Round and round the barrels they go

Stokesdale teen spends countless hours with her horse, Two, as the pair works on their barrel racing skills

by ANNETTE JOYCE

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of racing into an arena astride nearly a thousand pounds of muscle and maneuvering around an obstacle course all in a matter of seconds. Just ask 13-year-old Jordan Smith, who has spent the last four years barrel racing.

“It’s really exciting and gets my adrenaline pumping,” the long-legged teenager said.

The premise of barrel racing is simple – the horse and rider run a cloverleaf pattern around three preset barrels as fast as they possibly can without upsetting the barrels. To make this happen, it takes being completely in sync with your horse and spending countless hours of practicing together.

Jordan has been around horses all her life, starting as an infant when her mom, Amy Smith, would take her to the barn to tend to Amy’s horse, Dinky.

By the time she was 5, Jordan was riding Dinky on her own. Back then, the pair was into English-style riding and competing, which includes events like jumping and dressage. For various reasons, Jordan later switched to Western style riding and took up barrel racing.

Fortunately, the Smiths found two experts in the sport, Dee and Kim Joyce, owners of Destiny Hill Farms, who were located just a few miles from the Smiths’ Stokesdale farm.

In the beginning, Jordan and Dinky walked the pattern, slowly progressing to a trot while Jordan gained confidence. Gradually, the horse and rider began working on their speed.

Along the way, Jordan discovered that Dinky wasn’t really happy with the new style of riding.

“He prefers the English style,” she said. “Whenever we would go fast, he would start bucking.”

Around the two-year mark, Jordan and Dinky began competing. That’s when the horse’s rebellious side really began to show. At her first state competition, Jordan got banged up when she slipped off Dinky before reaching the first barrel.

“He decided ‘I’m not gonna do this today’ and turned in the opposite direction,” recalls Jordan, who was left on the ground as her horse sauntered around the arena.

Determined, Jordan said she continued barrel racing with Dinky as long as she safely could.

“Dinky taught me a lot, but he got to be unsafe, and we had gone as far as we could,” she said. “I needed a horse that loved what he was doing.”

She found that with Two, a 12-year-old beauty who enjoys nothing more than racing around the barrels and giving it his all. In fact, Jordan got her fastest qualified time of 16.503 seconds riding Two at the National Barrel Horse Association (NBHA) Youth and Teen World Championship held in Perry, Georgia.

Jordan spends countless hours working to improve her performance. Along with taking one to two lessons a week, she rides anywhere from three to five times a week and often sets up barrels in the farm arena to practice.

Like most people, Jordan enjoys winning. But she said there are other benefits to barrel racing – including belonging to a community of people with similar likes, many of whom have become her friends.

“Yes, it’s fun to win, but we want to get better,” Jordan said. “We’re not competing against the other riders as much as we’re competing against what we’ve done in the past.”

Of course, owning a horse isn’t just about riding – there’s lots of work to do as well. It’s her job to muck out the stalls, the arena, the horse trailer and the track that runs around the family farm’s fenced pasture, and to scrub out the water trough. While her mom takes the morning shift, Jordan is responsible for feeding, watering and putting out hay at night.

So, what does the future hold for this horseloving girl?

“I hope to get better and better. Maybe one day I can break the world record,” she said flashing her dazzling smile. “I would love to do that!”