National Barrel Horse Association member Tanya Condon overcame life obstacles all while holding onto her love of barrel racing.
As a kid, Tanya Condon from Litchfield, Maine, sat between the legs of Belgian horses, brushing their feathers, believing that’s how every child interacted with their horses. Her father used the gentle giants to skid logs and compete in the show pen.
During winter, the family leased saddle horses from a camp horse broker for trail riding. Eventually, Condon got a horse of her own to participate in 4-H events, learning to ride from lifelong friends Nicole Labbe and her late sister Michelle Labbe. Barrel racing caught Condon’s attention in high school, but her father forbade it — he believed it was too dangerous.
“I said, ‘Fine. I’m selling my horse,’” Condon said. “I did, and I took a break from horses for a few years after high school.”
A breakup with a fiancé at age 22 sparked a return to horses. She bought a ranch-broke horse, started running barrels and joined the National Barrel Horse Association.
“I purchased the horse on my credit card, because I didn’t want to take the $3,000 out of my savings,” Condon said. “In 1996, that was not what you did. My dad was so mad at me; he wouldn’t let me bring my horse to their house.”
The horse lived at her best friend’s house until her dad relented, and then he built her an arena. She taught the gelding to run barrels and entered the novice division at a club circuit. In just three shows, they timed out of the division.
Over the next several years, Condon bought and sold several horses and took a few breaks from horse ownership. In 2003, she purchased a gelding from Maryland. Despite the timing not being right for her family and forcing her to sell, he was the beginning of a new journey. Condon listed him on dreamhorse.com, where Sandra Santos from California scooped him up.
“I loved that horse,” Condon said. “I joked with her that part of the deal was that I retained visitation rights.”
The two become friends, including cross-country visits. When Condon was ready to jump back into riding in 2010, she messaged Santos asking if she knew of any horses for sale. Condon was referred to Betsy and Wayne Childers in South Dakota.
“I liked their bloodlines, which are Wilywood, going back to Driftwood, crossed on cow- and race-bred mares —
Colonel Freckles, Easy Duplicate, — but I don’t buy horses without swinging my leg over them,” Condon said. “I didn’t know these people, but after talking with them a few times, and with true Western hospitality, they invited me out to ride a 3-year-old gelding.”
Four hours after landing, Condon was working cattle on the 3-year-old gelding Wilywood Niki and ultimately bought “Nike.” While there, she also saw his full sister, Wilys Little Cowgirl, but the mare was well out of her budget.
Then, in 2011, Condon was diagnosed with Leukemia. After a nine-month battle, she was in remission and finally able to ride in 2012. The now-4-year-old threw her hard, rattling her confidence.
“I loved that horse, but he needed more time and energy than I could give him, so I sold him through Marne Loosenort,” Condon said. “Betsy and Wayne called, wanting me to come look at ‘Cowgirl.’ I told them I couldn’t afford her, and they said, ‘You need to have her.’”
She hopped a plane to their new ranch in Oklahoma, checked cows on the mare and tried her on barrels. They wiped out all the barrels four times in a row. Discouraged, Condon was ready to give up. But the Childers family insisted she needed the horse and arranged a shipper. Once home, it took time to click, but then the pair took off.
“She was a confidence builder for me,” Condon said. “Every time I swung my leg over her, it felt like home. My goal was always to run in the top 50% at the [All-American Quarter Horse] Congress, and my husband paid for my trip out there. Even though our first run was at 8 p.m., I knew she had my back, and we achieved that goal.”
In 2018, the mare was one of two horses that earned Condon her first Equistat earnings – $2,163 — a big deal in the Northeast where barrel races are less frequent and have smaller payouts. Then, in 2019, Cowgirl developed a mysterious lameness in her front leg and was taken to a university hospital for an MRI.
She fell to her knees coming out of anesthesia, which caused a bone chip, relegating her to a pasture pet. Condon and her veterinarian discussed breeding the mare and spent hours researching bloodlines until they settled on French Streaktovegas.
“He was a junior stud and a little cheaper for a maiden mare,” Condon said.
Fedex lost the first semen shipment. It was late in the season, so the veterinarian recommended short-cycling and inseminated the mare in late June 2020 because the stud was only standing at Brazos Valley Stallion Station until July. Sadly, the now-$2.4 million sire then died in November 2020.
Cowgirl developed a fever and tested positive for anaplasmosis. Condon and the vet didn’t think the insemination would take.
However, Cowgirl was confirmed in foal and delivered Wilys Vegas Cowgirl. But when “Saucy” arrived, it was a complicated delivery, and she was showing symptoms of dummy foal syndrome. Condon’s veterinarian suggested the Madigan Squeeze Technique (MST) in hopes of resetting the foal. UC Davis veterinarian Dr. John Madigan, DVM, developed the MST, which uses ropes and pressure in an effort to reset the foal.
“I was blessed to have my vet right beside me, and as emotionally vested as I was and her being born on my husband’s birthday, in my heart I knew this just had to work,” Condon said. “We all had too much invested, and I was not going to let my crappy luck take this from me. When Saucy got up, wandered over to her mom, and wanted to nurse, I thought, ‘Thank you God, this is going to be OK.’”
The complications didn’t end there for Cowgirl. She foundered during delivery, battled abscesses on and off since then and developed an infected coffin bone in the summer of 2023.
“Cowgirl was so important to me, and I decided I had to say goodbye this fall. With the mare and sire both gone, Saucy is literally irreplaceable,” Condon said. “Saucy is so much like her mom — smart, stubborn, inquisitive and tough as nails.”
Condon has paid her into a few futurities and may dip her toe into that realm with someone else riding her. She is confident that Saucy will be up for anything she tosses her way.
“She is already keeping the colt starter on his toes, and I laugh getting the updates,” Condon said. “I also smile with a tear in my eye knowing she is filling her mom’s shoes so well already.”
Through the ups and downs, Condon has maintained her AQHA and NBHA memberships and appreciates the inclusivity of NBHA. She also served as the NBHA Maine State Director in 2015 and 2016, NBHA Maine 01 in 2019 and now competes in NBHA NY 08 and Midland Barrels Circuit held in Fonda, New York.
“There are so many divisions for youth, open riders, seniors, and super seniors,” Condon said. “It also introduces you to so many people. When I qualified for the [NBHA] World Championship Show in 1996, we ran in Georgia, but the horses were stabled in South Carolina. I went down there and saw Martha Josey. It was jaw-dropping.”
