Splash The Crowd
Me and this feisty mare go way back.. back to 2011 when I picked her up on the other side of the boarder as a yearling. She was my first “barrel horse” prospect and I was so excited!
I was in love with this horse they once called barbie. She really looked like the perfect barbie horse. As a young girl who played with barbies and especially the horse ones, I was living my childhood dreams! Although, I changed her name to Lucy, the feeling of my little barbie horse never changed.
I played around with her until she was 2, throwing a saddle on, lounging, all the ground work to prepare her to get started under saddle. Her second winter I sent her to local trainer names Chris Blane for 30 days. I knew she would be a handful so I had no problem paying to get the fire tamed down so I could take it from there. After that, it was all on me. Her second and third year consist of slow work in preparation of her futurity debut.
We honestly had a great futurity year in Ontario, finishing top 5 in the 1D futurity. Of course there are always ups and downs in this sport and getting her figured out has been a series of never ending growing pains. What do you do with a mare that gives you serious attitude but you don’t want to start a fight?! I was just trying to learn as I go and develop a patient, open mind, which has really paid off in the end. I have the most connection with her and she proves to me what a real horse who loves her job will do, give 110%.
The satisfaction of taking a 2 year old with 30 days and turning it around to becoming a great barrel horse got me hooked on this game. I knew this was something great when we were at one of Ontario’s biggest shows and I had my little, 14.1 hand palomino mare entered. We walked away the TLC Summer Classic 1D Futurity Average Champs! It was so great and I was so in love with that feeling of it all coming together; the work was so worth it!
She is so gritty, so strong and she means business! I thank her for being the intense mare she is, it has made me into the rider I am today. She started it all.
This is what I fell in love with. I bought her with nothing but some pictures and a description. I had to have her.
This 2019 year, we started getting serious with poles. This video gives me goosebumps whenever I watch it. We ran a 20.6 during our Canada Day barrel race. It gets me excited to see how much better we can do!