Photo by Alana Harrison

Trainer Michele McLeod offers tips to help with your barrel-racing pattern.

Back on Pattern
Change leads only one time on your pattern. If you begin with the right-side barrel, you’ll start on your right lead, and as you leave that first barrel, you’ll switch to your left lead. If your horse constantly changes leads on pattern, that means you’re moving too much in the saddle. Keep your hips grounded in your saddle, and distribute your weight evenly in your stirrups to maintain your left lead after the first barrel.

When you first enter the arena, select a spot around that first barrel, and know exactly where you’re going. Visualize the barrel on its side, and that’s the length or diameter of the turn. As you approach that spot, sit down in your saddle and relax your midsection to tell your horse to shorten his stride. At the barrel, your horse should be on his hind end, and you’ll sit in the middle of the saddle, maintain a strong core, and shift your eyes just like with the tire circles----- watching exactly where the horse’s feet are going, one stride after the other.

When you leave your first barrel, stay right in the middle of your horse’s back, so you don’t get rocked back as he sprints to the second barrel. Instead of visualizing a barrel its side, go straight at it-----but when you do this, you must maintain your position and control your horse. Use the same strategy of sitting down in the saddle and relaxing your midsection to encourage the horse to shorten his stride. As soon as you sit down, the horse should start collecting himself. Use the same approach with the third barrel.

Often, when riders add speed, they lose control of shortening and lengthening their horse’s stride. This is when the exercises I’ve taught you really come in handy. It’s imperative to establish those cues-----besides pulling back on your reins-----so that your horse will respond quickly. If things don’t go well, return to the practice pen, and practice trotting, then loping around the barrels before adding speed. When you add speed, really emphasize your slow-down cues, so your horse shortens his stride before the barrel. Your horse will come to realize that he has to listen to what your body is doing.

Michele McLeod moved from Temecula, California, to Whitesboro, Texas, in 2005 to train barrel horses full time. She owns and operates Michele McLeod Barrel Horses with her husband, John, and daughters Katelyn, Lindsey, and Jenna, in Whitesboro.

"He's just as smooth, easy, and fun as a barrel horse as you could want to ride," says Charlie. "He literally just flies in there to his first barrel and turns it. You don't have to do a lot, and he doesn't have much cheat. He gives you 100 percent."

Watch the pair in action in the video below!

In the July 2012 issue, we gave you an update on Jacks Vaquero, aka "Cowboy." The senior gelding is now teaching 4-year-old TJ Hammond of Idaho to ride. We first introduced our readers to Cowboy in the April 2006 issue. Review that article below.

A tiny girl sits atop a nondescript brown gelding. They’re waiting to compete in a barrel-racing class for riders 5 and under at the Washington State Junior Rodeo Finals in October of 2005. The girl’s tawny hair is tucked neatly under a straw hat; her babyish face is doll-like. Her legs reach only halfway down the horse’s sides.

The gelding begins to prance slightly, his neck bowed obediently to his rider’s hand. The girl’s mother leads the pair down the alleyway and turns them loose in the arena, then stands aside, holding her breath.

The girl leans forward and the gelding sprints toward the first barrel. As he nears it, the girl sinks into the saddle and the horse wraps himself around the metal can, digging in with his hindquarters and bending through his middle. He finishes the turn and springs toward the second barrel.

“This isn’t the first time this horse has done this,” drawls the announcer. Just short of the second barrel, the gelding switches leads, and again the girl sinks into the saddle. The pair spin around the second can, perfectly synchronized, and leap toward the third. One more tight, neat turn, and they’re headed for home. The girl stands in her stirrups and shoots her rein hand forward, urging her gelding on with everything she’s got. The horse responds with a surge, tripping the electric eye at a full gallop.

Their time makes them the only pair in their age group to break the “teens”; they win first place. The girl smiles happily and claps her horse’s neck.

The mother smiles too, blinking back tears. Twenty years ago, she was the little brown-haired girl on this same gelding, racing around barrels, winning prizes. To see her daughter now, running and winning on this cherished, aged horse, brings the most exquisite flush of emotions.

But—we’re getting ahead of the story. It begins two decades earlier, in Lewiston, Idaho. It’s the tale of Jacks Vaquero, also known as Cowboy, the plain little Quarter Horse with the great big heart.

Though a rodeo star, Cowboy also excelled in other disciplines. here he stands perfectly for Jami, then 9, at a Lewiston 4-H show in 1986.

Photo by Johnny Rynearson

Sensible Colt
It was July 2, 1981. Jami Yochum (the mother in our opening vignette) was only 4 years old, but she remembers the day vividly. It’s when her parents, Johnny and Debbie Rynearson, took her out to the pasture to see a little brown colt, just 1 hour old. A colt intended to be Jami’s own someday.

