Kelly Allen is the latest cowgirl to watch on the 2023 ProRodeo barrel racing trail with her mare, “Cinco.”
She talks about how she got into barrel racing and shares some serious mental toughness tips on surviving both the peaks and valleys of barrel racing. She gets real about the emotional side of barrel racing and what happens when you lose the “good one.”
Allen walks through every step of the traumatic loss of her mare, Rapunzel, after an injury a few years prior. She talks through what the grieving process looks like in her experience and her healing journey back to the winner’s circle.
Allen also talks about Cinco, the mare she is cleaning up on the WPRA barrel racing scene on in 2023. Cinco has some interesting habits, including her signature “spin,” in the alleyway before every run.
“She goes up the alleyway and she wants to go in, but she goes in sideways .The reason I started doing this spin is because I wanted her hip to be to the inside when she took off, so that when I take off and she leaves straight. Now it’s become this thing, when she walks up, she goes in sideways and waits on me. When I’m ready, I barely touch her with my outside leg and she just spins and goes. I got fined at Sterling, Colorado, because there’s no alleyway and there’s a closed gate. But if there’s an alleyway, I can. Just not once we cross the plane of the arena if the gate—not the alley–is centered to the pattern.”
Kelly Allen
More From The Money Barrel
- Deep Roots, “Dolly,” and Doing all the Things: Cally Kindred on The Money Barrel
- From Youth Rodeo to NFR Success: Carley Cervi on The Money Barrel
- All Things Shoeing Barrel Horses on The Money Barrel
- Million-Dollar Breeder Karma Loftin Talks Epic Leader, The Kassie Connection and More on The Money Barrel
- From East Coast Beaches to Las Vegas Lights: Margo Crowther on The Money Barrel
About The Money Barrel Podcast
The Money Barrel is the industry-leading barrel racing podcast that brings you ” good, the bad and the ugly,” of the sport. Hosts Kayla and Kreg Jones bring listeners interviews with some of the most interesting and successful barrel racers, breeders, producers and stallion owners in the game. They focus on a varied group to bring perspectives from all angles and arm fans with the best buffet of barrel racing knowledge so they can grow, be entertained and find their own barrel racing success—whatever that may look like!
