Level Up Youth Barrel Racing

🌟 Sponsor Spotlight & Thank You! 🌟

A huge THANK YOU to Dr. Courtney McCreary Kempfer, DVM, owner of Prestige Equine Veterinary Services, for once again stepping up to support our 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash! 💜🐴

Dr. Courtney's support means so much because she truly understands the journey these young athletes are on. As a youth, she competed in barrel racing and breakaway roping, where her passion for performance horses first began. That passion ultimately led her to earn her veterinary degree from the University of Florida, complete an equine specialty internship at the Equine Medical Center of Ocala, and gain advanced sports medicine experience in Wellington before launching her own mobile equine practice. Today, she is dedicated to helping performance horses stay healthy and compete at their very best.

It is incredibly inspiring for our youth contestants to see someone who followed her love of horses, worked hard, and turned that passion into a successful career as an equine veterinarian. Dr. Courtney is a wonderful example that the lessons learned through rodeo and barrel racing—dedication, perseverance, sportsmanship, and responsibility—can open doors to incredible opportunities in life.

Thank you, Dr. Courtney, for believing in our mission to "Level Up" the next generation of barrel racers through leadership, education, and competition. Your continued support is helping make this event bigger and better for the kids each year! ❤️

If you're looking for a knowledgeable, compassionate mobile equine veterinarian who understands performance horses, be sure to check out Prestige Equine and support those who support our youth!

📞 To schedule an appointment with Dr. Courtney, call 863-447-9521.

Please join us in thanking Dr. Courtney McCreary Kempfer and Prestige Equine for investing in the future of our young equestrians! 👏💜🐎

🎶 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬! 🎧

What songs hype you up when you’re about to make a run? Or make you focus? Or just plain old, make you feel good? We want to hear from you!!!!

Post your favorite song below and tag a Betty buddy and let’s keep this chain going!
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KEEP IT CLEAN! 🧼 This is a youth page after all!

Get to song sharing and tagging loves!

🚨 Prize Announcement! 🚨

We're excited to welcome USRider as a supporter of the 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash! 🤠🏆

The 2D Champion will receive a FREE One-Year USRider Equestrian Roadside Assistance Membership! 🎉

Whether you're headed to a jackpot, rodeo, trail ride, or just hauling down the road, USRider provides peace of mind with roadside assistance designed specifically for horse owners. From truck and trailer towing to flat tires, lockouts, fuel delivery, and more, it's protection every equestrian can appreciate.

A huge thank you to USRider for investing in our youth competitors and helping make this event even more exciting!

📅 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash
📍 Indian River Riding Club – Vero Beach, FL
🗓 November 7, 2026

Every sponsorship helps us create an unforgettable experience while teaching our youth producers leadership, business, teamwork, and responsibility. We are incredibly grateful for the amazing businesses that continue to support the next generation of barrel racers.

Please help us thank USRider for supporting our youth and equestrian community! 💙🐴

🔥 THANK YOU, The Pig 'n Biscuit! 🔥

The Level Up Youth Barrel Bash would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Lacy and Dan, owners of The Pig 'n Biscuit, for becoming sponsors of our 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash!

Lacy and Dan have a true gift for creating restaurants that become more than just a place to eat—they become a gathering place for our community. When you walk up, you're greeted with friendly faces, incredible hospitality, and before you know it, you're running into neighbors and friends. It feels like home, and that's something truly special.

We also want to congratulate Lacy and Dan on the Grand Opening of The Pig 'n Biscuit! 🎉 We wish you both continued success as you begin this exciting new chapter. We have no doubt this restaurant will quickly become another local favorite!

Their support of our youth means so much. Businesses like The Pig 'n Biscuit are helping make this year's Level Up Youth Barrel Bash bigger and better than ever. The incredible support from our local community continues to amaze us, and because of sponsors like Lacy and Dan, we're creating an unforgettable experience for youth barrel racers from across Florida.

🍴 If you haven't been yet, do yourself a favor and stop by The Pig 'n Biscuit for breakfast or lunch! Enjoy a delicious meal, support a local business that gives back to our community, and be sure to congratulate Lacy and Dan on their beautiful new restaurant.

