JOSEY RANCH, MARSHALL, TEXAS – When the cream of the crop entered the city of Marshall, Texas it was business as usual at the Josey Ranch. When you’re sitting aboard On Raw Firepower like 17 year old Autumn Woodruff, of Granbury, Texas was at the recent 26th Annual Josey Reunion Barrel Race, running a blazing fast 16.089 time is just par for the course. The 17 year old cowgirl inched out 2016 Reunion Champion Pete Oen (16.101) and NFR finalist Tiany Schuster (16.141) to clinch the championship on a beautiful Sunday afternoon of barrel racing. Featuring over $150,000 in cash, prizes and scholarships, the Reunion, held at the historic Josey Ranch is home to world champions RE & Martha Josey. Each year the Reunion is a homecoming for any former Josey student who has attended any of their schools / clinics since their start in 1967. This year’s race featured riders from 18 states and Ireland. Cheering on the contestants, from the alleyway, for both events were Josey instructors Gary Arthur and Ty & Lisa Mitchell. Suvoy Rosser and his team of tractor drives kept the ground in prime shape throughout both events.
The Show started promptly at 6:00pm Thursday May 2nd with the top shelf announcing team of Randy Adams and Coy Huffman going “Live” in the arena and around the world via the livestream produced by Mark Burt of Mark’s Video Productions and hosted on Barrelhorsenews.com. Thursday evening the kickoff event, the Josey Reunion Pole Bending Championship saw returning champion Jaden Thomas of Deridder, LA grab the top prize. While so many champions return each year to compete, the Reunion proves to be a starting point for many future champions. This year was no exception with Carter & Riley Bell ages 11 and 5 from Coushatta, Louisiana attending. These 2 young riders had attended their first Josey clinic only 2 weeks before at Easter and ended up finishing in the Top 50 of the new 5-D format earning a 4th and 8th place respectively in the 5-D. At the traditional Sunday morning church service featuring many great speakers, scholarships and Josey sponsor Dale Steege of MVP presenting a $1000 scholarship. The Reunion Short Go Finals feature drags after every 2 riders offering the best ground to all and is run from slowest to fastest making it one of the most exciting, nail biting contests in the country. The Granbury, Texas High School senior rode her 7 year old Firewater To Fame gelding “Buck” like a true champion. Starting as a Josey student at the age of 12, she said her favorite thing about being a Josey student besides winning the Reunion is the positive attitude, competitor support and great friendships that are made. Currently qualified for the Texas HS Rodeo finals she plans to concentrate on training her string of futurity horses as well as develop her barrel horse breeding program. Josey Reunion 2D Champion, Amy Havens, riding Peppy’s Classic Fame (16.590); 3D Champion, Kara Moore, riding VF Blitzing Speed (17.098); 4D Champion, Linzy Taylor riding Miss Smart Dash (17.612); 5D Champion, Terrie Hammonds, riding Wrangling Memories (18.100).
The annual 2 week festival continued over the following Mother’s Day weekend with the 38th Annual Josey JR World Barrel Race for riders 20 & under. The race started in 1981 by Martha and her best friend Joyce Barney featured several new offerings this year. Making it a 5-D format like the Reunion, it also was a qualifying race for the KK Run For Vegas. World Champion Kellie Kaminski was on hand to oversee the 44 riders who competed in the qualifier as well as the Josey JR World. Paitlyn Berklund riding Mahogany Stardust ran a 16.192 to win it as well as the 2nd Go Round of the Josey JR World. Longtime sponsor Purina was on hand to present the Purina-Josey Ranch Barrel Horse of the Year to Patton Ann and Alexis Rae Lynch. The award went to Patton Ann’s horse JJJ Bonnie Rae. This beautiful palomino Quarter Horse mare was the 2018 JR World Champion and has had an amazing string of victories throughout 2018. They credited part of this great horse’s success to the Purina feed program they use as well as their time as Josey students and received one ton of feed for their amazing horses.
This year it paid to be a Josey student since a record 130 of the 176 Short Go finalists were alumni with 14 of them in the top 176 finalists rode horses purchased through Josey Ranch horse sales. Of the Top 50 champions, 36 of them were students with both the 3-D Champion Grace Edleston and Reserve Champion Rilee Leasor as well as 4-D Champion Lila Jardine and Reserve Champion Kenedie Richardson all riding horses purchased through the ranch sales program headed up by Suvoy & Cheryl Rosser.
