Junior Christy Blaine is not just a regular student majoring in real estate. She is a ranked college rodeo barrel racer.
Barrel racing is a sport in which three barrels are set up in a rodeo ring, and the person who can get around them the fastest in a particular pattern wins the event.
“It’s really not as simple as it sounds,” Blaine said. “There’s a lot of factors in being good at barrel racing. It’s all about the speed and agility of the horse and its bloodline. Just like there are good bloodlines of dogs, there are good bloodlines of horses as well.”
Blaine said that the horse is the essential element in being good at barrel racing.
She is currently searching for a backup horse, as her primary horse has been plagued with injuries.
“He’s got bone spurs and joint problems,” Blaine said. “I really need another horse. It’s good to have two horses, a small one and a large one for the different types of arenas we compete in.”
While Blaine competes in rodeos for MSU, she is a self-supported racer. She pays her own entry fees, to have her horse lodged and for all her own travel.
“It’s really expensive, and the money you win depends on how many people enter,” Blaine said. “I’m currently looking for business sponsors.”
Sometimes a good finish in a meet can pay well though. Blaine made $1,100 in her second place finish in the second meet she competed in last semester.
“Despite the money, it’s worth it,” Blaine said. “I love the adrenaline rush you get from competing and the camaraderie of all the people who compete in rodeos.”
Blaine counts the people she has met as one of her favorite parts about rodeos.
“Everyone is so trustworthy,” she said. “They’re all always willing to lend a helping hand.
“Like if I’m in Texas and need a place for me and my horse to stay for the night, I have plenty of friends that I can call up who will say, ‘Yeah, come on over.'”
Blaine has achieved many different things in her almost 12-year career in barrel racing. She finished in the top five barrel racers in the state for three years in a row in high school and compete in the National High School Rodeo Finals her senior year, placing in the top 20.
Blaine currently sits fifth in the Ozark Region of College Barrel Racing. She was ranked as high as second last semester but fell slightly due to having to miss two of five meets when her horse was injured.
In order for MSU to legally support a men’s soccer team, it must add another woman’s sport, such as an equestrian team.
Blaine said that she thinks MSU would benefit from a rodeo team and would have lots of support.
“Most people I know think it’s a shame that we don’t have a rodeo team,” she said. “With us being an agricultural school, we need a rodeo or equestrian team.”
Blaine said that the addition of an equestrian team would benefit her because then she could have school support.
“It’s really hard because I have to travel far off,” she said. “There’s also no where to practice here on campus and no where to store animals that don’t belong to the school. I think it would really help if MSU had a rodeo team that they supported.”
Another difficulty Blaine faces in college barrel racing is that she does have to miss school for her meets.
“A meet usually starts on Thursday night and ends on Saturday,” she said. “So I have to miss at least Thursday and Friday, and since the school doesn’t sponsor me, it’s not an excused absence either.”
Despite the difficulties Blaine faces in barrel racing, she will continue to compete through next year. Her first meet of the year, which was supposed to have been held in Starkville, will now be in Meridian on March 8-10.
She will have another meet the last weekend of March and three meets in April.
Blaine’s goals are to finish at least third in the region so that she can compete in the National College Barrel Racing Finals, which will be held in Wyoming.
“That’s been my goal, to compete in the finals either this year or next year,” she said. “It’s been what I’ve been working for my whole life.