A South Surrey cowgirl has had quite a successful year aboard her horse, Snap.
Macey Freemantle, 11, was recently crowned a champion at the BC Rodeo Association’s peewee barrel-racing championships, capping a rodeo season that saw her win a handful of other events throughout the summer and fall.
At the BC Rodeo Association banquet in Williams Lake Oct. 21, Freemantle was honoured for her season competing on the barrel-racing circuit.
She was recognized at the banquet after winning the overall season championship, which takes into account results for the entire season, which began in Williams Lake in April and wrapped up on the Labour Day long weekend in Barriere.
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In was in Barriere that the Hall’s Prairie Elementary student – along with Snap, a 13-year-old quarter horse mare – won the season-ending barrel-racing championship against nine other riders who had also qualified for the main event on the calendar.
For Freemantle – who has been, according to her mom, Debbie, competing in barrel racing “since before she can remember” – the big win in Barriere brought her young rodeo career full circle.
It was in the same small B.C. Interior town that Freemantle competed in her very first rodeo, at age five. Back then, she rode a horse named Nitro.
“It’s kind of neat that way,” Debbie said.
And while the championship win was her most prestigious yet, it wasn’t the only victory for the young equestrian competitor this season. Freemantle – who set a goal at the beginning of the year to win the Labour Day weekend championship – also won the Chilcotin series barrel-racing championships and was crowned the Chilcotin goat tail-tying champion.
At the year-end banquet, Freemantle was recognized as the BCRA season-leader and was awarded a “beautiful trophy saddle.”
Snap picked up his own award at the banquet, being named peewee horse of the year.
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