Fast Road to the Ford Youth World with McKenna Galbreath

July 25, 2008

I have four horses: Rub, Willy, Henry and Elvis.

Rub is my pole bending horse that I qualified for the Ford Youth World on. I bought him as a 5 year old, a young horse that was started on barrels but had not yet figured out how to run. I slowly brought him along in the barrels, and we started winning at the Texas youth rodeos.

After we started to win at the youth rodeos, I started to haul to the Lester Meir open pro rodeos and started to win those, too. But as the year went on his times started to drop off. As the end of the year came around we found out that Rub had developed stomach ulcers, and that was the reason his times were falling.

After that I started Rub on poles, and he really seemed to like the poles a lot more than he did the barrels. Last year at the Ford Youth World I placed third on him in the pole bending.

Willy is the world’s biggest, stoutest breakaway roping horse ever; he was a professional team roping horse before I got him. When I was hauling the open pro rodeos, I made friends with a “pick-up” man, and he kept telling me he had a horse for me. I’ve only heard that a thousand times, and it never works out. I finally broke down and tried Willy. Needless to say, it worked out for once in my life, and I’ve had him for five years now.

Henry belongs to my friend, who has been kind enough to let me run him in the barrels. Henry has enough personality for everyone. He acts like a grouchy old man; he seems to hate everyone except me. My mom says we both like each other because our personalities are the same.

Elvis is the newest addition to the clan. I just bought him this summer for a summer project. He is a Halflinger pony. I named him Elvis so when I am goat tying they can say “Elvis has left the building.”  I basically look like an idiot riding this pony around at the barrel races, but he is so fun to ride. I haven’t had him that long, and he is already doing barrels, poles and goat tying. He is so smart. Everyone makes fun of me when they see me riding him, but that’s OK. He is the 4D king. He’s always right on the money every time. He always gives 100 percent.

For those of you who don’t know what a 4D is, it’s a barrel race that gives everyone a chance to win. The 1D is the fastest times; the 2D is ½ a second off of the 1D, the 3D is a ½ second off the 2D, and the 4D is a full second off the 3D.

Last night I went to a monthly barrel race in Rockdale. I took Henry, Rub and Elvis to run. I just barley caught the second barrel on Henry, leaving it. He has a very different style and just got stuck in the deep ground when he went to push off. I had the third-fastest time of the whole barrel race, but because I hit a barrel it cost me a check.

Rub ran a little better. I think resetting him helped; I was in the 3D and got a check on him. At any other barrel race he would have been in the 2D, but Kristi Peterson (a world champion barrel racer) and her daughter were there so they posted a really fast-pace time.

Then there was Elvis, and his times are getting faster. The 4D was just a little too fast for him last night. I can never be mad at Elvis; he tries his best every time.

This morning started off early at 6. We had to work Greyhounds. When we work Greyhounds, we take them to the back of our place where we have our Greyhound race track, and we school them just like you see on T.V. to get them used to the sights and build up their stamina before sending them to the big tracks.

The rest of the day we have been trying to stay cool since Hurricane Dolly passed us by with little or no rain. I’m getting ready for a huge youth rodeo in Caldwell, Texas, tonight. I’ll be competing in barrels, poles and roping. It will be a long night. They have more than 700 entries over three days and then a short go on Sunday, where they award event champion saddles. I love this rodeo. It is close to home, and I have been lucky enough to win one all around saddle and two event saddles there in the past.

Wish me luck!