The Barrel Futurities of America World Championships offered up top-shelf competition and awarded big payouts for aged-event competition from November 15-23, 2024, at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The Barrel Futurities of America World Championships has grown to be the premier showcase for aged-event horses, and competitors work tirelessly to claim a BFA World Championship. From National Finals Rodeo qualifiers to first-time BFA winners, the 2024 event highlighted the best talent in the industry, and each championship represents a distinct accomplishment in each individual’s career.
Kylie Weast and Goldies Last Design — BFA World Futurity Champions
NFR qualifier Kylie Weast claimed the BFA World Championships 4-Year-Old Futurity title aboard Goldies Last Design with an aggregate time of 30.271, worth $36,291. Weast and the 2020 bay mare by Slick By Design out of Nutmeg Gold, who’s by Bully Bullion, also topped the first round of the futurity with a time of 15.126, worth $4,281.
Mary Ellen Hickman purchased “Wittle” from breeder Cathy Geary and quickly put her in the hands of Weast, an EquiStat earning of more than $939,867. From the jump the duo found success. They kicked off their career at the 2023 BFA in the Juvenile before going on to win more than $49,678 in 2024 at events like the Old Fort Days Futurity and Pink Buckle Barrel Race prior to this year’s BFA.
“She’s always taken to the barrels,” Weast said. “She always seems to go in the arena and hunt a first barrel. She got a really late start, and she’s just got better and better as the year’s gone by.”
Founder of Future Fortunes, Hickman has decades worth of experience in the barrel horse world and a keen eye for barrel horses. With the eye of a veteran barrel horse owner such as Hickman, who’s garnered more than $265,914 in EquiStat earnings as an owner, Wittle was set up from the start to be a winner, even with the late start in her career. Wittle has since been purchased by Charlie Cole and Jason Martin of Highpoint Performance Horses in the late part of 2024. The talented mare joined the premier program of Highpoint, which has earned more than $2.2 million as an owner. Highpoint is also the owner of Wittle’s sire Slick By Design, who’s earned more than $8.1 million as a sire.
Couple the mare’s winning pedigree and the talented minds in charge of her future it’s apparent the mare was destined to win. Weast says her success is due in part to her sheer speed and precise turns.
“She’s faster than she looks,” Weast. “She is really fast, but those turns are absolutely flawless. She wraps her turns and never loses that momentum.”
Weast says one of the cornerstone of her training program with Wittle specifically has been perfecting her second barrel.
“It was always her second barrel. She wanted to get round on the back side and so I’ve just played with head gear. She would always clock with the head gear I had, but then the last couple of months, I needed to get, two or three extra tenths out of her,” Weast explained. “I thought it was really time for her to step up. I played around with some head gear, and I think we got her a little snappier back there on the second barrel.”
Outside of that one area on the pattern Wittle’s consistency is one of the things that has stood out to Weast, and in Guthrie she continued to exhibit that same consistency.
“It was the exact same run,” Weast said of Wittle’s two runs in the futurity. “She’s very honest that way. I know she’s going to drag a leg at the first barrel and I just have to do my part and get her up in the hole in the last two [barrels] and then she comes back. Honestly, nothing’s flashy about it. She just stays on the ground and doesn’t waste any motion. She’s on all fours at all time, pushing and pulling and we shut the clock off.”
Weast was busy in Guthrie with multiple mounts throughout the week. Weast and Wittle started out the BFA with the first go win in the futurity, but opted not to run her in the second round of the futurity, then followed that with their short round time of 15.145, which earned them the Futurity Championship. Plus, those times rolled over into the inaugural BFA World 5-Year-Old Futurity to finish in the reserve championship spot for an additional $11,261.
Weast also finished eighth in the slot race on juvenile mount Speakezze who is owned by Hickman. Speakezze and Weast earned $10,000 from their 15.527. Plus, Weast earned paychecks on two more Hickman owned horses. Weast finished 12th in the Futurity on Goodbye Guys, worth $4,910, and she also rode Buds Special Effort to $1,829 in the Futurity. Plus, she earned $20,615 through the Future Fortunes program. All totaled Weast walked away from Guthrie with $73,639.
“It’s the best week I think I’ve ever had, including the NFR,” Weast said. “I think I won more here than I did there.”
Not only did she walk away with a boatload of cash, but she etched her name in the record books winning a career-first BFA title. It’s an honor she holds especially close to her heart considering her family’s connections to the BFA. Weast’s grandparents, Dale and Florence Youree were co-founders of the BFA in 1980. Florence, in particular can be credited with the success and creation of the BFA becoming the visionary and driving force for the inaugural event in 1986.
“I’ve been a part of the BFA for a really long time, and never gotten a championship, and to have that on your resume, and to look back even years and years from now, to say that you’ve done that is pretty big deal,” Weast said.
William Ball and Red As Hale — BFA World SuperStakes Slot Race Champions
William Ball and Red As Hale (Streaking Ta Fame x Designer Diamond x Designer Red) secured the $100,000 win in the BFA SuperStakes from a time of 15.328. It marks Ball’s first BFA title.
Predominately focusing on pole bending for the early part of his career, the Paint Lick, Kentucky native recently moved to Ohio and has spent time concentrating on barrel racing. Ball has wracked up $118,891 in EquiStat earnings including both pole bending and barrel racing earnings.
“It’s by far the biggest thing I’ve ever won,” Ball said.