The Rynearsons and their two daughters lived on five acres in a rural part of Lewiston. At the time they had 18 horses, some on their own property and others boarded in nearby pastures. This newest foal carried the blood of several American Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame luminaries, including Poco Bueno and Two Eyed Jack (see “Cowboy At A Glance,” page 2). “We were firm believers in Two Eyed Jack horses,” Debbie recalls. “You could do everything with them.”

Though bred for success, the colt perhaps didn’t appear so at the time. “I remember thinking he looked a little like a mule,” says Jami. “He had that typical light ‘muley mouth’ that true brown horses do, and big ears. But he was cute and well muscled, and also friendly, curious, and unafraid. I got to pet him, and he didn’t act bratty and try to bite like some of the other babies I’d been around.”

The foal, registered as Jacks Vaquero, came to be known simply as Cowboy (English for vaquero). At the time of his birth, Jami was already becoming a skilled rider on her talented Shetland Pony. Over the next four years, the 10-hand-tall Candy would carry her as Jami learned to love a variety of events, including barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, and goat tying.

Cowboy, meanwhile, was growing and impressing everyone with his levelheadedness. “I remember clipping his ears when he was a weanling,” Debbie recalls. “I used big clippers—they were awfully loud—but he didn’t even move. If I hadn’t already known it, that alone would have told me he was special.”

Adrenaline Rush
In the winter of Cowboy’s 2-year-old year, Jami’s father started him under saddle. An experienced horseman who helped his neighbors with their young stock, Johnny found the newly gelded horse to be calm and willing from day one.

“He’s the kind of horse you could ask to climb a tree, and he’d say, ‘Which one?’” says Debbie. “I remember riding him across neighbors’ land to cutting clinics on cold, snowy days in the winter of his 3-year-old year, and he was great. He wasn’t all that interested in cattle or the cutting machine, but he walked out smartly to get there and let us expose him to a bunch of different things.”

Cowboy and Scout barrel for home at the Washington State Junior Finals in Ellensburg.

Photo by Laura Rogers

By the time Cowboy was 4 and Jami was 8, the Rynearsons felt the two were ready for each other. Jami started riding the 14.1-hand gelding under her parents’ supervision, while continuing to show her Shetland. Then, one day in 1985, things changed forever.

“A local barrel-racing club my mom had founded was having its finals competition,” Jami recalls. “I ran Candy in the first run of my age group, then tried Cowboy in the second. He was so much faster, so much more powerful! It gave me an adrenaline rush. I had complete confidence in him, though, so it wasn’t scary,just incredibly fun.”After that,the pony was retired, and Cowboy became Jami’s steady partner.

“He was and is a quick learner,” Jami says. “In addition to barrel racing and other rodeo events, I did everything with him—trail riding, 4-H fitting and showing, Western pleasure, showmanship, trail. He excelled at it all.” A clever horse, Cowboy also excelled at untying himself. “He’s a regular Houdini,” says Jami. And though a kind, quiet eye is one of the gelding’s best traits, he’s not a lapdog sort of horse. “I wouldn’t say he’s standoffish, but he’s not at all cuddly,” Jami explains. “He definitely doesn’t like being petted around the head.” Other quirks include a loathing of llamas (“something about the smell,” Jami thinks) and a passion for Twizzlers red licorice (“he can eat a whole bag”).

His most distinguishing eccentricity, however, is something his family calls “the Cowboy shuffle.” It’s the little strut he does just before and after he makes a run.

“He doesn’t get hard to handle; he just takes these short little steps and is very perked up,” notes Jami. “It’s how we know he’s going to win.”

It’s been my observation over the last 20 years or so that a lot of horse owners request to have their horses’ hocks injected whenever a hind leg problem is suspected to be impacting performance. With some horses this procedure is very productive, but I think a more open mind relating to the source of the problem is in order.

The stifle joint, which is analogous to our knee joint, is a complex and challenging joint to evaluate. Its location and size has made it a deep, dark structure to analyze. Subtle distentions or thickening of the joint capsule are not nearly so evident as the joints of the more distal limb such as the hock and fetlock. The stifle is difficult to evaluate radiographically because of its mass, surrounding tissue and critical soft-tissue structures. Flexion of the hind leg has been historically referred to as a “spavin test” denoting a problem of the hock, but horses with stifle problems certainly can be positive to this test.

