horse to finish and season, I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot about what to do with a younger unfinished horse. I never really clicked to get her in the 1D and unfortunately I lost her last summer on the road to a twisted gut. I have been blessed in the last couple of years. I have had the opportunity to ride and run some top caliber horses, and get a feel for what a horse like that feels and runs like. Last fall, I bought a new horse that I am starting to run, and so far she ranks in the Top 3 of best barrel horses I have ever swung a leg over, and I've swung my leg over some greats. I can't thank the people that have given me all these opportunities enough.
So sorry to hear about losing your mare...that must've been hard. And I hope the new horse turns out great! | |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11492
          Location: 31 lengths farms | QH<3er - 2015-02-05 3:31 PM
run n rate - 2015-02-04 3:29 PM
Grew up riding whatever my dad could afford to put me on, first was a Shetland pony, then a POA. My poor POA somehow survived me, good thing he was tough. I hung around kids who had horses and their parents ranched for a living so my pony was drug more than once with me roping something that was bigger than he could handle. I'd get kicked out of the branding pen and told if I was going to rope to go grab one of the horses...nothing doing, I believed Monk could do it. He was so glad when I outgrew him and got to be my brothers pony who at the time hated riding, LOL!!! I started showing 4-H and our leader had a rule that if you did gymkhana you had to show Pleasure classes too. Me, I just wanted to do anything that involved a horse or pony or anything with a mane and tail. When I outgrew the POA, I moved up to my sisters Welsh/Arab and got a taste of a little success at the 4-H level in gymkhana and I'm a bit of a adrenaline junky so fast was good with me. Then from him I moved to a QH/Arab mare that I leased for the first 2 years I rode her and then my mom bought her for me for my 16th birthday/Christmas present and what was a hobby fun thing to do became an obsession. I'm not really much of a barrel racer, I just own horses that I love to ride be it at a reined cow horse show, sorting , barrel race, gymkhana. My first love is barrel racing but I will settle for turning a cow back on the fence and circling one up in a stock horse class too if a "tub busting" isnt' available. Running across the grass at the Pendleton 4D race two years in a row is the highlight of my life. So far :-)
I wanna run that Pendleton 4-D race !!!! It will happen!
Running there was culmination of 40 some years of dreaming about it. When I was little my dad was stationed at Camp Pendleton which has a rodeo so when I heard people talking about Pendleton Round UP I was like "yah, been there..." LOL!!! Then when I was 9 I finally saw a picture of the actual Pendleton Round UP and it became my dream to run there...not the NFR like most little girls but Pendleton. It was such an obsession that 9 years ago I heard that there was an Ed Wright clinic in Pendleton and talked a buddy of mine into going to it because I figured it was as close to running at there that I'd ever get. We kept the horses at the grounds but of course the actual clinic wasn't held in the round up arena. I however did climb the locked gates with the pop up barrels and ran it on foot in the pouring rain with a mild hangover at 5 am the second day of the clinic. I was pretty sure I was going to die at the 2nd barrel but thankfully, or not, my travel buddy standing in the alley way yelled "Hustle!!!" just about then which gave me the resolve to in fact finish the pattern. I hurt so bad I had to go lay down in the truck for an hour afterwards, LOL!!! Lets just say when the opportunity came to run there conditioning for myself as well as my horses was the top priority for me. A friend kept asking what races I was going to to get ready...I do not think you can run enough 15 second patterns to get game ready for Pendleton, LOL!!! Lets just say we prepared for the Belmont instead.
