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We’ve gotten to know her barrel racing background and her training philosophies, and today Deena Fries will tell us about her in-the-arena mindset and more. Deena held the infamous arena record at Circle D Saddle Club for more than a decade with Mister Te Dandy, and she’s won more major titles than we can name here. How does she do it? Getting an idea of what she’s thinking during a run might just help unlock part of the secret to her success. 

Competition

What size arena do you prefer? (Big, small, medium, etc.)

I don’t have a preference.

What type of ground do you (and your horses) like best?

I don’t have a big preference here as long as the ground will hold the horses turning hard and leaving the barrels.

Which local arena is your favorite to run in and why?

I’d say Simmons Equestrian Center because Rick tries hard to make everything right for us barrel racers.

Talk about the single best run you’ve ever made in your lifetime. Which horse was it on, where was it, etc.?

I guess the NBHA Colonials on Mister Te Dandy. We had won the 1st go with 600+ horses had the only 16.,3 and the second go Will Reyonds come in and ran a 16.3 on Bunny’s Trucker. Danny and I come back and ran a 16.2, which was the fastest time run out of 1200+ runs for the weekend.

What is usually going through your mind in the few minutes before you make a run?

Do my job and have confidence that the horse will do theirs.

What are you thinking as you run to the first barrel?

Stay out of their way and let them work the way I trained them.

What’s usually going through your mind as you run home?

Boy that was a nice run or need to go home and work on whatever didn’t go well

If you could compete in any big show or rodeo, which would you choose and why?

I think most barrel racers would answer the NFR.

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• Equestrian
• Sports
• Rodeo

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