The brain child of Ray Jasper, President of the Quesnel Rodeo Club, the competition was aimed at capturing the cowboys and cowgirls who did not qualify for the BCRA Finals in the barrel racing or team roping, offering them the opportunity to participate in the excitement of the Championship Finals Rodeo atmosphere.
Dalene LeNeve of Quesnel organized the barrel racing, took entries and rounded up $300.00 in added money. Names were drawn from the competitors list for prizes donated by Universal Auto, Ok Tire, Make Traxx Recreation, Load Em Up Petroleum, Fraser River GM, Bouchie Lake Gymkhana Club, and Bobweiser Ranch (Bob & Dalene LeNeve).
The Barrel Racing started off bright and early Saturday morning with the Pee Wee entries. Shayla Arnold of Quesnel won the 1D on her horse Neshema, with a time of 19.097, earning her $53.00. No riders placed in the 2D, Tayler Brears of Quesnel, riding Joker, won the 3D and $32.00. Gracie Antoine on Buddy and Sadie Collins on Goldy placed first and second respectively in the 4D netting them $13.00 and $8.00 in cash to fill their pockets.
The big winner of the morning was Taylor Cherry of Quesnel aboard her fast horse, TC. The twelve-year-old barrel racer won the Open 1D and the Junior 1D with the carryover fast time of 16.710, netting her $256.00 (that is $15.32 per second!).
Taylor was without her best horse for part of the rodeo season and I asked her to tell me about this fast running athlete she calls TC.
“My horses name is TC, it stands for Taylor Cherry. He is twelve years old, and he was born 2 months later than me. We have raised him and I have trained him myself. TCs favourite food is raisins. Every time I catch him, I give him raisins. TC has been off for awhile but my dad and I just thought it was his shoulder so we got a few people to look at him and put some stuff back in and then he got better for awhile and then got worse again. At Chilliwack rodeo I had to vet out because he was limping so bad. We got a vet to look at him and he said it’s an abscess. I wish someone would have told us that in the first place, but now he\’s finally getting better.”
“The Best of the Rest race was great! I enjoyed seeing people that I rodeoed with all year and I finally got a great run in. The people there were great. I got lots of compliments on my run. I can’t wait for next year! Thank you to all the organizers of this event!”
With 85 entries in the barrel racing and 160 teams entered for the team roping, the Race & Rope was deemed a colossal success and Jasper says he hopes the Quesnel Rodeo Club will host the Race & Rope Event, along with the BCRA Championship Finals in 2012.
1 thought on “Best of the Rest of BC”
i was so happy, thanks TC