Daily Archives: December 30, 2009

JOE KUSEK Of The Gazette Staff | Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 12:50 am

Jess Martin got a package in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

The large box came all the way from Spain. It included Martin’s hand-crafted saddle and other rodeo gear.

When the package arrived, he muscled it through the front door of his Dillon home and tossed it in a closet. The box will be gathering dust for a while.

“I’m done,’’ Martin said……(read more)

A few years ago Gaylene Fasselin Buff was at a rodeo watching professional barrel racing. She had done it as a kid and on the Carbon High Rodeo team back in the 1990′s, but had never done it professionally.

“I told my husband I wanted to do it again, but professionally the next year,” she said. “And so I did.”

More importantly, within a few years of starting into competing with professionals, she won the Canadian Ladies Barrel Racing Championship this past November. It was one crowning achievement for someone so new to the sport professionally. But she thinks she could have done even better than that if the circumstances had been different, and her horse Vador had not been injured.

“I would have liked to win the American championship too,” she said with a light in her eyes. “And I like to think I would have if I could have competed.”

In the world of barrel racing there are superstars, just like in every sport. In the case of barrel racing two of the best are Brittany Pozzi and Lindsey Sears. They both competed in the Canadian Championship and Buff out did them, taking the crown.

Pozzi went on to take the American nationals a few weeks later. The record, based on the Canadian competition, says that had Buff competed she could have won. (read more)