So, how does one go about evaluating the stifle? I believe it takes a series of diagnostic approaches. Careful palpation of the anterior, more accessible part of the joint can reveal suspicious thickening or distention of the joint. Diagnostic blocking of the joint by injecting local anesthetics can identify it as the source of pain. Studying the soft tissue structures such as the cruciate ligaments and menisci with ultrasound imaging can be helpful.

Advanced radiographic techniques can show things such as bone remodeling, osteochondral chips or bone cysts. The ultimate diagnostic procedure sometimes resorted to is arthroscopic visualization of the joint interior. Many of these procedures are specialized and require expensive technological aids to achieve, but are essential if you are to make an accurate diagnosis. Without an accurate diagnosis, any attempt at treatment is arbitrary and less likely to succeed.

The stifle is a common source of lameness in Western performance horse endeavors such as roping, cutting, reining and barrel racing.

I think the stresses of making sharp turns while “getting in the ground” generate a lot of torque that can be damaging. These horses are the football players of the equine world, and we’re all aware of how many football players have stifle problems.

In the April issue, Lindsay Sears shared about her great barrel racing mare's, Martha, comeback after injury. Check out the video below to see the pair in action!

To see photos from the Las Vegas photo shoot, click here.

Lucas Metal Works, Inc. has generously agreed to provide the premiere arena grooming tool, “The Ground Hog.”

The Ground Hog Arena Tool was designed in 1996 by an avid arena owner, Raymond Lucas, who wasn’t satisfied with the arena grooming tools that were making their way through arenas throughout the nation. Raymond desired to have one tool, that could groom the arena ground in one pass, and produce the same consistent result every pass of the unit, safe and flawlessly conditioned ground. Having been the grandfather and father of national renowned barrel racers he was able to observe the downfalls of other tools throughout the nation. In 1996 Raymond developed the first model of The Ground Hog Arena Tool that enabled arena owners to not only rework the surface with the unit’s hydraulically operated ripper shanks but also fill in the holes that are dug by the horse when going around a barrel. This was accomplished with the unit’s double grader blades, which allow for dirt to be carried by the unit and in turn evenly distributed throughout the arena. Allowing for the unit’s pegged finishing roller to lastly compact and finish the ground safely for the horse and rider.

NIRA Commissioner, Roger Walters said, “We are very happy to have the support and assistance of Lucas Metal Works with their generous contribution to the 2012 CNFR.” He added, “The success and safety of our contestants is paramount, and with the use of The Ground Hog, we feel we can better our production and provide added safety for the participants.”

Lucas Metal Works Director of Marketing, Anthony Tucker, said, “On behalf of The Ground Hog Arena Tool brand and the parent company, Lucas Metal Works, we couldn’t be more excited about our recent agreement with commissioner Roger Walters and the College National Finals Rodeo to become the official ground tool of the 2012 College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming. We strongly support and advocate for opportunities for young adults to further their education through the opportunities provided by collegiate sports. In addition our company has a long history in the rodeo industry having had several nationally renowned barrel racers within the Lucas family we strongly support rodeo as a sport in universities and colleges across our great country. We look forward to providing safe and flawlessly conditioned ground for all participants in the 2012 College National Finals Rodeo. We hope that the relationship with the CNFR and The Ground Hog Arena Tool will continue to grow to allow for future opportunities for The Ground Hog Arena Tool with the CNFR. We look forward to seeing all participants and spectators in Casper, Wyoming.”

Lucas Metal Works recently added an optional watering system to the unit to allow for the user to maintain the moisture of the surface in their respective arena. This in essence also helps keep the horse and rider sound again by not allowing dust to enter both horse and riders’ lungs. In addition to allowing the unit’s rippers to work the surface easier with moisture now present in the surface’s terrain.

Consistent, that is the word The Ground Hog’s manufacturer, Lucas Metal Works, hears the most when talking with their customers who own the unit. That is exactly what Raymond set out to accomplish when designing The Ground Hog for his family of barrel racers, a unit that was consistent ever time you used it. Now arena owners, barrel racers, rodeo associations, expo centers, and the granddaddy of all rodeos, the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), trust The Ground Hog Arena Tool to provide them with the consistent safe surface they seek.
For more information about The Ground Hog Arena Tool and The Ground Hog Watering System:
Call a Ground Hog Expert 866-689-8904 or visit www.TheArenaTool.com

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The national headquarters of the NIRA are located in Walla Walla, Washington. More information on the association and results from recent events available on www.collegerodeo.com.

Press Releases for the NIRA are sponsored by our friends and national sponsors: Ram Rodeo, Copper Spring Ranch, Cactus Ropes, Cactus Saddles, Heel-O-Matic, ProEquine Products, Maynard Buckles, Wrangler Jeans, and Powder River Livestock Handling Equipment

AQHA Horse of the Year results, courtesy of the PRCA.