I hope you get to go to it, it is seriously the most fun on horseback I have ever had, reminds me of being a kid again and just falling in love with the pure joy of a long stretch of land and opening a horse up on it for the heck of it. | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
    Location: White Mountains of AZ | run n rate - 2015-02-05 9:40 AM
QH<3er - 2015-02-05 3:31 PM
run n rate - 2015-02-04 3:29 PM
Grew up riding whatever my dad could afford to put me on, first was a Shetland pony, then a POA. My poor POA somehow survived me, good thing he was tough. I hung around kids who had horses and their parents ranched for a living so my pony was drug more than once with me roping something that was bigger than he could handle. I'd get kicked out of the branding pen and told if I was going to rope to go grab one of the horses...nothing doing, I believed Monk could do it. He was so glad when I outgrew him and got to be my brothers pony who at the time hated riding, LOL!!! I started showing 4-H and our leader had a rule that if you did gymkhana you had to show Pleasure classes too. Me, I just wanted to do anything that involved a horse or pony or anything with a mane and tail. When I outgrew the POA, I moved up to my sisters Welsh/Arab and got a taste of a little success at the 4-H level in gymkhana and I'm a bit of a adrenaline junky so fast was good with me. Then from him I moved to a QH/Arab mare that I leased for the first 2 years I rode her and then my mom bought her for me for my 16th birthday/Christmas present and what was a hobby fun thing to do became an obsession. I'm not really much of a barrel racer, I just own horses that I love to ride be it at a reined cow horse show, sorting , barrel race, gymkhana. My first love is barrel racing but I will settle for turning a cow back on the fence and circling one up in a stock horse class too if a "tub busting" isnt' available. Running across the grass at the Pendleton 4D race two years in a row is the highlight of my life. So far :-)
I wanna run that Pendleton 4-D race !!!! It will happen!
Running there was culmination of 40 some years of dreaming about it. When I was little my dad was stationed at Camp Pendleton which has a rodeo so when I heard people talking about Pendleton Round UP I was like "yah, been there..." LOL!!! Then when I was 9 I finally saw a picture of the actual Pendleton Round UP and it became my dream to run there...not the NFR like most little girls but Pendleton. It was such an obsession that 9 years ago I heard that there was an Ed Wright clinic in Pendleton and talked a buddy of mine into going to it because I figured it was as close to running at there that I'd ever get. We kept the horses at the grounds but of course the actual clinic wasn't held in the round up arena. I however did climb the locked gates with the pop up barrels and ran it on foot in the pouring rain with a mild hangover at 5 am the second day of the clinic. I was pretty sure I was going to die at the 2nd barrel but thankfully, or not, my travel buddy standing in the alley way yelled "Hustle!!!" just about then which gave me the resolve to in fact finish the pattern. I hurt so bad I had to go lay down in the truck for an hour afterwards, LOL!!! Lets just say when the opportunity came to run there conditioning for myself as well as my horses was the top priority for me. A friend kept asking what races I was going to to get ready...I do not think you can run enough 15 second patterns to get game ready for Pendleton, LOL!!! Lets just say we prepared for the Belmont instead.
I hope you get to go to it, it is seriously the most fun on horseback I have ever had, reminds me of being a kid again and just falling in love with the pure joy of a long stretch of land and opening a horse up on it for the heck of it.
I would love to do this...maybe not the running with the hangover tho!! | |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 533
  Location: Northeast, KS | For me I would have to say my step-daughter is the one that first got me interested. I have had horses and ridden all my life but that was limited to trails. One day Danielle said she wanted to try barrels I think she was 8 at the time and I was 34. I am now 47 and still going with no plans of slowing down anytime soon!! | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
    Location: White Mountains of AZ | Blue Cowgirl - 2015-02-05 1:27 PM
For me I would have to say my step-daughter is the one that first got me interested. I have had horses and ridden all my life but that was limited to trails. One day Danielle said she wanted to try barrels I think she was 8 at the time and I was 34. I am now 47 and still going with no plans of slowing down anytime soon!!
Way to go step-daughter!!! | |
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9991
           Location: Kansas | My family is not a rodeo family by any means. I didn't exactly grow up in the best home...and so my grandmother found that horses were an excellent outlet for me since I was such a horse crazy kid. When things were rough at home, grandma always picked me up and we went riding. She eventually bought me my first horse at 6, from there her best friend (former barrel racer) taught me most of what I know....and so I grew up riding/running as much as I could because horses were an outlet for me. My love for them hasn't faded, and I hope my daughter will soon be running barrels!!! | |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
    Location: White Mountains of AZ | hoofs_in_motion - 2015-02-05 1:47 PM
My family is not a rodeo family by any means. I didn't exactly grow up in the best home...and so my grandmother found that horses were an excellent outlet for me since I was such a horse crazy kid. When things were rough at home, grandma always picked me up and we went riding. She eventually bought me my first horse at 6, from there her best friend (former barrel racer) taught me most of what I know....and so I grew up riding/running as much as I could because horses were an outlet for me. My love for them hasn't faded, and I hope my daughter will soon be running barrels!!!
Horses have and always will be my escape. Things would be rough at the house so I would sneak out and go to my horses....Saved me! | |
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