Category: 5 Star Champion

Ashton Padon is in love with her 5 Star Equine Products.
The Conroe, Texas cowgirl, a recent graduate of Grace Christian Academy, uses the saddle pads, sport boots, bell boots and shin guards.
“I want the best for my babies,” she said of her horses. The pads work well, especially for her pole horse, Rack It, who is a sway back with high withers. “I like the support the saddle pad gives her and the cushion it has. It has a flex-fit cut for her withers and I like how it sets on there. My saddle doesn’t roll on her.”
She also loves the support the boots give her horses. “I really like how they are lightweight and have the extra strap to make sure they don’t come loose.” She appreciates the extra material at the bottom, where the bell boot fits, “so there is no opening or space between the bell boot and the sport boot, for your horse to hit their ankle.
The eighteen-year-old cowgirl competes in the barrels, poles and breakaway, in the Better Barrel Races, the Cowboys Pro Rodeo Association, and the Texas High School Rodeo Association, where she just wrapped up her senior year at state finals.
For the barrels, she rides Skippin Lanes, “Churro,” a seven-year-old gelding who “is the biggest baby on the face of the planet,” she said. “He’s in my lap. He wants all your love and affection. He’s probably one of the calmest barrel horses I’ve ever had.” He’s the most recent addition to the Padon place.
Her pole horse, Rack It, has a beautiful story. The mare was owned by Sherri Herndon who trained her on the barrels and poles. When Miss Sherri got bucked off a young horse and became paralyzed, Ashton and her mom took Rack It in hopes of selling the horse for her. But “we ended up falling in love with her and we bought her.” They include Miss Sherri in the horse’s successes, including the AQHYA World Show, where Rack It won the reserve world title in the pole bending. Rack It “was her baby, and she didn’t want to give her up, but I told her, I’ll take care of her, I promise.”
Ashton’s barrel horse is a 28-year-old gelding named Houston, who, the family was told by the seller, was a fourteen-year-old grade horse. It turned out, Houston was stolen. When the rightful owners were found, Ashton discovered the horse was 22, not 14, and was registered. She and her mom became friends with the former owners, who gave the horse’s papers to Ashton when she graduated from high school. Last year, Houston won the Horse with the Most Heart award at the Martha Josey Junior World.
Her favorite horse of all is a thirteen-hand paint pony named Jasper. Jasper is an all-around horse, capable of the barrels and poles. “He’ll do anything,” she said. “He has won probably more buckles and money than any of the horses I have.”
The 5 Star Equine shin guards come in handy when she rides Rack It. “For the longest time I would hit the second barrel every single time,” Ashton said. “That’s why I started running her on poles. I love the shin guards. They don’t slip down, they have support and extra cushion to when I hit a barrel, I don’t feel it.” They also fit under a pair of jeans instead of on top. “My pride won’t let me wear the big ones outside of my pants. I like that these go underneath and you can’t see them.”
Ashton has plenty of favorite foods, including her mom’s barbecue cashew chicken with rice, strawberry cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, and plain cucumbers, cut into circles. She likes strawberries, but especially when they’re stuffed with cheesecake filling or used in smoothies. And washing it all down with Dr. Pepper is the best! But she’s trying to ration her Dr. Pepper intake and replace it with more water.
Ashton’s favorite place to be is the horse barn. “I like seeing my horses out there, seeing what I’ve been blessed with, and what my parents have done for me.”
This fall, she will attend Sam Houston State University, where she will compete in the barrels. Ashton would like to get a business degree and run her own business, possibly as a provider of RV parks for families of military members.
She has a younger sister, Brenlynn, who is six years old. Ashton is proud to be the daughter the late Roland Padon, who passed away in 2008. Her mom is J.J. Hill Wallace, and her stepdad is Robert Wallace.

