“Just a kid”

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” -Walter Bagehot

Some say barrel racing is a sport, but in my opinion, it is not only a sport, it is also a way of life. I have been riding horses since I could sit up, and I got my very own horse at the age of 2 1/2, but I first competed when I was 6 years old. When I was younger, I had severe anxiety, and it took a long time to diagnose, my anxiety was finally diagnosed, when it was almost crippling. My anxiety affected my riding with horses, I was so scared to even walk three steps on my horse that was harmless. My mom had to almost bribe me to ride at the time. Many days it was extremely difficult, but without the horses I wouldn’t be the person I am now. The horses boosted my confidence in so many ways, they helped me become independent, responsible, and mature.

Well flash forward to 2016, a few horses later, and a much confident 16 year old girl I won a state championship. Now, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves because there was a lot that had to happen before I got that championship title. For my 16th birthday, I got a horse named Vertigo for my birthday, one of the best presents I have ever gotten too. I had a lot of doubts about Vertigo because I was determined to win, but was worried he didn’t have what it took to win. Let me tell you, I was dead wrong, he is very smart and caught on to everything I taught him very quickly. Our first show we loped the pattern, which is almost running, by our third or fourth barrel run in that arena, we were clocking in the 16 second range. The best feeling, was when I heard the announcer say that I ran a 15 second run, it was one of the best feelings ever because I had never run that fast before! Even though it felt great to be winning, it came with its down falls, like you make some enemies when you start beating people. For such a long time, no one really thought I was going to win, so no one worried about how well I was doing because I was so timid and scared when riding.

Well, guess what? I sure surprised a lot of people that year including myself because I neve knew I could do it. Well, lets fast forward to our state show, everyone was on edge because it was really up in the air about who was going to win, there were a lot of possibilities. Our state show, is normally a two day event, it’s a Saturday and Sunday, but our state director, decided to put everything into one day because of the weather. Saturday was to be A LOT of rain, but Sunday was said to have even more rain. I was able to run in the Open class, which is anyone of any age can run, but I could also run in the youth class which was 18 and under. I had to squeeze four runs into one day, it was cold down pouring, and there was about a foot of mud in the arena. Vertigo, is a little horse, but he was determined, we made our first run, and I was doubting him because we only ran an 18 second run, and Joanna Reid, and all of the other really good people were running 16 second runs. Running that 18 second run, didn’t even get me a check, it didn’t even qualify me to run in the short go, which is what determines our open state champion, so if I wanted a chance at that I had to run Vertigo in the second open barrel run.

After everyone in the Open had finished running, it was still downpouring, but it was time for the seniors to run. The senior class is everyone 50 and up, then after they all ran it was time for the youth to run. I could tell Vertigo was a little tired, but when I got in the saddle, I could tell he was ready to run. Dustin Sirabella was holding the gate, and as I walked down the alleyway to the arena, he joke with me because he knew I was scared. I took a deep breath, Vertigo started to do a little dance, and then we took off into the arena. We ended up clocking a 16.1 second run, I waited and waited to see if my time would stay in the number one spot, and then the last person ran, and my time stayed in the number one spot! I was so excited, but knew I had to get Vertigo ready for our second open run.

With every run, I got more excited and nervous to go, the ground got deeper, and some horses even slipped. I got really nervous when Jamie came out of the arena because her horse took a nose dive into the ground, but they were okay, my mom told me to push it out of my mind, but boy was it hard. As Vertigo, pranced down the alley way, Dustin joked with me, “Alright, now you gotta run a 16 second run.”

I nervously laughed and said, ” I just want to stay on.”

I took a deep breath, then Vertigo took off like a rocket, we turned the first barrel, I kicked and kicked all the way to the second barrel, I could hear people shouting, I kicked and kicked all the way to the third barrel, as we round the last barrel, I kept my eyes glued on the out gate, and I kicked, and kicked. When we came out I heard the announcer say, ” Mckenzie’s time was a 15.8 second run, and that is our new time to beat.”

I couldn’t believe it, I was amazed, I hugged my mom, I was so proud of Vertigo, I didn’t think anyone could ruin this moment for me.

After I had taken Vertigo back to the trailer, and taken care of him, I went back up by the arena to watch the rest of the barrel racing. When I got back up there, I found out that Joanna had not been being very nice. She was taking credit for my success, telling everyone that she told me to take Vertigo down the alleyway the way I did. Then someone said to Joanna that I could be a threat. She simply said, “She’s not a threat, she’s just a kid.” She basically was saying just because I was a kid, I couldn’t be good enough to win, how rude! I was quite upset about everything she said because, I worked just as hard as she did, I may have even worked a little harder. I was so upset, I was so mad, I wanted to cry, but my mom said I couldn’t let it get to me because she was just trying to get into my head.

After everyone had run, their second open run, my time was still the fastest, which made it so I qualified for the short go, which was the round you had to qualify for. By the time we had to run our last run of the day, Vertigo was very tired because the mud was deep, he had run more than some of the horses had, and he was just plain tired. We ended up running a 16.2, it was a good time, but wasn’t faster than Morgan’s 15.9 second run, I was so disappointed. I mean I was glad I had won the Youth State Champion title, but I wanted to beat Joanna, which was not something I should’ve been focused on.

We had a lot of things to overcome that day, and when I reflect on that day, I am so proud of how Vertigo did. We had never had to deal with that much mud or rain when competing, we also had to run four times in a short amount of time, without much rest time in between. I had never had to deal with someone being so openly mean when it came to competing, I mean I was just a kid and she was in her mid to late twenties. I never really had time to laugh at the situation with Joanna because I was so determined, but now reflecting on it I can laugh because it was such a petty and immature thing.