NWBRA Finals 2009

One of the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch wranglers, Sammi Jo Carter, recently competed in the North West Barrel Racing Association Finals October 8-11 in Gillette Wyoming.

For those of you who don’t know what the NWBRA is, here is a little overview. Their mission is “To promote the sport of barrel racing as a family activity at all levels of competition”, and their goals are “To have a professional barrel racing association that recognizes all levels of competition”, and “to host a National Finals each fall that will allow its members the opportunity to compete at grand prizes as well as money.”

Sammi competed in the 5D division and made 2 runs on her mare “Beaner”. In her first run she had an excellent time of 18.1. However, she knocked over the first barrel so she was disqualified from that round. In her second run, she and Beaner were a perfect team and had a time of 17.816. Sammi and Beaner held the first place position for 160 competitors. The total number of contestants in the 5D division was 319 so when all was said and done, they were 50th in the rankings. Sammi considered the event to be a success because, “I improved by a full second from last year and bumped up 2 divisions.”

The most thrilling part of her week, it seems, was not the speed, the adrenaline, or the “turn and burn” attitudes. The most heart pumping part of her trip appears to be the ride home. The weather was not very favorable with snow, wind, and black ice. While her crew held back in Gillette, some people tried to press on into the snowy night. The result was two flipped and one jack-knifed horse trailers. As I write this, it is 3:00pm on Tuesday the 13th, and Sammi is still making her way back to Sandpoint very slowly and cautiously.

Congratulations Sammi from all of us here at WPGR!