Chance Dollarhide turned in a smooth 18.21 second run aboard Bosen Lil Skip in Kingman, Ariz. Photo by Jolee Lautaret

Kingman, Ariz.-When the WPRA first initiated the WPRA Junior Barrel Racing program in 2007, the Kingsmen-the group responsible for the production of the Andy Devine Days PRCA/WPRA Rodeo-were the first pro rodeo committee to send in their approval to host a junior barrel race with their rodeo.

Four years later, the Andy Devine Days Junior barrel race is a favorite with the committee and the fans in Kingman, Ariz. With excellent prize money and dates just at the end of the rodeo season, the rodeo has drawn numerous top WPRA junior barrel racers and plenty of local cowgirls as well. In 2009, Lake Mehalic of Oro Valley, Ariz., used a win in Kingman to vault herself into the WPRA World Finals and on to a WPRA Junior World Championship.

In 2010 the Kingsmen ponied up $1,000 in added money for the juniors and once again drew some of the WPRA's top junior talent and tough local cowgirls. The Andy Devine Days junior barrel race realizes the goals of the WPRA junior program: to expose young girls to WPRA level competition before they turn 18 and begin to rodeo in earnest, and to give mothers and daughters a chance to compete together.

All juniors in Kingman compete in the rodeo performances, just after the "big girls" of the WPRA and before the bull riding. For many contestants, it's their first exposure to pressure of being in a professional rodeo performance with a crowd and the accompanying noise. Always a competitive barrel race, the Andy Devine Days junior has had four different champions in four years, including two locals and two top 10 WPRA junior members.

Local cowgirl Chance Dollarhide beat a tough field including the reigning world champion to win the barrel race. Dollarhide is a seventh grader at Kingman Middle School. She rides Bosen Lil Skip, an APHA gelding who is 19-years old. Skip was trained by Dollarhide's mother, Christina Gould, and has proven his versatility with Dollarhide: the duo was Champion Puddle Jumpers and Junior Hunters last year before turning to barrel racing.

Dollarhide turned in a smooth 18.21 second run worth $294 in the Sunday afternoon performance. Her run was just better than Kaylee Billingsley's 18.23. Billingsley ran just before Dollarhide and the two distanced the rest of the field by six tenths of a second. 2007 Andy Devine Days Champion Chelsea Callahan was third.

Billingsley has made a habit of winning money in Kingman and was the Andy Devine Days Junior Champion in 2008. Riding a new horse in 2010, Miss Tees Tiny Jewel, the 11-year old cowgirl already has an impressive resume of championships in junior rodeo. Billingsley and the 13-year old "Miss Tea" are currently ranked 10th in the WPRA junior world championship standings.

In Kingman, Billingsley competed along with her mother, Leigh Ann, at Andy Devine Days. The elder Billingsley is a WPRA world champion breakaway roper and all around cowgirl and Kaylee looks to be following in Mom's footsteps already.

The Andy Devine Days Junior Barrel Race is paid out in a 2D format with a full second split between the two divisions. Winning the 2D were local cowgirls Mira Riger and Lindsey Soles. Both stopped the clock in 19.24 seconds.