Sunday’s Championship Short Go followed a inspirational church service, and the scholarship awards along with an MVP $1000 scholarship also awarded. Throughout the past 53 years RE & Martha Josey have awarded over $200,000 in scholarships to deserving young riders. With the rains over, the short go finals proved to be a blistering fast race with Faith Gilbreath from Gilmer, Texas going right down to the wire to win it with a time of 16.059 aboard DC Duallin Eagles. This solid Josey student team who also were the 2018 Barrel School Reserve Champion, was outfitted in signature Josey equipment like the Josey Cash saddle and Josey Mitchell Reverse gag bit and also raked in a 1-D 9th place Reunion finish as their warm up for the JR World championship. Similar to the Reunion finals, running from slowest to fastest saw the race go down to one of the best finishes in recent years with Faith taking over the win from 1st go round winner Paige Jones & High Cotton Lane of Wayne, Oklahoma who ran a 16.067 to fall just shy of the championship. However, Paige finished as the weekend’s high money earner raking in $5,210 and winning the Don Wasson Fastest Time Custom Bit Award for her 1st Go winning time of 15.889. Thanks to John Chance, Jay & Sandy Thurston, LifeWave/Aculife patched horses took their share of the $7000 LifeWave money. RE & Martha Josey would like to thank all of their super sponsors and their outstanding staff. Josey Jr World 2D Champion, Jaden Thomas, riding Freckles Doc O’Gold (16.566), 3D Champion, Grace Edleston, riding Keno (17.060); 4D Champion Lila Jardine, riding KK Patch of Frost (17.562); 5D Champion, Riley Bell, riding Hawk (18.104)
Addition Reunion images available for viewing on EastTexasExposed.com/iExposed.us:
| Josey Reunion Finals | ||||
| May 5, 2019 | ||||
| Name | State | Horse | Time | |
| 1D | ||||
| 1 | Autumn Woodruff | TX | Raw Firepower (Buck) | 16.089 |
| 2 | Pete Oen | OK | Perks Of Being Famous | 16.101 |
| 3 | Tiany Schuster | TX | Show Mance | 16.141 |
| 4 | Sheryl Gamboa | TX | The Bolderdash | 16.231 |
| 5 | Barbara Burns | TX | Flit Bar Buzz (Buzz) | 16.272 |
| 6 | Karlie Sanders | LA | Kas De Stone (Stick) | 16.275 |
| 7 | Charley Goodknight | MO | G C H | 16.287 |
| 8 | Abby Pursifull | AR | Pearl | 16.321 |
| 9 | Faith Gilbreath | TX | DC Dualin Eagles | 16.337 |
| 10 | Raelee Self | TX | Duece | 16.355 |
| 2D | ||||
| 1 | Amy Havens | TX | Peppys Classic Fame | 16.590 |
| 2 | Tyler Rivette | OK | Frenchman On The Rock | 16.597 |
| 3 | Brooke Lottinger | LA | Cougar | 16.620 |
| 4 | Andee Shae Nored | Tx | Honor Sharp Star | 16.667 |
| 5 | Natalie Bland | TX | The OK Fuel (Bandita) | 16.670 |
| 6 | Catherine Medlock | AR | LS Pies On Fire (Suzie Q) | 16.673 |
| 7 | Raelee Self | TX | Skye | 16.677 |
| 8 | Shelby West | TX | Sun N Sevens | 16.699 |
| 9 | Whitney Wells | TX | JF Booneshine (Booneshine) | 16.753 |
| 10 | Codie Jo Tupa | AR | Silver’s Dunn Lady (Bonnie) | 16.758 |
| 3D | ||||
| 1 | Kara Moore | TX | VF Blitzing Speed | 17.098 |
| 2 | Harley Jones | MS | Rare Ovation | 17.105 |
| 3 | Dene Culley | OK | Patriotic Sailor | 17.123 |
| 4 | LeAnn Brookes | AR | Catchtwentytwo | 17.137 |
| 5 | Autumn Randle | TX | Pretty Gal Shine (Rosie) | 17.142 |
| 6 | Carly Wall | TX | Chester’s Smoothin VF | 17.150 |
| 7 | Savannah Palmore | TX | Carl | 17.154 |
| 8 | Emma Berry | LA | Jett’s A Jet | 17.187 |
| 9 | Amy Havens | TX | Magnums Weasel FT (Weasel) | 17.190 |
| 10 | Andrea Hamilton | TX | TT Perks Cash Hoster | 17.198 |
| 4D | ||||
| 1 | Linzy Taylor | TX | Miss Smart Dash | 17.612 |
| 2 | Jessie Kinney | TX | Retariat’s Shining Diva (Diva) | 17.616 |
| 3 | Josie Smith | TX | Tatoos ashnforcash (Spock) | 17.680 |
| 4 | Kim Zimmers | TX | Mito PacMna (PacMan) | 17.689 |
| 5 | Cindy Toll | IN | Sheza Casanova Special (Casey) | 17.695 |
| 6 | Mica Wilson | TX | Boo | 17.734 |
| 7 | Jo Ann Jones | TX | Ain’t Seen These Eyes (Sir Guy) | 17.759 |
| 8 | Georgie Sutton | LA | Bubblin Aristocrat (O’Malley) | 17.792 |
| 9 | Kristin Kudlic | MA | Bucky | 17.806 |
| 10 | Brittany Ellis | TX | Dixey | 17.814 |
| 5D | ||||
| 1 | Terri Hammonds | TX | Wrangling Memories | 18.100 |
| 2 | Rachel Tolar | TX | Colonel Dylans Daisy | 18.149 |
| 3 | Olivia Leasor | KY | Cesico | 18.183 |
| 4 | Carter Bell | LA | Shy | 18.194 |
| 5 | Kirk Thompson | MO | Capi | 18.239 |
| 6 | Michele Railston | TX | Frenchman Glory | 18.243 |
| 7 | Casey Keeton | TX | Smoothlikefirewater (Lena) | 18.261 |
| 8 | Riley Bell | LA | Joey | 18.307 |
| 9 | Robin Harrison | MS | Rockettes Rumors | 18.318 |
| 10 | Gina Youngblood | TX | Jewels | 18.342 |
iEXPOSED.us Blog 
A great event. It brings lots of dollars into Marshall. Its Marshall’s biggest tourist event.
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