Innes and Thirsty take the title

‘Overall, the season went really well - we had a couple of new venues . . .’

Oceanside's Sue Sheppard and her horse Sugar capped off their IBR season in Coombs on the weekend but will be back in the mix at the Canadian Barrel Racing Championships in Chilliwack.

Oceanside's Sue Sheppard and her horse Sugar capped off their IBR season in Coombs on the weekend but will be back in the mix at the Canadian Barrel Racing Championships in Chilliwack.

Island Barrel Racing held its big annual year-end finals at Coombs Rodeo Grounds recently, and the riders and their horses were firing on all cylinders.

In this, its third year, the IBR’s 17-race series started the end of March with stops up and down the Island and wrapped up with the finals at Coombs Rodeo Grounds Sept. 1-2 .

According to IBR president and longtime barrel racer Amanda Yasinski from Cumberland, the IBR has 30 regular riders that have been competing for overall points this year, including some kids.

“Overall the season went really well,” she told The News after the dust had settled, pointing out “we had a couple new venues, we competed for the first time at the Vancouver Island Exhibition in Nanaimo and also the new arena in Duncan.”

The IBR’s primary goal “is to promote the sport in a safe, fun, and affordable manner,” she said, pointing out a number of their members “compete across the province at a very competitive level. We have a lot of girls that will haul off the island and enter a race with 2-300 entires and still finish up near the top.”

Taking the IBR’s overall series title this year was Lindsey Innes and her horse Thirsty. Innes went into the weekend sitting 2nd in the overall standings and had herself a stellar weekend at Coombs to win the finals.

“She absolutely did,” confirmed Yasinski, pointing out Innes won two of the three runs over the weekend and placed 2nd in the third and along the way posted the fastest run of the weekend at 17.83 seconds.

The IBR uses a tiering system broken down into four divisions with 1D the fastest.

Innes, from Campbell River, will be competing in a field numbering over 200 riders in the Canadian Barrel Racing Championships in Chilliwack Sept. 29-30, “and is expected to and will do quite well there.”

Oceanside’s Sue Sheppard and her horse Sugar was the top local finisher, taking first in the 3D Senior and 3rd in the 3D Open category. Sheppard will be in the mix at the CBR finals in Chilliwack along with about six other IBR riders.

Riders were competing for a piece of the prize purse — $300-plus for each race ($900 overall), plus year-end awards of trophy blankets.

Leslie Peterson won the belt buckle for accumulating the most points over the regular season.

Coombs’ Page Noble, 8, finished as the season points leader for the Peewees.

“Last year she was on a teeny-tiny pony — this year she’s on a big gelding named Scooter,”

Page’s mom Kelsey also competed, as did her aunt Dallas Noble who finished 2nd in the 4D on her horse Marge.

Including last weekend, the IBR held nine events in Coombs.

“It’s a great venue,” she said. “They treat us very well there.”

 

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