Cole Younger is a 5 Star Equine Products team member.
The nine-year-old cowboy, a resident of Oskaloosa, Iowa, competes in the breakaway roping, tie-down roping, goat tying and team roping (as a heeler for his dad.) Of his events, tie-down is his favorite because “you’re always moving and there’s no time to dilly-dally,” he said.
As a 5 Star member, he appreciates their products. “I use the Rancher one-inch saddle pad with fleece lining, the 5 Star Patriot boots, and the Pegasus bell boots. The boots give good support all the way around, and they last a really long time if you take care of them.”
His parents, Morgan and Derrick, appreciate the 5 Star Equine products. “One of the things Cole did was design his own pad,” Morgan said. “He was able to make it his own, to personalize it for himself.” The long-lasting high quality goods are another selling point for the Youngers. “To have him using high quality products gives him an extra boost of confidence in the arena,” she said. “As he learns new things, like horsemanship and how to tie and work with his horse, we don’t have to worry, ‘are the boots on right? Is the pad ok?’ It’s one less thing to worry about.”
For the tie-down, Cole rides two horses: Charlie, a horse he got earlier this spring, and Bear, a 26-year-old horse his dad competed on. For the heeling and breakaway, he rides Tex, a twenty-year-old sorrel. For the goat tying and breakaway, he rides Pearl, a nine-year-old roan. His favorite is Charlie, “because he’s more my size. I’m a little guy and all my other horses are big.” Charlie has a good personality, too. “He’s a really good calf horse. He’s really friendly and he likes it when you come out and pet him. He’s not shy.”
Cole just finished his fourth grade year, and, due to COVID-19, did online school through Zoom meetings. He prefers school work at home. “You get done way earlier and you get to rope way more.”
His favorite subject is science “because you learn about animals and I’m really into animals.” His favorite animals are horses (first choice); cows (second choice) and zebras (third choice.) He also plays basketball.
The best food his mom makes is homemade macaroni and cheese. His favorite dessert is bunny tracks ice cream (caramel and chocolate pieces in vanilla), and his favorite meat is steak He loves sweet corn, apples and Snickers and likes to wash it down with a diet Pepsi.
The best trip he’s taken was to Chris Neal’s Future Stars Calf Roping in Oklahoma. Cole attended it twice last year and will go again this spring. He learned lots and was one calf away from finishing in the top ten.
The Younger place has a variety of pets: a “ton” of cats, one dog, and chickens. Some of the cats are tame, some are wild, and the dog loves to chase all of them. The dog is a Corgi named Annie who Cole has trained to hunt rabbits.
When he grows up, he would like to be a professional tie-down roper and make multiple trips to the National Finals Rodeo. He looks up to Tyson Durfey because “he’s a really good calf roper and he’s a good guy.”
Cole has a younger brother, Carter who is four years old.

Don’t mess with Brooke Klinger. She’ll take you down.
The 5 Star Equine Products team member has a first degree black belt in karate.
But her true love is barrel racing.
Growing up in Andover, New Jersey, she did trail rides and participated in English and jumping as well as riding a bit of western pleasure. But when she was twelve years old, she saw the barrel racing at the local fair.

It fit her to a “T”. “I like to go fast,” she said. “I loved racing on the trails.”
So, a trainer, Jim Tenhoeve, taught her. She got a faster horse, and began running barrels.

She uses 5 Star Equine products, with two of them her favorites. The saddle pads are wonderful, she said. “I’ve had (other brands of) saddle pads that after a few uses, get really stiff. The 5 Stars are flexible and stay soft. I like how they’re contoured so they fit flatly on the horse’s back. There are no gaps or spaces.” They’ve helped her horses. “They’re never sore.”
She just recently started using the boots for her horses and those are now her favorites. “I love them a lot. They’re not bulky and they don’t let sand in, which is very nice.”

She loves it that she can customize colors for the saddle pads and boots, and she loves the saddle pads. “I have six of them now,” she said. “I just keep adding. I have an obsession with them.”
A 2019 high school graduate, Brooke works for her parents in their three enterprises: her dad’s electrical company, their real estate rental business, and with her dad as he teaches karate lessons. Her dad is the Sensei and she teaches the younger levels while she continues her instruction in the art.

Brooke also gives riding and barrel racing lessons, which she loves. She travels to people’s houses, or students can come to her farm and ride one of her gentler horses. It’s one of her favorite jobs. “I like teaching people what I know and seeing them accomplish things. I like it when they work harder towards their goals, and when I know I was the one able to help them.”
She got her WPRA permit in 2019 and filled it within a few months. This year, she hopes to work towards the title of Rookie of the Year for the First Frontier Circuit.

The family has five horses: King, her first horse; Dancer, her primary barrel and pole horse; Sunny, another barrel horse; Charlie, a five-year-old she acquired last year, and her newest horse, Brownie.

In her spare time, she loves to hunt for pheasant and deer, and she combats the stereotype that New Jersey is full of nothing but cities. “There are a lot of country people here,” she said. “People don’t really know that. They think New Jersey is nothing but city, but where I am, it’s all farmland.”
She is the daughter of Scott and Jackie Klinger.

Beau Peterson loves her 5 Star Equine products, and they have served her well.

The Council Grove, Kan. cowgirl has put them to good use, too, as she is a Kansas State High School Rodeo champion in the breakaway roping and goat tying (three titles in each event), and the pole bending (once).

And, at the College National Finals Rodeo, she tied with Mia Manzanares as the 2019 National Inter-Collegiate Rodeo Association goat-tying champion (25.1 seconds on four head).

