Youth riders rake in big bucks at The Patriot Event in Fort Worth, Texas, from February 28–March 10.
One of the busiest weeks of the year at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas, The Patriot Event draws competitors of all ages and all disciplines to vie for a more than $4.5 million estimated total payout, with the big highlight being the Hooey Junior Patriot. This year, youth competitors in the barrel racing dominated the stages in both the Junior Patriot and Open 5D.
Junior Patriot Champion Tana Trosper and Shiney Cartel
Ponder, Texas, 16-year-old Tana Trosper enjoyed a $40,000 payday for 15.375 seconds of work aboard her mare Shiney Cartel, topping the Hooey Junior Patriot barrel racing finals for the biggest win thus far of Trosper’s life.
She says the win means even more after bringing “Shiner” back from significant time off due to an injury.
“It was awesome. Especially since it was only her ninth run back, after a year off, it was so special,” Trosper said. “She tore a ligament off her knee when she was running in the pasture and slid to a stop. She was out for a whole entire year, and I was so bummed out. We were sitting first or second in [my high school rodeo] region last year when she got hurt, and I switched to another horse and got bumped down to eighth. I’m in the toughest region in Texas, so it was very heartbreaking. She came back better than ever.”
Trosper and Shiner have been a team for two years, and their bond outside the arena shined inside the arena at the Patriot.
The pair made their first run of the week in Fort Worth in the Young Guns qualifier and downed a barrel but came back the next run in the Junior Patriot semifinals to run a 15.376 and place eighth for $4,400. The time also carried into the Open long round for seventh and $1,629. The pair’s 15.587 in the Open Finals finished 12th overall but didn’t earn a paycheck, and Trosper knew she and her mare had more in the tank.
“Our first day in the Young Guns, we hit the second barrel, and I was pretty upset but I came out and to lighten the mood, I told my mom, ‘We were just getting in the pen today,’” Trosper said with a laugh. “We came back the next day with the 15.3 in the first go of the Junior Patriot. On Sunday in the Open Finals, we did good, but it wasn’t her potential, and I could tell. We went past the first a little, so I knew I had to clean that up the next day [for the Junior Patriot Finals]. For Finals day, she was pretty riled up and ready to run. I knew she’d be tighter around the turns.”
Trosper nearly couldn’t believe it when she exited the arena and heard the time of 15.375 — the fastest of the finals field and merely a one-thousandth of a second difference from their qualifying time.
“I was in shock; my eyes got real big,” Trosper recalled. “My mom was in the back watching on her phone, and we could barely hear the announcer but there was a delay on the webcast, so she saw it on her phone screen. My mom screams and yells, and I was riding to her on my mare, and she was all wound up and gave me a high-five and I jumped off my mare and loosened her cinch and gave my mom a hug.”
Trosper has already reinvested the over $46,000 she won in Fort Worth.
“To be honest, the day after I won the Junior Patriot, my mom and I hauled down to Stephenville and I bought a pole horse,” Trosper said with a laugh. “My pole horse tore his superficial tendon in his right front, and I had region finals coming up April 6.”
While Trosper has plans to continue competing at a high level in her young adult life, she’s also making plans for a career outside of horses in the nursing and medical industry.
“My parents always tell me that it’s fun barrel racing, but you’ve also got to have a career. You want to keep it as a hobby so you still have enough money to support it,” Trosper said. “I want to be a nurse or a travel nurse, or something in the medical field.”
She thanked her family, sponsors and Shiner’s team of equine professionals for their support.
“I couldn’t have done it without everybody’s help,” Trosper said. “Cutting Edge Equine Hospital helped nurse Shiner back, and Brad Bridges Horse Shoeing keeps her feet right. Team Cavenders makes sure I’m dressed the best and keep me looking sharp, Apex Coolers, Professional’s Choice, Ranchman Properties and American Hat Co.”
