Daily Archives: November 5, 2009

Chelsea and Zippos Three Dee in June at NBHA Show

Thank you so much Chelsea for taking the time to sit down with OTRR and tell us about yourself and your website.

Okay,  start from the beginning, where are you from?

         I’m originally from a little town called Apollo, Penn., about 40 minutes east of Pittsburgh. I am currently in school in Athens, Ohio, at Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism.

 Did you grow up with barrel horses? Tell us a bit about your  background.

         That’s a good question. Kind of. I showed jumping ponies rather unsuccessfully from the time I was five until I was nine, and then I got a barrel pony. My parents are not horse people at all but did everything they could to help and got me the best trainer in the world (or so I think), Ginny Bowman. She trained a warn-out pleasure horse and made her into my first barrel horse, and that mare took me to five Congress placings and a lot of great rodeo wins. So, if growing up counts as running peewees, then no, but I did run as a youth. I also showed a little snaffle bit and even did some reining with an old roping horse we had.  

So I understand from your blog, that you have done a LOT of traveling….tell me the most exciting place you have been and why?

         The most exciting place – that’s really tough. My favorite place in the world is definitely South Africa. I spent two months there interning first at a communications firm in East London and then at a magazine in Cape Town. It was heaven on Earth – white sandy beaches, amazing mountains, wildlife and rolling hills. The people were amazing and welcoming, and the food was great. I was so comfortable there, it felt like home. But it’s hard to say that the rain forests of Borneo aren’t exciting, or the Great Pyramids of Giza aren’t the most amazing pieces of human work in the world.

I know on OTRR, we have some barrel racing fans, take this time to tell them about your site….we are a big fan!

         TheBarrelRacingBlog is more than just a general interest barrel racing site. It covers all levels of barrel racing, mainly in the Ohio and Pennsylvania region. It’s a site where you can see coverage of shows and rodeos that you can’t get anywhere else. I try very hard to get a good mix of shows and rodeo coverage (depending upon where I go that weekend with my own horses). I take photos of the ground and videos of runs so barrel racers can decide whether or not they would like to go to that show or rodeo the next time. The website also features extensive, five-part interviews with barrel racers that have something to offer to the regional audience. I’ve interviewed men and women, young and old about their backgrounds, training techniques, arena preferences and more. We also partner with NFR barrel racer Tana Poppino to get great insights from a real pro, and we follow her triumphs as she looks to make the NFR in 2010. 

So How many horses do you have and how many are you currently running? Do you travel a lot during the summer rodeoing/barrel racing?

         If you would have asked me this question last week, the answer would have been very different! I am down to one that is actually running and two that are retired. I’m running a six-year-old sorrel mare that’s actually a solid Appaloosa. Some might cringe at that, but she’s as red as can be with only a blaze, and she’s built so cute! I just decided last week that my 16-year-old black quarter horse mare should retire, but that’s the horse I ran most of the summer.

         I traveled a lot more when I was a teenager. I followed Dave Martin’s BullRide Mania tour and hauled all over the East Coast every week during the summer with that. This summer I stayed pretty much in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland rodeoing, but I’m definitely gone every weekend getting my horses out somewhere. We also hit a lot of ropings with my team roping boyfriend, who right now uses my six-year-old as his heel horse.

Stay tuned……………More to come from Chelsea! This is just Part 1! Please check her out at: The Barrel Racing Blog