Ball and the 2021 chestnut mare kicked off the week with their slot race win — which was their first competitive run ever. Then, they turned in a 15.416 in the first round of the Juvenile for second place and $5,563, a 15.474 in the second round of the Juvenile for fifth place worth $2,529, and finished second in the Juvenile aggregate with a 30.898, worth another $7,411.
Ball has owned Miss Hale since she was 2 weeks old when he purchased her from breeder Jolene Hales. True to Ball’s pole bending foundation he started her on the poles from the get-go.
“She’s been great the whole time,” Ball said. “She’s just been so easy. I actually broke her in January. We had nine of that crop, and she was my favorite so I thought she would be really good. She’s so willing and came along fast.
“I focus on poles earlier on, just because that’s what I’m known for, and that’s what I do. So I teach them both,” Ball continued. “I’ll focus on poles a little more, just because I can take them to shows and actually run them, and even when I’m exhibiting them later in the year I can run poles and maybe pay for my trip there. She’s done good in poles, and she’s won some money and some bigger stuff. Her best time has been a 19.3.”
The duo had a bigger pole bending in September of 2024 to focus on and after that point he transitioned to concentrating on barrels again. While he was prepping her for the BFA Juvenile, Ball actually didn’t plan on entering the SuperStakes initially.
“For probably three months, she’s really been clocking pretty good so, and I’ve kind of pushed on her and asked her for some speed to see how she would handle it, and she’s handled it really well,” Ball said. “She’s been doing great for about three months. So the past month or two, I really haven’t hauled her that much, just because I liked where she was. I tried to leave her alone and not mess her up. I’ve done a lot of trail riding on her, some hill work, and I’ve breezed her some, and not worried about working her just because I was happy where she’s been.”
The duo not only performed well, but they stayed consistent throughout the week, a tough task for any 3-year-old at this stage in their careers. It’s a testament ot the hard work and dedication the 31-year-old has put into his training program.
“She’s been, by far the best horse I’ve had,” he continued. “One running this good, this early, is a little bit of a new experience for me, but I’ve just tried to keep her together.”
Ashley Schafer and Fiesta By Design — BFA World 5-Year-Old Futurity Champions
Ashley Schafer and Fiesta By Design (Slick By Design x HP Fiesta Fame x Dash Ta Fame) earned the inaugural 5-Year-Old Futurity title from an aggregate time of 29.896, worth $15,592. While Schafer is an EquiStat Leading Rider with more than $2.3 million in career earnings this mares Schafer’s first BFA title.
“He’s been so special to me all year,” Schafer said. “He’s missed six months of his futurity year, just different little things. And he really started coming on strong this fall about Pink Buckle time.”
“Mitch” had won a little more than $94,000 prior to the Pink Buckle in October of 2024, then he banked the $110,000 Pink Buckle average win and proved to Schafer he was capable of even more than he’d already accomplished.
“This is only a second average win,” Schafer said of the BFA win. “He’s had lots of go-round money and stuff, and quite a bit of other little average placing. He’s been incredible, and I’m just really excited about his future.”
Schafer and the 2018 brown gelding won the second round of the BFA World 5-Year-Old Futuirty with a 14.891, worth an $1,408. Followed by their short round time of 15.005, which topped the short go and put them in the No. 1 spot in the aggregate.
The home-raised and trained gelding exhibits all the winning characteristics of his pedigree, a combination Schafer says drew her to him from the beginning.
“We raised him, and my husband started him. We knew we were going to hold him to run as a 5-year-old because we just hold all of ours. So, I didn’t get on him till the fall of his 3-year-old year. And I remember the first week I rode him, I called Jolene [Montgomery] about three days in, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this 3-year-old Slick [By Design] colt that you would love.’ He’s so soft and so light and he’s always been a ‘Yes’ horse. He just always, always tells you yes and just wants to be so light and so willing to do anything that you ask of him.
“He’s just really an incredible athlete, and he has incredible speed,” she continued. “I mean, he is effortlessly, crazy fast. He has a huge stride, but then he has that set and turn with it, so it’s the perfect combination of free and turning. I’m so grateful that God let me be his person.”
The career trainer will tell you while pedigree and natural ability matter when training barrel horses, those qualities won’t outweigh the heart and try of a horse. It’s a quality Schafer says can make the difference between a good horse and a great horse.
“I think there’s almost every horse running down the alleyway anymore the bloodlines are just outstanding. We’ve bred horses that were just really born to run barrels, and they have the speed and athleticism and all of that. I think what separates it is just the heart that they have, the amount of try and effort that they’re willing to put in,” Schafer said. “If you just lined them all up, just strictly off of athleticism and speed, it would be really hard to compare, because there’s so many great ones. But the horses that have that little bit of extra try are the ones that you really see rise above time after time. They have to want to do it, too. They have to want it as bad as you do. Otherwise, you’re kind of making it happen, and then you have to do everything perfect as the rider. I think that’s the difference.”
Schafer was quick to give credit to all those who’ve helped her over the years, as well as give gratitude to the numerous winning horses she’s had over her career. At the end of the day, she says it’s a privilege to make a living horseback. She says focusing on the things to get better each day keep her focused and deliberate in her training, and it’s what often times pays off in the long run.
“I’m just grateful to get to do this and be here,” she said. “I know that sounds so cliche, and everybody says that, but truthfully, I mean, God has put so many great people and horses and sponsors and everything in my life to make this all possible and to make it possible to make a living doing it. I’m beyond grateful for that. I think ultimately, at the end of the day, win or lose, I’m grateful to be here and grateful to get to do what I love.”
This article was originally published in the January 2025 issue of Barrel Horse News.
