Memoir

My First Barrel Race

Memoir by: Alayna Schuler

The sun rose high above the ground, and the birds sang their song of happiness as I trailed out to the barn.

“Good morning girl. You ready to run?” she gave a soft nicker in response. Once my trainer pulled up in the driveway, with her blue F-250 and a sliver 4-Star trailer, I grabbed my horse, Feronda, and began walking her to the rig. Once we stepped out of the barn and into the sun, her jet black coat glistened in the blazing sun. She looked like an obsidian rock with legs. Her beauty was much more than I could fathom.

After I loaded Feronda up in the trailer, I leaped my way to the pick-up. Once we started our drive to Litchfield, M.N., I couldn’t help but think of how hard I’ve worked for this day. I’ve been practicing for months just to barrel race with the “big girls”, that's what I call them anyway. As we were driving, I just gazed out the window in amazement at the scenery. Tall trees traveled up for hundreds of feet and birds perched on them contently.

“What ya thinkin Laynie?” Tamie asked.

“Oh nothing much,” I answered, even though that wasn’t true. I was thinking about everything, but I couldn’t seem to find the magic spell to form the feelings into words.

After two hours of anxious waiting, we finally merged onto a gravel road. Driving down the road, dust spewing out from under the tries, my excitement turned into nerves. Millions of thoughts raced in and out of my head like, “What if I mess up?”

As we parked, I unloaded Feronda and securely tied her to the side of the trailer with a red hay bag.

“Let’s go get you signed up hun,” Tamie issued.

“Okay, coming.” We made our way through the long, thick grass up to a little booth.

“Hello, may I help you?” the nice lady asked.

“We are here to sign in,” Tamie told her.

“Okay names?”

“I’m Tamie and this here is Laynie.”

“Okay, thank you.” After we signed in, we trudged our way back the way we came. Once we got back to the trailer, I offered Feronda some ice cold water. While she was gulping down her water, I thought, “I guess I better have some too.” I grabbed for the water bottle sitting on the side of the trailer and began sipping on it.

Finally after hours and hours of waiting, it was time to get ready to run. I began brushing off all the little specks of dust lingering on Fernanda's back and watching them disappear in the warm summer heat. Then I climbed my way into the tack room and pulled down my tan saddle from the middle rack. As I placed the saddle on her back I could just sense that she was ready to run.

“Whoa, girl, it’s not time to run quite yet.” After those words came tumbling out of my mouth she immediately quietted. After we were ready, we made our way up to the arena where lots of other girls and their horses were standing. Suddenly the little knot in my stomach turned into a game of twister. I quickly reached down to pet Feronda on the neck, reassuring her we were okay, but I think I was doing that for me.

“Next up, Laynie Schuler, riding Feronda,” the announcer bellowed. Once I heard those words I thought I was going to puke, but I didn’t I just kept my head up.

I eased Feronda up to the freshly dug alleyway where she got a little jumpy, but I easily got her to calm down.

“Okay, Laynie, remember to get your hand down coming into first,” Tamie told me as I justed the alleyway. I nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go get them girl,” I whispered to Feronda, and just like that we were off. As we raced toward first, I got my hand down and rounded the first barrel perfectly, and same with the second and third barrels.  On our race home, I felt free and alive.  I felt as if I just conquered the world. I was definitely on cloud-9 that day.