As sophomore at Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Okla., Beau is studying biology, and after earning a bachelors in the subject, will go to nursing school. Her aim is to be a CRNA – a certified registered nurse anesthetist. She enjoys learning how the body works and helping people. “I think it’s fascinating,” she said. A CRNA usually works regular hours and few weekends, which is also appealing to her, as is the pay.

As for 5 Star Equine products, Beau loves the saddle pads and has been using them for several years. “They’re such a great quality,” she said. “They last forever, if you take care of them.” She cleans hers frequently. “Some saddle pads get hard from dirt, sweat and hair,” she said. “They are easy to clean and if you take care of them, they last a long time.”

Every week she uses the sponge that is sent with them, and, in a circular motion, wipes them down. “The hair comes off pretty easy. If your saddle pad is really bad, you can hose it down with a power washer and let it dry.” She never lets them get that dirty. “I do the sponge every week or so and it really gets the hair and dirt off and keeps them from getting hard.”
Her horses love them, too. “Being wool, (the horses) don’t get sore.”
She also uses 5 Star Equine front boots. “I like them. They are a unique style and have the double tabs. After you cross them once, it’s really easy to seal them for extra support. I just think they’re a nice set of boots.”
For the goat tying, she rides a six-year-old mare named Missy who was purchased last year from her sister’s boyfriend, who started her in the heeling. “He let me ride her, and I’ve loved her ever since. She’s so willing to learn and has made everything so easy. She’s so quick, she’s fun to tie goats and breakaway on.” Missy is her backup breakaway horse.
For the breakaway, she rides a thirteen-year-old gelding named Hustler, a bay she’s owned for seven years. He has improved her roping. “My breakaway has grown with him and through him. He’s just been awesome, and he was an awesome horse to start out on. He’s solid for me, he scores like a rock every time, and gives me the best shot. He’s true, every run.”
Barbie is her barrel horse. Owned by Marc and Kim Harland, the seven-year-old bay has made Beau a better barrel racer. “I haven’t been much of a barrel racer, but the few years I’ve been doing it, they’ve kept nice horses under me, and she’s been fun to ride.”
For the past two years, Beau has won 5 Star Equine Products’ social media contest, winning the most votes in the college division.
For fun, when she has spare time, she likes to watch Grey’s Anatomy. She and her friends like to get out the cards and play pitch, too.
She has an older sister, Michaela, who lives in Dodge City. Beau sometimes spends weekends with her sister.
She currently leads the goat tying in the Central Plains Region, is fourth in the barrels, and sixth in the breakaway. She is also leading the all-around race and is on Panhandle State’s Dean’s list.
Beau is the daughter of Matt and Dustin Peterson.

Jimmie Smith is the 2019 Texas Circuit champion barrel racer and the 2018 WPRA Resistol Rookie of the Year. The McDade, Texas cowgirl won all her Texas money on a special horse, a ten-year-old mare, LenaOnTheRocks, “Lena.”

The mare, a palomino, loves the winter rodeos, and she and her rider did well in 2019, finishing third at Ft. Worth, San Angelo and Corpus Christi, and making the finals at Houston and San Antonio.

At that point, Jimmie was sitting in the top ten in the WPRA barrel racing world standings, and they hit the road hard.

But after Calgary, in July, Jimmie knew something was wrong with her partner. It was nothing major, but she didn’t want Lena’s soundness to be jeopardized.

“I could have kept running her,” she said. “She was never lame and never took a lame step. I could just tell something was off. If I had ignored it and kept on running, we maybe would have made the (National) Finals. But I also maybe wouldn’t have her running as strong as she is now.”

The horse is out of Tourlena by FirewaterOnTheRocks. Jimmie purchased her as a five year old from Cindy Skinner. Susie Campbell had started her on the barrels, and Jimmie filled her permit on Lena in October of 2017.

The horse is tiny but thick and strong, and a “total princess,” she said. “She knows that I love her, and we just have that special bond. She knows she gets treats before and after she runs. She just loves being pampered.”

Jimmie, who is 23 years old, made the Texas High School Finals all four years of high school. In college at Texas A&M, she earned a bachelors degree in communications and journalism. She qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo three times in three events: the barrels, the breakaway, and the goat tying.

When Lena was out of commission last year, Jimmie rode several backup horses, all of them leased. It was not ideal. “It was a pressure situation,” she said. “I knew I had to win money on these horses but had no clue how to ride them.” She kept switching back and forth between them, trying to get with each one, “and it never really clicked.”
By September, Lena was released for competition but Jimmie took it slowly on her, not running her till Thanksgiving.
The wait was worth it. At the Christmas Classic in Alvarado, Texas, she broke the arena record twice. The first time was on Pixie, one of the borrowed horses, with a time of 14.901. The second time was aboard Lena, with a run of 14.894 seconds.
And at the Texas Circuit Finals in January, Lena won second place in the third round for her.

