Mesa Leavitt-My International Finals Rodeo Experience

I.F.R. 40 had an awesome turn out this year. 15 barrel racers from across the U.S. and Canada came to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for the I.F.R. But there were only 4 who came in search of a world title. Sindy Laliberte, Carie White, Laura Kerley , and me, Mesa Leavitt. I came to the I.F.R. $5,000 behind and had a lot of catching up to do.

This year I kind of had fallen behind because my good horse, Juniors Genuine Doc aka Junior, had to have ankle surgery at the end of July right in the middle of a bunch of really good rodeos. I spent the rest of the season trying new and different horses-some were better than others. Our main concern for Junior was getting him back and ready for the I.F.R.. Junior was off until the end of November and that's when we started legging Junior back up. I had taken Junior to a couple barrel races trying to get him back into his routine of running. Junior has a special way of doing things before he runs and if you don't then you're in trouble.

By the time the I.F.R. rolled around I knew he was gonna be ready to go. I took Junior and my new horse Red to the I.F.R. Red was simply there for Junior if he were to have any problems or for some reason I did not think he needed to run. After 13 long hours of hauling we finally made it to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When I got Junior in the pen I could tell he knew where he was and he meant business. By the night the first round came around Junior and I were ready. Our first run he didn't fire like he usually does but he still won third in the round. On Saturday there were two rounds, an afternoon performance and an evening performance. The second round was kind of like the first round-it was nice and smooth but still did not fire like he usually does. He placed fourth in the round that night and we were still sitting good in the average. So for the third round I knew we needed to pump up our game and win the round. So Junior and I had a good long talk and stayed by ourselves and I just let Junior do what ever he wanted and be himself. Before we ran I could see that his eyes meant business. He made an awesome run it was smooth and fast and I was so proud of him. Sunday afternoon was the last round and I knew all I had to do was make a smooth clean run. But evidently Junior was thinking the same thing. Cause when he saw that alley way he reared straight up in the air then took off. He won the last round and that put him number 1 in the average.

I was so proud of him, he deserved this title more than any of the other titles he has won. I need to give all the credit to Junior. He is truly a once in a life time horse. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. Junior is my baby and always will be. He has brought so much joy to the Leavitt family and I'm sure still more to come. We would really like to go for a 5th world title cause no one has ever accomplished 5 in a row. We have a lot planned for 2010 and can't wait to start going hard again. I need to send a big thanks to Susan, Shiloh, and Richard aka Dad Leavitt for all their help and support at I.F.R. 40. Thank you also Circle Y for all your help and support- you supply me with such marvelous and beautiful tack and saddles I really appreciate it.

Hopefully we will see you down the road.

Mesa Leavitt

Circle Y 2010

This year Circle Y celebrates our 50th Anniversary. Since it's founding in Yoakum Texas in 1960, many changes have taken place. The company has grown, changed ownership, and revamped it's manufacturing process. 2010 also marks another milestone in the history of Circle Y-for the first time the manufacturing, office, and shipping operations are under one roof. Still in Yoakum Texas, the relocation has combined our operations from 4 separate buildings into a single facility. We are loving the new building. It has allowed the manufacturing process to be more streamlined, and has eliminated the unnecessary trucking of materials between buildings. The move took place over Christmas vacation, and as you can imagine, moving 50 years of accumulated stuff is no small feat! When we came back in January we quickly went to work unpacking, organizing and preparing for our first visitor to our new home-Julie Goodnight. Julie was in Texas for a Horsemaster TV shoot, so she came in a day early to visit, accompanied by her Horsemaster associates Heidi and Cheryl. It was great to finally meet her face-to-face, after months of designing and perfecting her saddle line through conference calls, telephone, email, and shipping saddles back and forth! We gave the ladies the grand tour of the saddle making process, start to finish. Technology has brought the company a long way, allowing us to design and create precision parts with computer digitation and computerized leather cutting. But saddles are still handmade one-by-one, and the employees at each phase of saddle making demonstrated their craftmanship. We even came across some of Julie's own Peak Performance saddles along the way. After experiencing the amount of labor and skill required throughout the saddle making process, the ladies vowed they would take better care of their saddles!

HorseMaster Texas Filming

Julie Goodnight is the real deal. They don’t call her the HorseMaster for nothing. Last week she filmed 6 episodes for her hit TV show, HorseMaster with Julie Goodnight which airs on RFD-TV, at the Banshee Ranch in Montgomery, Texas. It was about 3 hours from Yoakum, so I took a little drive to watch, help out, and be the Circle Y rep.
I was really looking forward to meeting Julie. After all, several of us horse ladies here in the office are big fans and have watched and used her training videos. Her demeanor was very nice and all business. She is excellent at what she does and was intensely focused on doing just that. Watching the transformations between horses and riders was especially interesting to me. How many times have we-as riders-tried to teach our horse something and someone who has more experience comes along and says-do this instead and it’s like magic! Our horse amazingly does what we were trying to teach him. One of our own was a cast member on the show. Tina, with her sweet gelding, Buddy, needed some help side passing. By the end of the session, Buddy had a good understanding of what Tina was asking him to do and Tina learned how to correctly ask him. You'll have to tune in and watch the show to see Julie's method for teaching a horse to sidepass! The show airs every Wednesday at 5:30 EST on RFD-TV.
The filming took place at the Banshee Ranch which is a boarding, training, and rehabilitation facility. The staff was friendly and took excellent care of the horses. The barn was laid out well with horse friendly conveniences-not to mention neat as a pin with manure no where to be seen. Julie is having a 2-day riding clinic there in May. Check out Julie's web site for all the details.