Meet youth standout and up-and-coming futurity trainer Skyler Nicholas.
If you haven’t heard the name Skyler Nicholas yet, you will soon. Already an accomplished high school rodeo competitor with multiple National High School Finals Rodeo qualifications and titles, and incoming college freshman on the Tarleton State University Rodeo Team, she’s left her mark in the arena alongside some of the best horses, and she’s only getting started. The up-and-coming futurity horse trainer has a barn full of talent out of her two special mares, Stoli My Guy and Perrywater Dash, and she’s already won more than $500,000 in her career.
Her mom, Lisa is a successful futurity trainer, beginning with their standout mare “Stoli.” She has won more than $200,000 with Lisa, and $180,000 with Skyler. Stoli was retired in August, but both Lisa and Skyler are competing on her foals. Most recently, Skyler and 2020 gelding The Dream Crusher (Makin Ya Famous x Stoli My Guy x Traffic Guy) won $29,000 at the Premier Women’s Championships in Fort Worth, Texas and helped her qualify for the 2026 NHSFR.
Read Lisa’s story here: From Obsession to Profession
Barrel Horse News: Tell me a little about yourself and your background.
Skyler Nicholas: My mom, she’s a city kid growing up, and she moved down to Austin in her 20s and started working on a race horse farm breaking colts because she just loved horses and then eventually shifted into barrels and started training futurity horses. That’s all I’ve ever known, like if she wasn’t at the house, she was at a futurity. She started me running barrels and just kind of grew my love for it and taught me everything I know. When I was in sixth grade I started homeschool so I could travel more. I’ll be heading to Tarleton State in the fall to pursue a nursing degree and rodeo for them, so I’m very excited for that.
BHN: Tell us about The Dream Crusher.
Skyler: Mom trained him and then I got to step on him and futurity him. I’ve been the only one to run him and it’s just been amazing. He’s done so much for me, and he stepped up at a time when we had to retire Stoli back in August officially. He stepped up at such a hard time with that, and turned into what he is and it’s so special.
He’s a little bit more free running than Stoli. Stoli was kind of just point to her spot and kick and pray you get around the barrel. Crush is a little bit more forgiving for me in a run, but the warm up pen, he’s just like Stoli. He likes to buck and put on a show.
BHN: What horses, beyond Crush do you have going right now?
Skyler: Stratosfortune is a gelding by Tres Fortunes out of Perrywater Dash. Stole The Lead is by Epic Leader out of Stoli My Guy. And then Perrywater Dash, I started running her when I was 8 years old and she was 4.
BHN: What about the futurity horses is your favorite?
Skyler: It’s just bringing them up and getting to build that bond with them. When you see them as the newborn and weanling and ugly duckling yearling, you just get to see them grow up and to be by their side for all of that’s so special to me. Now on some of the futurity horses that have won races, it doesn’t matter if they’re local jackpots to me. I still come out with tears in my eyes.
BHN: What is your most memorable win?
Skyler: Every win on the babies is a big deal for me, but I think I’ve got to go back to the Patriot win on Jessie, (“Perrywater Dash”). She had to run back to back, and she beat her own time in the finals and that was just incredible. It really showed her heart, the kind of mare she is.
BHN: What does a typcial day look like for you?
Skyler: We get up pretty early, mom’s up at like 4 a.m. I cannot do that. I get up around 5:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. in the summertime especially. We ride everybody in the morning, come back in, and usually in the school year do school and get all that done and go out and take care of them at night. I ride between four and five a day, we keep everything pretty small around here.
BHN: Do you have a favorite event that you attend?
Skyler: Everything in Vegas is pretty fun. Stressful, but getting to just run and knowing you’re in Vegas is really special. More local in Texas, we like the Bizzy Bee races. They’re fun to run at, super great atmosphere.
BHN: How has having good mentorship and role models impacted your barrel racing career?
Skyler: My mom is my biggest inspiration and biggest help, so it’s everything. It took stubborn little middle schooler me a little bit to really listen to her. I’ve learned to just shut up and listen to the advice. I wish everybody could have that. I get to talk to her, she calms me down and reminds me that the horses brains don’t work like ours, that’s something we talk about a lot. Their brains are not like ours, so you have to approach it from their point of view, not yours.
BHN: What is one piece of advice you have for someone wanting to get into riding futurity horses that you have learned?
Skyler: Focus on you and your horse. That’s something that I think I’ve struggled with, just having to run with those big names that you’ve seen win for years and years and years. I’m still adjusting; I do not have this figured out, but just to focus on you and your horse, and know that you know your horse better than anybody there, that you’ve put in the work with them, and they can do it.
BHN: Do you have any pre-competition superstitions?
Skyler: I used to be the worst. Freshman year state finals, I have three runs, and I wore the same socks for all three runs. I’ve actually tried to break myself out of them. It’s not what the Lord teaches us, and I know he frowns on me every time I create a superstition in my mind, so I have been trying to like break free of it. It does not matter as long as you’re prepared. I do warm up with headphones though. Just to eliminate distractions, and it’s something that just kind of gets my mind focused and thinking about what I’m about to do.
BHN: If you didn’t barrel race, what sport would you do?
Skyler: Tennis. I was a little tennis girl back in the day. I had to quit right before high school, because mom wanted me to pick one to focus on and I chose the horses, obviously.