Jimmie is a member of the 5 Star Equine team and loves their products, especially the saddle blankets. All eight of her barrel horses wear the 7/8 barrel racer saddle pad. She has been using it for the past four years, “and I have had no back issues. All my horses stay sound with no soreness in the back.”

The saddle pad wicks away moisture, and is customizable, too. “They’re very pretty,” she said. “I love how pretty they are. You can match them to your personality and customize one for each horse.”

Even though Lena being out for several months last year was hard, Jimmie sees the blessing. “If I had never had to go home (from rodeoing), I would never have had the two backups I have for this year.” She has Pixie and Minnie as her secondary horses. “I’m not stranded this year. I’m not a one-horse show.”

Jimmie is taking this year slow, taking her cues from Lena. “We’re going one run at a time,” she said. She finished as reserve champ in Denver. “We’ll see where it takes us.”

Hope Thompson is one of the lucky women in rodeo who can make her living with horses. The Abilene, Texas cowgirl, a breakaway roper and team roper, trains horses and gives clinics on roping. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Texas and attended McNeese State in Lake Charles, La., where she won the College National Finals Rodeo in 2008 in the breakaway.
After college, she made her way to Abilene, where she works with Lari Dee Guy, training and teaching.
She won the breakaway and $7,000 at the WCRA’s semi-finals in Guthrie, and advances to the WCRA’s Royal City Roundup in Kansas City on Feb. 28.
For the breakaway, she rides an eleven-year-old cutting reject named Ink, who she trained. The mare, who is solid black, “is my partner,” Hope said. “I couldn’t do it without her.” Ink has won horse of the year titles in several different associations and jackpots and was the reserve world champion AQHA Horse of the Year in the tie-down roping. Ink is a sweetheart, she said. “She’s very laidback. She wants to give you 100 percent. She wants to please.”
For the heading, Hope rides a seven-year-old gelding named Andre. Hope’s heeler is usually Whitney DeSalvo.
Of her two events, she’s been a breakaway roper longer, and might love it a tad more than the team roping. “I’m most passionate about the breakaway,” she said. “I’ve always been a breakaway roper. But I love anything to do with a rope. I love being able to do all of it.”
She does it with 5 Star Equine products. Her favorite 5 Star item is the saddle pad. “It’s the best material and the best product I’ve found in our industry. The wool is 100 percent virgin and it conforms to your horse’s back, even when (the pad) is brand new. They don’t break down, either. They last forever. My horses love them, which is important to me, because without my horses I’m nothing.”
She uses the 5 Star saddle pad with the fleece liner built in, and appreciates it. “Those are new for me. I just started using those and I really like those, too.”
She also loves the sports boots. “They’re my favorite. They fit well and they’re not bulky.”
5 Star items can be customized, and Hope values that touch. She owns several different colors of boots and tries to match the embroidery on her horse’s saddle pad to the color of the boots.
Hope loves training horses. “I’m passionate about training horses. I love getting to start and train them, and when I sell them, I love to see them go and do big things for other people.”
She also finds great satisfaction teaching people how to rope, and then seeing them compete, sometimes at the same events she’s competing at. “That’s pretty cool when you get to teach somebody your craft and they go and do it, and then you meet up with them again in competition.”
Working with people inspires her. “It goes beyond teaching people to rope,” she said. Some of her students might have faced obstacles in life, and roping heals them. “Getting to come and do something like that helps them.”
She is excited about the future of rodeo and breakaway roping. “I feel that more women are going to get to make a living breakaway roping.” The WCRA and the American Rodeo are instrumental in changing rodeo, she believes. “If it’s something young women are passionate about doing, I feel their time is now. (The WCRA and the American) are giving us the opportunity to make the same money as the men.”
Hope is a member of the 5 Star Equine team.

