Pahrump has cowgirls, they’re just harder to find

Pahrump still has a few professional rodeo people around, but they are hard to find. Kristi Hayes, now a sixth grade math teacher, is a professional barrel racer teaching at Rosemary Clarke Middle School.

She has been barrel racing for 26 years and is taking a break from the rodeo while she raises her kids.

The teacher started barrel racing when she was nine years old.

“Back then I was into gymnastics and cheerleading,” she said. “I will never forget the day my mom asked if I wanted to go riding with her and my sister. I thought they were just going to ride in the desert, but my sister came home that night with ribbons she’d won at a gymkhana. I was so jealous and never cheered again.”

In 1996, Hayes qualified for the National High School Rodeo finals in barrel racing and was fortunate to earn a full rodeo scholarship to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Hayes then qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo in the goat tying in 2000 and 2001.

“While in college my parents bought me a young mare off the racetrack in Utah, who I call Mel,” Hayes said. “I didn’t start competing on her until years later, but she filled my Women’s Professional Rodeo Association permit and qualified me twice to the California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association finals.”

Although she is a great roper, Hayes said her real passion lies with barrel racing and she said she loves barrel racing because it’s been a dream of hers since she was a little kid.

She remembers getting to hang out in the warmup pen of the National Finals Rodeo and swearing she would be one of those girls someday.

“Whether I will be is up to God, but I sure do have fun in the process,” she said. “I had a lot of excellent help growing up from some amazing people who showed me what it was like to win and now I’m hooked. Barrel racing is what makes my heart sing. It’s something I have that no one can ever take away from me. It’s my passion.”

Her passion for her racing still fills her veins and she encourages her students to find their passion in life.

“I teach middle school math and I’m always telling my students to find that one thing in life that drives them forward each day,” Hayes said. “Whether it be horses, soccer, music, football, whatever, but I feel like it’s important to have a genuine love for something.”

When people watch barrel racing, to the untrained eye it seems that horse is doing all the work, which is only partially true.

“I would say that barrel racing is about 75 percent horse and 25 percent rider,” the teacher said. “I’ve been fortunate to ride some extremely nice horses in my time and I would be no- where without their help. They have ultimately taught me everything I know.”

Hayes teaches math now and is working on her third child, which is due in July sometime, but that doesn’t hinder her from a return to the saddle because there are plenty of barrel racers on the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association circuits that compete well into the senior years.

“It makes no difference the age of the rider,” Hayes said in agreement. “I’ve had my butt kicked by ten year olds all the way up to senior citizens. My husband, who played college baseball, is always telling me how lucky I am to be in a sport that continues on no matter how old you get. Many athletes are done after high school or college.”

She added that people that stay in barrel racing for long periods of time are the ones that truly have a passion for it.

“These are the ones that crave it,” she said. “The ones who are constantly looking for something more. They are the ones that don’t feel they know it all. They listen to everyone’s advice and form their own ways of training or competing.”

Which brings up another question, is barrel racing a sport?

Hayes says there are people that believe it isn’t a sport but regardless of what you think, people who do rodeo have to have a certain level of skill, knowledge and physical ability.

“My husband always teases me that he hopes our kids don’t get my athletic ability,” Hayes said. “I just remind him that I must have been a super athlete to be able to jump off a horse running 30 miles an hour to tie up a goat.”

She said barrel racers do require staying in shape.

“I don’t work out as much as I did in college, but you do need to be in good shape to be able to physically balance yourself on a horse turning that fast,” Hayes said. “A lot of barrel racers do workouts to strengthen their core muscles and I know Pilates is really popular as well.”

Over the years, Hayes has learned many things about the needs of horses and this has led her to do much of the training of the horses herself. She said any training she can’t do herself she said she has met people that can help her. She uses longtime friends Vince and Kathy Montano of Washington, Utah. Vince trains racehorses and Kathy missed going to the NFR one year by less than $2,000.

“Between them and my sisters we usually can make a pretty nice horse,” she said.

Hayes said because 75 percent of barrel racing is the horse, the pedigree of the horse plays a huge role.

According to Hayes there is a science to breeding barrel horses and it’s something she has really started to take an interest in. By next spring she will have two babies on the ground out of her good mare and their daddies are some outstanding stallions.

“Well-bred horses do not guarantee a champion though,” she said. “There are definitely those horses who weren’t bred to run barrels who can knock your socks off. I have a friend who won tens of thousands of dollars on a horse who wasn’t even registered. To this day we still have no idea who that horse’s mom and dad were.”

Hayes said there is a Zen to barrel racing and communicating with a horse is definitely a whole body experience. You can’t just pull the reins and expect a horse to know what to do. She said in barrel racing you need to be able to put any part of a horse’s body wherever you want it; and it all starts before you ever take a trip around the barrels.

“Before I go to the barrel pattern I better be able to put my horse’s shoulder, hip, and ribcage wherever I choose,” Hayes said. “The communication between horse and rider is crucial. If my hands are saying one thing to my horse and my legs another there will be some extreme confusion happening with my poor horse. When traveling at high rates of speed there is no time for confusion.”

The barrel racer said during a competition most of the time she knows when she has had a good run or a bad run.

“There are those times when I’ve been surprised too, though,” she said. “My good mare, Mel, would run so far past the first barrel sometimes and would still smoke a run and win the whole barrel race. She was incredible and I was blessed to be able to run her.”

As far as doing barrel racing for a career, Hayes said it takes money to make the money, the amount of money that goes into barrel racing is incredible. Most barrel racers spend a small fortune taking care of their horses and are then happy to win two or three hundred dollars on the weekend. At the end of a year of barrel racing if you can win enough money to break even you’re doing good.

Some of the expenses of barrel racing include hay, shoeing, supplements, vet bills, not to mention gas and entry fees.

She added that even the top 15 barrel racers in the world don’t have a chance to make real money until they compete for 10 days at the NFR in Las Vegas.