Thank you for believing in our kids and helping us Level Up the next generation! 💜🤠

✨ THANK YOU, Fancy Broke Apparel! ✨

A huge THANK YOU to Kaitlin Olson and Fancy Broke Apparel for believing in the Level Up Youth Barrel Bash from the very beginning! Your continued support has meant so much to our youth, and we're incredibly grateful to have you as a PREMIUM SPONSOR for our 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash. 💜🤠

This year, Fancy Broke Apparel has gone above and beyond by adding $500 to the Fancy Broke Apparel Side Pot! 🎉 That means even more opportunities for our young competitors to be rewarded for their hard work and dedication.

Kaitlin and her husband, Mike, created Fancy Broke Apparel on their Florida horse ranch with a vision of celebrating the western lifestyle and the grit, fun, and passion that make our industry so special. That same passion shines through in the way they support youth barrel racing and give back to our community.

Because of businesses like Fancy Broke Apparel and so many other incredible sponsors, the 2026 Level Up Youth Barrel Bash is shaping up to be something truly special. The outpouring of community support has been overwhelming, and we cannot wait to welcome youth barrel racers from across Florida for an unforgettable day.

If you're looking for stylish western apparel that represents the barrel racing lifestyle, be sure to check out Fancy Broke Apparel and show them some love. Better yet, thank Kaitlin for investing in the next generation of barrel racers!

THANK YOU, FANCY Broke Apparel, for helping us LEVEL UP our youth! 💜🏇

💜🐴 Thank You, Sarah Schlaich & Whispering Pines Equestrian! 🐴💜

The Level Up Youth Barrel Racing team would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Sarah Schlaich and Whispering Pines Equestrian for once again supporting our 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash as a Level Up Youth Sponsor!

Sarah has a true passion for developing the next generation of horsemen and horsewomen. Through Whispering Pines Equestrian in Fellsmere, she provides a safe, encouraging environment where children learn not only how to ride, but also the fundamentals of barrel racing, horsemanship, horse care, and building a partnership with their horse. Her program focuses on creating confident, knowledgeable riders while emphasizing safety, responsibility, and good horsemanship.

Community leaders like Sarah make a lasting impact on our youth, and we are incredibly grateful for her continued commitment to helping make this event possible.

If you're looking for riding lessons or a place where your child can develop confidence, character, and a love for horses, please consider reaching out to Whispering Pines Equestrian. And if you see Sarah, be sure to thank her for investing in the future of our young barrel racers!

We look forward to seeing everyone on November 7th at the Indian River Riding Club for another unforgettable day celebrating Florida's youth barrel racers!

🏆 A Huge Thank You to Our Hardware Sponsors! 🏆

A heartfelt thank you to our incredible Hardware Sponsors for stepping up to support the 2026 Level Up Youth Barrel Bash! Their generosity is helping underwrite the cost of our champion belt buckles and awards, making it possible to recognize the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of our youth contestants.

Please join us in thanking these outstanding community partners:

⭐ Laraine Cardin
⭐ AZTEC PONY
⭐ Whispering Pines Equestrian
⭐ Thompson's Roofing Division
⭐ FLAMM Real Estate, LLC
⭐ KT Barrel Racing & Horsemanship Clinics
⭐ Treasure Coast Outdoor Conservation Association

We are truly blessed to live in a community that continually goes above and beyond to support our youth. These businesses and individuals have chosen to invest in the next generation, and we couldn't be more grateful.

If you have the opportunity, please reach out and thank them for their commitment to our community. And when you need the products or services they offer, we encourage you to patronize their businesses and refer them to your family and friends. Supporting those who support our youth helps ensure events like this continue to grow for years to come.

From all of us at Level Up Youth Barrel Racing, thank you for believing in our mission and helping make a difference in the lives of these young competitors. ❤️🐴

Let's see your runs from this past weekend! Post below!

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🏆 A Heartfelt THANK YOU to Kim Thomas Burnette! 🏆

The Level Up Youth Barrel Bash would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Kim Thomas Burnette with KT Barrel Racing & Horsemanship Clinics for generously sponsoring one of our championship belt buckles for the 2nd Annual Level Up Youth Barrel Bash on November 7, 2026, at the Indian River Riding Club in Vero Beach!

Kim is far more than an accomplished barrel horse trainer—she is a true pioneer and one of the most respected horsewomen in our industry. For more than four decades, she has trained countless champions, qualified for multiple WPRA Circuit Finals, competed successfully at the highest levels of futurity competition, helped establish the Florida Chapter of the WPRA, served in numerous WPRA leadership roles, produced major barrel racing events, and mentored generations of riders through clinics and coaching.