ennifer Sharp competed at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo last month. It was the first qualification for the 5 Star Equine team member, who lives in Richards, Texas. She and her husband Robbie own and operate Sharp Performance Horses, riding colts for the public and training barrel and performance horses.
Last year, her horse Six French Smooches “Smooch”, an eight-year-old mare, took to the training and rodeo world well, “so we kept going,” Jennifer said. “We hadn’t planned on rodeoing for the Finals this year, but we realized we might have a shot at it.”
So she and Smooch, plus a second horse, KR Famous Tequila “Tequila” hit the road, competing at more than ninety rodeos, and qualifying for the Wrangler NFR for the first time.
In November, two weeks before the Finals started, Jennifer got kicked in the right shin, fracturing the fibula head and tearing the PCL. Doctors told her she’d need twelve weeks of rest, but that wasn’t an option with the world championship of rodeo around the corner. So she did physical therapy twice a day, to get her quad muscle working.
She wore a hard brace, and at the Finals, visited the Justin Sportsmedicine trainers two and a half hours prior to each night’s rodeo. They taped it and used a TENS unit (a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation device) to alleviate pain and get the muscles to fire.
She wasn’t able to ride Smooch at the Finals, as the mare suffered an injury during the Texarkana, Ark. rodeo in September. So Jennifer took Tequila to Las Vegas, along with a second horse, Mitos Cutter, “Commander.” Tequila ran in all of the rounds except for round eight, when Commander took over to give Tequila a break.
Tequila does very well in smaller pens, Jennifer said, and is good when he knows the first barrel isn’t near the fence. “He’s definitely going to turn his barrels,” she said. The first barrel is blind at the Thomas and Mack arena, and Tequila “knew that first barrel was there and he was going to it,” she said. Unable to use her right leg fully to guide him, she “wasn’t able to be as aggressive as I needed to be,” causing several tipped barrels.
As a 5 Star Equine team member, Jennifer loves using their saddle pads. “I use the three-quarters inch thickness, and I love those pads. They hold up, I have no issues with them, and my horses’ backs never get sore.” She also uses 5 Star’s sports boots. “I love that they don’t get any dirt inside of them, their legs look clean when they come off, everything about them.” The color choices are good, too. “And obviously I love the color selection.” She tries to coordinate boot colors with whatever she’s wearing.
In Las Vegas, her husband and a friend, Chris Bradshaw, took care of her horses. “They brought horses to me every night, and took them back (to the place where they were staying.) They fed and watered. I didn’t get to see my horses much, which I did not like, but I knew they were taken care of.”
The couple has been together for ten years and spends their working and relaxing time together. “We’re together twenty-four, seven,” Jennifer said. “We have an awesome relationship. We complement each other in aspects that we need.” With the business, Robbie, a team roper, starts colts, puts them on the barrels, then Jennifer finishes them. If they need a tune-up, Robbie works with them.
Now that the Wrangler NFR is over, Jennifer will let her leg heal. Smooch will make a full recovery, and then the two of them will hit the rodeo road again. “I hope to be back at the NFR, without a broken leg,” she said.
Jennifer placed in two rounds, both times aboard Tequila. She finished the rodeo season in fourteenth place in the world.

Dona Kay Rule is a 5 Star Equine Products Team member, and she’s headed to her first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this month.

One of best friends, High Valor “Valor” is going along.

Actually, he’s the reason she’s headed to Vegas.

Valor, a ten-year-old sorrel gelding, out of Rare High by Valiant Hero, is the 2019 AQHA/WPRA Horse of the Year.

He was purchased late in his fifth year, and Dona Kay started him on the barrels at age six.

The long-time horse trainer was hauling and riding her good horse Juice at the time, but Valor went along. “My program is that wherever I go, whoever’s in the barn goes along. I exhibition when I can, and by the time Valor was ready to enter, I’d enter both horses.”

Valor is big and strong, and it took a while before Dona Kay decided she wanted to let him run. “He was the first full-on race horse I bought,” she said. “In the past, I’ve preferred half cow horse, half race horse.” But the barrel horse world is changing and she has adapted with it. “In today’s climate, you’d better have some power,” in your horse, she said. “It doesn’t matter how good a trainer you are. If you don’t have power, you’ll get outrun.”

Dona Kay began training horses under the tutelage of Billy Perrin for a year in the 1970s, then struck out on her own. She likes to bring a horse along slowly, believing that confidence and manners in a horse are just as important as performance. “It takes me a long time to train one,” she said, “because there are so many variables when you get to an event. Somebody will push a baby stroller in front of you, and you need to be able to stop your horse and get his head back together.” She likes taking horses to the pasture or around the outbuildings at an event to expose a horse to a variety of things. “I’ll go to the pasture, we stop, we turn. I set him up correctly for things I know I’ll ask him to do in the arena.” At rodeos and barrel racings, it’s no different. “You ride him around, stop when people are in the way, ride him through people, let him know everything’s all right. You get him to count on you, to ask, am I all right? Yes, you’re fine,” she said.

Not only is Valor especially competent in the arena, he’s good outside of it, too. He’s a kind horse, his rider said. “He’s really interested in stuff around him, and he doesn’t have any silly quirks.” He loves Dona Kay and relies on her. “He does count on me,” she said. “He’s my vehicle, but he’s also my friend.”

