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
I too have been very fortunate to have Ginny Bowman as my daughters trainer. We bought a 2 year old live wire pony for my 7 year old daughter not the brightest move we’ve made.lol. But with lot of patience and time, Mia Shaffer learned to ride quite well because of Ginny and her first pony[Native Chance].Chance was a real handful, oh the stories we could tell…But Ginny helped turn Chance into a consistent 1/2 second off the best in our area.They were in the top 5 of youth and reserve 2-d in the open for PAIBRA and NBHA and PENN-OHIO BARREL RACING ASSOC. for 2 years before we were ready to sell. We were very pleased to find a great family for Chance when Mia was ready to move on. If Chance would of been bigger she would of never sold him. His pattern was near flawless.He was a tough act to follow.
We since bought a 6 year old little horse [raz] with quite the motor and an older finished horse[mac] .Both of which Ginny has helped Mia completely with.If there is a problem she’ll figure it out. Ginny can make any horse find there best approach and spot to get their turn down easily. Our young horse wanted to turn on her front end and drop her shoulder ,She got her workin off her back end and keeping her shoulder up with a more rounded turn. All of which will help the mares body hold up longer in competition.Using her whole body more evenly will make for better turns and prevent less injuries.Ginny then had to help figure out how to blend Mia’s style of riding with our new older horse.At first it was ugly ,they would just plow them all down. Everyone said drop him, move on, she isn’t going to have a shred of confidence left if you keep him.But Ginny and myself would not give up . We knew he was a great horse with a big heart and so we made Mia keep trying .Ginny changed his point of turn and approach ,Mia had to ride past everything and not sit at all til on the back side and stay at 2 hands . With time it got easier and they blended there ways . Now he is a blast to run and she wouldn’t trade him.Trust me if you need a horse figured out , Ginny can do it.
Since then Mia and Mac[Bunches o honey] have won many barrel races, broke 2 records ,placed in the top 5 of congress , won a saddle . They have quite the bond.
Can’t wait to see what this year brings. Time to focus on Raz and keep her progressing. We do keep Ginny busy and she has never let us down.