Kim also played a pivotal role in the development of legendary horseman Jud Little's program. After recognizing the potential of horses such as Dynas Plain Special, she joined Jud Little's Bar Nothin Ranch in Oklahoma, where she helped develop and train many of the horses that became the foundation of one of the most influential barrel horse breeding and training programs in the industry. Her work with cornerstone horses including Dynas Plain Special, Nonstopwithcredit, and the Cash Not Credit bloodline helped shape a program whose influence is still felt throughout barrel racing today.

Kim's passion for developing both horses and people perfectly aligns with the mission of the Level Up Youth Barrel Bash—to inspire, educate, and encourage the next generation of barrel racers.

Thank you, Kim, for investing in our youth and for leaving an incredible legacy that continues to influence our sport. Your generosity will create lasting memories for one deserving young champion, and your impact on barrel racing will be felt for generations to come.

❤️ Please join us in thanking Kim Thomas Burnette for giving back to the future of barrel racing!

Don't let expensive horses and big rigs deter your dreams! Keep working hard and create opportunities for yourself!

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She paid $400 for a horse everyone else had written off as an outlaw. He ended Charmayne James' 10 year dynasty and became the greatest barrel horse of his generation.
Born October 10 1955 in Dayton Ohio, Kristie Peterson grew up on a ranch near Parker Colorado where horses were everywhere and competition was simply what you did. She worked as a captain at her local sheriff's department overseeing the jail and dispatchers when she decided in 1989 to try her hand at professional rodeo. She needed a horse. A friend pointed her toward a broncy two year old stud c**t that nobody wanted — considered partially blind in one eye, so difficult to handle that he had been relegated to feedlot work before being traded for three months of training on another horse. He was eventually sold to Kristie for four hundred dollars.
She called him Bozo. Nobody was laughing for long.
After gelding him and training him on the barrel pattern from scratch Bozo showed a natural talent so extraordinary that Kristie said he simply took to it from the very first day. By his three year old year he was running open times. By 1992 he won the Barrel Futurities of America World Championship Derby and Sweepstakes. By 1993 Kristie and Bozo walked into the Thomas and Mack Center at the NFR ranked fourth in the world — where Charmayne James and Scamper were chasing an unprecedented tenth consecutive World Championship. Kristie nearly stopped it. A tipped barrel in round nine was all that kept her from history that year.
She came back in 1994 and finished it. First World Championship. The streak of ten consecutive Charmayne James titles — the most dominant run in the history of women's professional sports — was over. Ended by a Colorado cowgirl and a four hundred dollar horse that everyone else had thrown away.
Four World Championships — 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998. Five consecutive NFR average titles — something nobody in the forty year history of the championship rodeo had ever done before. Twenty two consecutive NFR rounds placing in the money — an unmatched feat at the time. In 1998 she set a new WPRA single season earnings record of over $212,000 — nearly $100,000 of that coming from the NFR alone. At the 100th celebration of Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1996 she set the arena barrel racing record of 17.03 seconds in rain, hail and a tornado warning. The weather didn't stop Bozo. Nothing did.
In eighty trips around the barrels at the Thomas and Mack Center across eight consecutive NFRs — Kristie and Bozo knocked over exactly two barrels total. Two. Across eighty runs. She said herself — "I haven't hit a barrel since the second round in 1993. I've been shaking my head for seven years. It's just amazing."
Bozo was named AQHA Horse of the Year five consecutive times from 1995 through 1999. Horse with the Most Heart four straight years. He won Rodeo Houston three times. He retired in 2003 at the Houston rodeo — going out exactly the way a champion should. Kristie's youngest daughter Jordan later rode him at junior competitions. After his pro career closed she let Jordan go in the alley on him for the first time. Jordan said — "Mom let him go!" He never forgot what he was born to do.
Both Kristie Peterson and Bozo were inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame together in 2018. Their daughter Jordon Briggs went on to win the WPRA World Championship in barrel racing in 2021 — another generation carrying the family legacy forward.
Over $1.3 million in career earnings together. Four World Championships. Five NFR average titles. A mother whose daughter became World Champion. And a four hundred dollar horse who ended the greatest dynasty in women's rodeo history.
That was Kristie Peterson and Bozo. 🐴🎀🏆