Team Roping – Heading

• 1st place:  Classic (Sycamore Guld Finger)
  • Ridden by Keven Daniel
  • Owned by Zac Small
• 2nd/3rd place SPLIT:  Vegas (Ra Sonoita Silver)
  • Ridden by Turtle Powell
  • Owned by Turtle Powell
• Rudy (Rappers Ruff Stuff)
  • Ridden by Arky Rogers
  • Owned by Arky Rogers

Team Roping – Heeling

• 1st place:  Dugout (CDS Quixote)
  • Ridden by Brady Minor
  • Owned by Brady Minor
• 2nd place:  Amigo (Sunday Night Bingo)
  • Ridden by Patrick Smith
  • Owned by Patrick and Christi Smith
• 3rd place:  Cave Man (Fine Snip of Doc)
  • Ridden by Jade Corkill
  • Owned by Jade Corkill

Tie Down Roping

• 1st place: Sweetness (Eightys Sport)
  • Ridden by Houston Hutto, Timber Moore, Clint Cooper, Trent Creager, Blair Burk
  • Owned by Spur Resources LTD
• 2nd place:  Reata (Smokin Reata)
  • Ridden by Shane Hanchey
  • Owned by O L Buck Daniel
• 3rd place:  TC (Time to Catch Wa)
  • Ridden by Tyson Durfey, Ryan Watkins, Fred Werneck
  • Owned by Frederico Werneck

Steer Roping

• 1st place:  Pokey (Senior Sonita)
  • Ridden by Cody Lee
  • Owned by Cody Lee
• 2nd place:  Boxer (Direct Peppy)
  • Ridden by Shay Good
  • Owned by Shay Good
• 3rd place:  Pops (Skips Harlan Tyree)
  • Ridden by Rocky Patterson, Chet Herrin
  • Owned by Rocky Patterson

Steer Wrestling

• 1st place:  Wick (Dashes Dapper Star)
  • Ridden by Wade Sumpter, Billy Bugenig, Ken Lewis, Seth Brockman
  • Owned by Wade Sumpter
• 2nd place:  Maximus (MP Right Back Atya)
  • Ridden by Todd Suhn
  • Owned by Todd Suhn
• 3rd place:  Streak (Black Velvet Win)
  • Ridden by Dane Hanna, Travis Carnine, Cule Edge, Sean Mulligan
  • Owned by Travis Carnine, Dane Hanna

Barrel Racing

• 1st/2nd place SPLIT:
  Sting Ray (MP Meter My Hay)
  Ridden by Sherry Cervi
  Owned by Sherry Cervi and Mel Potter

  Duke (Yeah Hes Firen)
  Ridden by Brittany Pozzi
  Owned by Brittany Pozzi

• 3rd place:  Fire Bug (Flaming Firebug)
  Ridden by Jeanne Anderson
  Owned by Jeanne and Rick Anderson

Jolee Laurtaret in Glennville, California

Photos courtesy Dale Miller at chute4u.com

Jolee Laurtaret and her mom, Dolli, train both barrel horses and team roping horses. “It’s just what we wanted to do,” Jolee said. “We love to rope and we love to barrel race. Why not train our horses to do both?” When starting young horses, Jolee takes them to cattle right away. She does this because of the short attention span that most colts tend to have. Cattle are constantly changing up their direction and speed constantly, forcing the young horses to focus. Jolee believes this to be the best way to train the colt to move off leg cues and body positioning. The jerk the colt takes when the roper dallies teaches the colt balance and how to use their bodies, which is essential in young horses, Jolee said. Jolee also enjoys roping off of her barrel horses, because the box work translates to the gate in barrels. The horse learns to be cool and collected, to calm into their rider’s hand, and to relax when they are told to. Jolee and Dolli rope off of all of their horses to really give every horse all of these benefits. Jolee is also a writer for Women’s Pro Rodeo, and in August of 2009 she wrote a story called “A Horse Like No Other.” The story about the multi-talented horse, which she passed along to us, really proves that horses can learn more than just one event.

Jolee wrote about the 1963 World champion barrel racer, Sherry Johnson, who rode her horse Star Plaudit, or “Red,” all the way to the top. On the other end of the arena, Red was the trusted mount for Benny Combs, Sherry’s husband, in the steer wrestling, winning himself yet another World Champion buckle and contributing to the All- Around title that Benny also won that year. Red was a one of a kind horse that remains the only horse to win two world champion titles within the same year in two different events. Sherry and Benny never experienced problems with Red over the two conflicting events, nor did they limit the number of steer wrestlers that were allowed to use Red every week. Red was born to win and did just that. These days this sort of athleticism is rarely seen amongst horses on the circuit, but many barrel racers still believe in teaching their horses how to judge cattle.