Dona Kay calls herself a “planner,” when it comes to preparing for the Finals. “I like to know what’s expected of me, so I can plan that and schedule in time for Valor. I need to not be in a mad rush every time I put a halter on him.” Prior to heading to Las Vegas, she will put some runs on her horse, to keep him fresh and ready.

She has used 5 Star Equine Products for years and especially likes the saddle pads. “I really like the quality and the consistency of the wool,” she said. “I like a wool pad next to my horse. It wicks moisture, compresses and refills. Good quality wool makes all the difference in the world.”

She also likes the fact that 5 Star Equine saddle pads can be ordered to match boots. “That’s a plus: they match. Things have come so far from the old days. Now we have things that match, and it always feels nice to have nice things.”

Dona Kay’s faith is important to her, and she’s learned to let go and let God handle things. “Letting go is something I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older, not to fret about stuff. It’s pretty amazing what God will put in your life, if you’ll just let him.” She asks God to use her every day. “Pretty much every day, I say, ‘God, take me and use me wherever you need me today. There are times I’ve been able to help. It’s not about Dona Kay doing well, it’s about where God needs me. It’s not about me, it’s really not about me,” she said.

She and her husband John’s kids, son Marshall, his wife Nicky and their son, and daughter KK, her boyfriend Clay Dumos, and their daughter, will come to Las Vegas, taking turns staying home to take care of the family’s cattle. “We’re going to play musical airplanes so somebody can stay at the place,” Dona Kay said.  She and John have been married 39 years.

She knows God’s hand was on her all year. An example she recalls was when her truck broke down at Cody, Wyo. this summer. She limped it to a man’s shop on July fourth, and he worked on it for four hours, not charging her for it. “God had his hands in that,” she said. “I get a little choked up,” she said, thinking of the many situations that worked out because of her faith. “I don’t want to be in control,” she said.

And when she is at the WNFR, just as in her life, she’ll let God guide her.

Hazlee McKenzie had a unique babysitter when she was a little girl. When her parents would go to a roping, they’d put her in a pen, on her pony Trigger. She’d ride Trigger for hours, and they didn’t have to worry about her. That’s how she fell in love with horses, and her love hasn’t abated since then.
The twelve-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Muldrow, Okla., is proud to be a part of the 5 Star Equine Products team.
Hazlee competes in the barrel racing, pole bending, ribbon roping (running for Creek Williams) and breakaway roping.
She uses three different horses for her events. Scooter, an eleven-year-old sorrel, is her barrel horse. A poor fit in the cutting horse industry, the family got him as a four-year-old, originally for Hazlee’s mom Tera to rope on. Scooter is hard-headed, Hazlee said, but he’s smart, really athletic, and loves to run barrels.
BB is her pole horse. The eight-year-old sorrel was trained by her dad, Jason, and can also be used for the barrels and roping. He’s very personable, Hazlee said. “He loves attention and he does anything you ask him to do.”
Her breakaway horse is a four-year-old named Junior. Junior is also good at the poles, but is used mostly for roping. He’s really calm and sweet, she said.
Hazlee is home schooled, with her favorite subject being math and history a close second. Reading is not her favorite; she’d rather be on horseback. That’s why homeschooling is good for her; she can get her work done and head outside.
She uses several 5 Star Equine Products. The saddle pads are her favorite, because they’re made out of wool and fit the horse well. They can be designed by the customer, and Hazlee has designed some of her own. “You can make them look the way you want them to look,” she said. She also appreciates the fact that saddle pads and horse boot colors can be matched. It’s important to her that her things match, with blue being the predominant color among her things. Her favorite saddle pad is white with a turquoise border, and the matching boots are navy with turquoise straps to match the pad. (Hazlee’s favorite color is teal.)
The saddle pads also come with her initials on the backside. There are plenty of color options with the saddle pads, which is important to a girl who likes fashion. “It’s definitely a benefit for girls who want to bling up their pads, for sure,” Hazlee said.
Jason and Tera, both ropers, have been using 5 Star Equine Products long before Hazlee became a member of their team. “We just really like the saddle pads,” Tera said, “because you can order them in different thicknesses, depending on the horse.” They come in different lengths, too, a little longer for roping saddles, a little shorter for barrel saddles.
The McKenzies believe in the value of 5 Star Equine products. “We’ve owned several (saddle pads),”said Hazlee, “and as long as you take care of them, they last a long time.” They also come with a liner that can be used in the spring to protect the saddle pad so shed hair doesn’t get embedded. The liners can be used for dog or cat beds when they’re no longer needed, but the family has found that they can be used several years.
When it comes to meals, Hazlee’s favorite is steak, corn on the cob, strawberries, and ice cream for dessert. She loves to drink Pepsis and eat Sweet Tarts.
The best trip she’s taken was to Cheyenne Frontier Days a few years ago, when the family went to a rodeo performance and walked through the exhibits afterwards. She also enjoyed her time in Las Vegas when her dad qualified for the World Series Team Roping in 2017. They took in a night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and some of the trade shows.
The McKenzie family has several pets. In addition to their horses, they have Cowgirl, a full-blood blue heeler, who is three-legged, and Reins, a Jack Russell-blue heeler mix. They have a barn cat, Lizzy, who is supposed to be a mouser, but prefers her free meals from Hazlee. They also raise cattle.
When she grows up, she’d like to be an interior designer and train and run barrel horses. She competes in the Oklahoma Junior High School Rodeo Association and the Cowboys Regional Rodeo Association (CRRA). Hazlee qualified for the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in the pole bending, finishing twenty-third in the nation this past summer. She competed at the CRRA Finals in Ft. Smith, Ark. last month in the barrel racing and won Rookie of the Year.
Her mom and dad enjoy how determined and hard working their daughter is. “She knows the effort she has to put in to achieve the goals she has set for herself,” Tera said. Hazlee loves to just be on a horse. “She likes to be on them,” her mom said. “She doesn’t have to be working barrels or poles or roping. She enjoys just getting out and riding across the pasture.”

