holbrook has been dynamite

LAS VEGAS – Carsyn Holbrook is making the most out of her first trip to Las Vegas.

Friday, the 13-year-old from Cibolo, Texas, followed up her first-round win in the Kelly Kaminski Run for Vegas pole bending with a 19.710-second run – the fastest of the week – to win the second round at the Junior World Finals. Holbrook leads the average with a two-run time of 39.548 seconds heading into Saturday’s short go.

“I just wanted to stay focused and try not to get in my head,” Holbrook said of her thinking coming into the week. “Coming in I was really nervous that I was going to hit every pole.”

Obviously, Holbrook has put together two clean runs aboard Dynamite. The 13-year-old bay has lived up to his name, even if Holbrook was apprehensive when the family first got him back in September.

“I was really nervous because he bucked my sister off the week before I got on him,” a smiling Holbrook said. “But he’s been a king and has treated me so well. He’s just been so good for me and has won so much already.”

The two have already won $4,700 this week at the Junior World Finals, with a chance to add to those winnings Saturday. Minutes after her run Friday, Holbrook was devising a game plan for the short go.

“I’m just going to try to get out of my head and go out there and make a clean run,” she said. “Because I know if it’s clean it’s going to be fast with him. Ever since the first time I rode him he’s been fast.”

Jaden Nowosad of Stephenville, Texas, is second in the average with a 40.303, followed by Karsyn Jefferies of Poolville, Texas, with a 40.868.

Senior Barrel Racing

Emily Ward knew her first run at the Junior World Finals on Tuesday wasn’t up to her usual standard.

So the cowgirl from Miles, Texas, made some changes before her second run Thursday at the Wrangler Rodeo Arena. They paid off for Ward and her horse, Envy.

Ward and Envy won the second round with a 13.712-second run – the fastest time of the week at the Junior World Finals – to move into second place in the average with a time of 28.329 seconds on two runs.

“We only recently started going to small pens like this,” Ward said after her winning run. “I took her to the (Fort Worth) stockyards the week before we came here and we hit barrels both days.

“So my first round I went in trying not to push her and not ride her like I normally do, which I probably shouldn’t have done. But I just knew that she could get a lot faster and she normally does each run. Sometimes it’s dramatic like that.”

Ashlyn McCleve of Gilbert, Arizona, leads the average with a two-run time of 28.055 seconds. The defending KK Run for Vegas pole bending champ ran the cloverleaf in 14.158 to win the first round and finished third in the second round with a 13.897.

Ward has only been competing on Envy since May, but the two are already tearing up the circuit.

At the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association World Finals Permit Only Race last month in Waco, Texas, Ward won the short go-round and the average to quickly fill her permit.

“This horse is definitely a gift from God,” she said of Envy. “Half the time it’s her waiting on me and not me waiting on her.

“I’m a freshman at Cisco College so I needed a horse that was ready for me. She’s just amazing.”

Ward will be going for her second Junior World Finals title after winning the junior barrels title in 2017.

Junior Barrel Racing

Ruby Pullen of Rockwall, Texas, finished second in the second round with a 13.943-second run and leads the average with a two-run time of 28.254 seconds.

Waconia, Minnesota, cowgirl Grace Hancock enters the short go second in the average with a time of 28.489 seconds. Defending champion Savannah Toon of Smithville, Oklahoma, is third with a 28.518.

Dusky Lynn Hall of Huntsville, Texas, won the second round and posted the fastest time of the week with a 13.751.