JL Dash Ta Heaven was Horse&Rider's Love to Own in April.

Photo by K.C. Montgomery

Particulars: 2005 sorrel Quarter Horse stallion by Dash Ta Fame, out of WPRA and WNFR World Champion Dynas Plain Special, by Special Feelins.

Barn name: He’s always just been known as Dash Ta Heaven, because nobody could ever come up with a nickname to fit his personality.

Owned by: Jud Little of Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Ridden by: Jolene Montgomery, Ashley Nelson, and Benette Barrington.

Big wins: Dash Ta Heaven amassed $106,868 in earnings in both pole bending and barrel racing in his 4- and 5-year-old years. Jolene piloted him to the 2010 All American Quarter Horse Congress Barrel Racing Sweepstakes Reserve Championship, the 2010 Old Fort Days Futurity Championship, and the 2009 WPRA World Finals Futurity Championship. He also claimed the 2009 AQHA Junior Pole Bending world title.

Full of himself: “He’s proud of himself, but he’s definitely not mean,” says Ashley. Jolene adds, “He’s like a mischievous little kid; he loves people, and he’s fun to be around, but he is ornery, ornery, ornery!”

Extra effort: When Jolene started him as a 2-year-old, she knew he was athletic but wasn’t sure she’d be able to get through to the colt with a mind of his own. “I’d ask him to pivot, and he’d jump up in the air like a deer and do a 180. A lot of people would have given up on him, and even I wasn’t sure, but Jud told me to stick to it. I give Jud a lot of credit for that.”

Game face: “He’s all business in the arena,” Jud says of his prized 6-year-old. “He’s the spitting image of his mother, who won the (WPRA) world title for Janae (Ward) Massey in 2003, and his running style is just like hers.”

Rodeo-ready: An NFR-qualifier in 2010, Benette used Dash Ta Heaven to help get her to the big show last December. After breeding season this year, he’ll go on the rodeo road with Benette to top PRCA tour stops.

It was with tears of joy that Tana Poppino won the National Western Stock Show Rodeo in 2006 and then went on to qualify for her first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

For more than 20 years, she’d been competing in the WPRA as a wife and mother with an 8-to-5 job, so to reach rodeo’s pinnacle on a horse that she trained was truly a dream come true.

It came aboard a bay gelding named Perryman Star (“Amigo”) that landed her eighth in the world that year. Tana and her husband, steer roper Marty Poppino, had picked up the cutting-bred Amigo on a trade seven years earlier.

Because of the cow horse’s unconventional style, Poppino’s success was even sweeter. Amigo slides a little into the turn before pushing with his front end to come around like a cutting horse, which demands perfect timing from Poppino.

Tana and Marty, who have a 19-year-old son, Brodie, buy young horses to train and sell, and they own a trailer dealership called Cowboy Rigs near their home in Big Cabin, Okla.

Tana went back to Las Vegas in 2007, when she finished 14th in the world, but then Amigo was sidelined in 2008 with a bone chip in a hind ankle. That’s when Poppino started seasoning another cutting-bred prospect—an 8-year-old gray gelding named Doc Hickory’s Cross (“Goose”).

The gelding’s sire is by Doc’s Hickory—the No. 4 all-time leading cutting sire—out of a Poco Tivio daughter. And Goose’s mama, Dialas Cross, is by a grandson of AQHA Hall of Famer Blondy’s Dude out of a Johnny Dial granddaughter. Goose was raised and started by Larry Evans of Oklahoma, and was a “really ugly little horse as a 5-year-old,” Poppino recalls. She wasn’t impressed with Goose’s dished face or minimal rear end, plus, he was extremely lazy.

Poppino figured the horse would never be able to run, but since anybody could ride him, she anticipated selling him to someone running in the third division at barrel races, which pays competitors running one second slower than the winning time.

But when Amigo went out for six months with an injury in March 2008, Poppino had to switch horses. Goose soon made headlines, winning a round at Fort Worth later that winter. The two were enjoying a breakout 2009 season— until Poppino broke her ankle at Reno.

She healed up, and in February Goose had taken her to number three in the 2010 world standings, which also allowed Poppino to save Amigo for ground that suits him.

Goose had not only handled the heat of professional rodeos, but Poppino reckons the pressure might have been just what the lazy, laid-back young gelding needed.

Now she has her best chance ever to go back to the NFR, and she’s doing it with the help of sponsors that include Cowboy Rigs, Total Health Enhancement, EquiPride and Professional’s Choice.