Lexee Jo Barvian started riding horses before she could stand on her own two feet, but these days the 18-year-old from Attica, New York, does both as a professional trick rider. While the graceful drama of a death drag is one of Lexee Jo’s favorites, the liberty stand is where she literally stands her tallest, feet planted on her trusty palomino while the stars and stripes of the American flag in her hands streams out behind them.
She takes her talents to APRA, IPRA, and SEBRA rodeos on the East Coast, performing for Rawhide Rodeo Company and Painted Pony Championship Rodeo, and competing in the barrel racing as well. “I know most of the contractors pretty well, and they help me out with where my performances go so I can barrel race,” says Lexee Jo. Her hometown rodeo is the Attica Rodeo, voted number one in the APRA, and Lexee Jo performed there in 2018 for the first time alongside one of her trick riding idols, Dusti Dickerson. “I’ve always watched her ride, and she’s been on the Dixie Stampede, and just to perform with her was a dream come true. I was smiling from ear to ear.”
Lexee Jo grew up trail riding, though after a horse ran off with her during a ride when she was 3, it took her a year before she wanted to saddle up again. However, Lexee Jo spent her summers with a family friend who owned a trail riding business, and her courage grew as she rode everything from ponies to Percherons. When she turned 10, Lexee Jo was given a 2-year-old gelding for Christmas, Kutter, and she trained him with the help of friends. Kutter carried her through both English and Western disciplines, as well as high school barrel racing, before becoming her trick riding horse.
When Lexee Jo started trick riding seven years ago, she and a friend read an article online, cinched up their trail riding saddles, and started experimenting. “We started looking up YouTube videos on how to do tricks right, and our parents said if we were really serious about it, they would take us somewhere to teach us the right way to do it. Later that year we went to Tennessee to train with Loretta Pemberton, and we learned the basics of trick riding there,” says Lexee Jo. “For the last six years I’ve been learning from my mistakes and trick riding with other trick riders.” Her trick riding career took off soon after when family friend Sam Swearingen, the owner of Rawhide Rodeo Company, hired her to perform at one of his rodeos. “I liked it so much that I’ve been trick riding since.”
Lexee Jo’s background as a base for cheerleading—helping lift the flyers—has helped her with the strength and flexibility needed for trick riding. She’s also strong in the support of her family, particularly her parents, Todd and Suzette, and her older brother and sister, Brock and Laura. “Me and my mom are together all the time. Before rodeos she helps me wash my horse and get my costumes and saddle ready, and put glitter on my horse. It’s a lot of work to get done before a performance, and it’s definitely a lot of fun. My brother and sister are always pushing me to do my best.”
A new member of the 5 Star Equine team through the Reaching for the Stars competition, Lexee Jo also appreciates the support of quality tools for her horses. Several years ago, her trick riding horse developed a rearing problem, and Lexee Jo discovered his back was sore from an inadequate pad. “A friend of mine let me use his 5 Star pad and I got Kutter adjusted, and he quit lunging forward. Ever since then I’ve been using a 5 Star pad for my trick riding horse and my barrel horse. I use the thickest pad possible for my trick riding horse because his saddle is so big. Trick riding saddles are very heavy, and they’re not really built to fit a horse that well—they’re built to stay in place and not shift around, so I needed a quality pad because of that,” Lexee Jo explains. “I use their sport boots and bell boots as well, and they fit really close to the legs. I like that a lot because no dirt can get in. When you’re going fast around the arena, you don’t want anything getting in there.”
A recent graduate from Attica Central School, Lexee Jo plans to move to Oklahoma and work with a barrel horse futurity trainer this fall. A four-time NHSFR qualifier, she’s also making her first trip to Nationals this July in honor of her senior year, and plans to attend several college fairs while she’s out West. “If I’m going to college, it will definitely be a rodeo college. For my trick riding goals, I would really like to do the IFR Specialty Act Contest. And for barrel racing, I really want to make it to The American because I know my horse has the ability, so that’s one of my ultimate goals.”

