RODEO NEWS

Kosel Wins Barrel Racing Title at 100th Gooding ProRodeo

By Ted Harbin

Summer Kosel needed a little change of pace.

She’d returned home to Glenham, South Dakota, from her hectic summer run to compete at some Badlands Circuit rodeos. It was during that stretch that she realized she needed to adjust what she’d been doing on her main mount, Firewaterfrenchfame, an 11-year-old chestnut gelding she calls Apollo; he guided her to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in 2023.

“I ran a colt at my circuit rodeos that had never been,” said Kosel, who was 22nd in the world standings entering the week of Aug. 18. “I’m one of those people that I just send it. I run everything like that. It’s a speed event, so I just send stuff, and that colt ended up placing at the first one and winning Aberdeen (South Dakota).

“It dawned on me: I’ve been riding Apollo timid for about the last month just trying to get around the barrels. When I left, I told my husband, ‘No more. I’m just going to send him and give it to God and go on to the next one.’ ”

That adjustment triggered something in Kosel and Apollo. On a very fast track at the Gooding Pro Rodeo in southern Idaho – seven ladies and their equine partners were faster than the existing arena record of 16.76 set by Dona Kay Rule in 2023 and matched by reigning world champion Kassie Mowry last August – Kosel and Apollo were the speediest, clocking in at 16.66 seconds.

“I always say a prayer over him, and then I told him, ‘Buddy, we’re just going to send it, and you just do what you do,’ ” said Kosel, who pocketed $6,740 for the win. “I sent him full blown, and he’s so honest that when I sit down or do my little squeezes with my legs, he’ll come around and come back to me.

“The second (barrel) felt a little bit wild. I almost sent him a little bit too far past it, but he was firing so hard that he just kept running.”

A lot of horses were doing that in Gooding, which has been given the Justin Best Footing Award in the Wilderness Circuit on multiple occasions. In fact, it took sub-17-second runs on a standard pattern to even catch a paycheck during the 100th celebration of the Gooding County Fair and Rodeo.

“I was actually third from last in slack, and there were right around 70 of us in slack,” Kosel said. “They had run 16.7s, so we knew the ground was good.”

Barrel racing wasn’t the only tight competition inside Andy James Arena. Three ladies – Aubryn Bedke, Kash Gay and Brooke Bruner – stopped the clock in 2.1 seconds to share the breakaway roping title, and the 15th cowgirl, Brittany Truman, was 2.7 seconds. Each winner earned $5,531.

This was Kosel’s first time in Gooding, so winning just added to the experience.

“The purse was so good,” she said of the $18,000 in added money per event. “The ground was very good, and it was great hospitality. They even served steak for slack. The parking was a little sketchy, but the community, the ground and everything like that, it was just great.”

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