Open Champion Skyler Nicholas and Stoli My Guy
Fans of futurity barrel racing haven’t soon forgotten Lisa Nicholas’ buckskin mare Stoli My Guy. She ran to over $62,000 in earnings her futurity year in 2013 as the No. 10 futurity horse in the country and now boasts EquiStat earnings north of $216,000. “Stoli” has started to make her mark as a producer as well as the dam to futurity money earner Stoli My Firewater, ridden by Brian Wheeler, and Two Stars Collided, ridden by Lisa’s daughter Skyler Nicholas to the 2022 OKC Amateur Futurity championship.
At The Patriot in Fort Worth, fans saw a familiar sight as Skyler sent her mother’s mare down the alley to the fastest time of the entire event, a 15.212, to win the Open Finals for $12,712.
“I kind of stole her from my mom,” Skyler said with a laugh. “It’s a feeling that is indescribable. Even going down the alley, knowing I’m coming down these same alleys that my mom has come down before on her, I never imagined I’d be in that place on Stoli. I was young when she was winning. My mom and I get to bond over it now, her little quirks, even just being on her or in the warm-up pen. It’s amazing.”
Skyler notes that Stoli’s return to the arena was almost unintentional after the family retired her due to an injury at a race in April 2022.
“The vet said there was a chance of her coming back if we wanted to try, but she had nothing to prove. She was 13 at the time and making winning babies, so we were OK with letting her sit out and live her happy years,” Skyler said. “She had to be on stall rest for three months, and the first day we turned her out, she took off flying across the pasture, no sign of lameness. She’s been running around the pasture since then. In about December or January of this year, we talked to the vet about bringing her back out and got the go-ahead. Me, my mom and my dad didn’t want to run her unless she showed she loved the game as much as she did before. Her third run back, she won the Open race at [the Kinder Cup Barrel Racing Championships in February] with me.”
A few weeks after Kinder, Stoli didn’t show any signs of time off at The Patriot, either, with the Rockdale, Texas, 16-year-old in the saddle. The pair clocked a 15.371 in the Junior Patriot long round for seventh and $5,130. That time also finished sixth in the Open long round for another $1,760.
Stoli turned up the heat in the Open finals to win it all with the fastest time of 2,483 runs down the alley that week.
“She made a business run — a 15.3 was a fast run but it wasn’t Stoli fast, but I was proud of it because it’s what I needed to get back in. Going in [to the final round], there was no pressure; this was it. It was one of those where you turn the third and know she’s going to clock,” Skyler recounted. “I try not to think too much or get in my head or put stress on it, because that’s when I tend to not do good. I try to just think of it as another high school rodeo or a jackpot. Don’t think; just focus on the horse you’re on and make the run you want to. I’ve screwed up a lot of short rounds trying to think!”
Skyler herself is no stranger to success at The Patriot. She won the Hooey Junior Patriot last year and over $97,000 at that event alone on her horse Perrywater Dash, whom she elected to run in the Junior Patriot Finals again this year after qualifying in the long go on Stoli. Skyler and “Jessie” finished fourth this year for another steady paycheck of $17,400.
“I was happy to come home with some good money. I was stressed all year about it, like oh my gosh I can’t believe I have to go back!” Skyler said with a laugh. “Stoli pulled through for us. She made two runs; I ran her in the semifinals for the Junior Patriot, and then I chose to run Jessie in the final round because she’s Little Miss Consistent and had won it, and Stoli had done her dues that week.”
Skyler thanked her sponsors Delicious Horse Treats, HayRite, Double J Saddlery, MVP and Iconoclast, and especially her parents Lisa and Jeremy Nicholas, who both raise and train all of the family’s horses.
“It’s been nothing short of a blessing. My dad breaks [our colts], and knowing that me and my mom can do it and make something together and learn together and have that expertise from her is just amazing,” Skyler said. “I want to thank my parents for how much they’ve done for me, and all glory to God. I would not have believed you two years ago if you’d told me I’d be running Stoli again, and here we are.”
This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue of Barrel Horse News.