“I just feel that roping has come so far since I was a kid. I feel that people have gotten so many opportunities with videos and schools and tools like the Heel-O-Matic, and horsemanship has come so far. We as older competitors have even evolved. I learn as much from the younger guys as they learn from us, and it’s really cool to see the sport evolve,” says Lari Dee Guy.
A rodeo household name with numerous world titles to her credit, including 2018 WPRA World Champion Header, her mark on the evolution of roping has particularly inspired women ropers of all ages. Born in 1971, Lari Dee grew up roping and working on her family’s ranch in Abilene, Texas, where she still lives today. Her family taught her that challenges were meant to be overcome, not turned away from, and one of Lari Dee’s first challenges was learning to rope right handed, even though she was left handed. By the time she started college rodeoing, where Lari Dee won the breakaway roping twice at the CNFR, she also had 11 consecutive world titles in the AJRA. Her passion for roping was infectious, and she started putting on roping clinics while she was still in college. Since then, she has taught worldwide, along with sharing the Rope Like a Girl motto and all it stands for, which took root in 2013. “Two young women, Chelsea Shaffer and Kari DeCastro, approached me with that hashtag and asked if I could make Rope Like a Girl cool. I thought of how many young girls that it could touch, and women in the industry. The idea was really theirs, and I helped them put the roping behind it.”
5 Star Equine, which has endorsed Lari Dee for the last 5 or 6 years, also helps spread Rope Like a Girl, which can be stitched on their saddle pads, halters, and cinches. “Every time I see a 5 Star pad, I look to see if there’s a little girl roping on it, and if it says Rope Like a Girl. When I do see that, it makes me feel good that people believe in that,” says Lari Dee. She started using 5 Star pads around 2010, drawn to the quality and durability of their products. “I feel that is the very best felt and wool pad in the industry, and I love the way they breathe. I love the pads, but what turned me on to the company is the people who own it. I met Terry and Julia Moore at the WPRA finals one year, and we became like family right away. They’re a very great Christian family, and that’s what drew me to their company.”
5 Star Equine also sponsors custom pads for Lari Dee’s Rafter L Roping Finals, which she put on in October in San Angelo, Texas. Additionally, she puts on several ropings in conjunction with Cody Ohl’s Ultimate Calf Ropings, and continues to teach 10 schools a year, along with training horses and competing. “I’m a pretty organized kind of person, so I put on the calendar the most important places I want to attend, and I try to leave time during the week to ride the young horses and train, and then I try to be gone on weekends. I try to get most of my young horses ridden in the summer, and coming into the fall and winter, I try to focus on teaching and my finals. I also have a girl, Megan White, who really helps me out and keeps me organized, and Logan Harkey takes in horses for himself and he’s in there to help us with anything we need. Hope Thompson helps me do the schools, and here at the ranch riding horses and giving lessons. I live on my family’s ranch, and all the things a person could take for granted, they provide, like the calves and steers and feed. Having all that is a blessing.”
Another blessing came in the form of Lari Dee’s horse Gangster, who came back into competition this May after she thought he was permanently retired. “He’d been turned out for two years and had torn his deep flexor tendon twice, and I thought he was never going to come back,” says Lari Dee. “Doctor Brock out of Lamesa, Texas, and my local vet, Doctor Paul Patton, did surgery on him, and he came back really good and I’ve been competing on him in the breakaway. I bought another young horse to help back him up, Primo, from Jessica Gray out of Florida, and in team roping I’ve been riding a horse that belongs to Trevor Brazile, named Sabrina.
“My first love is roping calves, but I have really grown to love team roping because it’s brought lots of horse sales and it gives women the opportunity to make money roping. I think that rodeo in general is really growing and getting good for women ropers. The American is giving us a big stage to step on, and the WRCA has given us a big stage. It’s all because of the people and women who have worked so hard to get it where it is now,” Lari Dee explains. “My goals are to stay at the top of my game and stay focused, and try to do and be a part of everything that’s happening out there.”