WPRA NFR

The Usually Forgotten NFR Rd 10 Winner Title

By Ted Harbin

Only a few ladies understand how important socks and shoes are in barrel racing.

Emily Beisel is now one, and she figured it out just in time at this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. She placed in the final three rounds and moved up to fifth in the average race to secure $107,806 in Las Vegas earnings, including her Round 10 win in 13.51 seconds.

She credited it to wearing the right pairs of socks and finding new shoes for her main mounts.

“In 2022, I placed like maybe fourth or fifth in the first round, then I hit a barrel to win the second round and hit a barrel to win the third round,” said Beisel, a six-time NFR qualifier from Weatherford, Oklahoma. “(Fellow barrel racer) Jimmie Smith had sent me a little care package before I went to the finals that year, and in that package were unicorn socks.”

Smith qualified for the 2020 NFR when it was in Arlington, Texas, and won a round there. While doing so, she wore unicorn socks. After Beisel had tipped barrels to the tune of nearly $60,000 in 2022, she opted to change her luck.

“I put the socks on, and sure enough, I won the round that night,” Beisel said. “My dad got me another pair, because I wore them again the next night, and I can’t remember if I placed, but I wore a different pair in Round 6 (in 2022) when I rolled to the bottom of the ground, and I split the round with Brittany (Pozzi-Tonozzi). So, it’s been a thing.

“I tried my old pair of socks multiple times this year, and I got a couple of pairs, tried them, and it wasn’t working. I didn’t win a round, so I didn’t get to go down to the press room at all during the week. On Friday (before this year’s ninth round), my dad went to get two pairs of socks. The lady tells him that some barrel racer had won a round in those socks, and she sold out of them the next day. Dad said, ‘That happened to be my daughter,’ and she said, ‘Here’s an extra pair for her.’ ”

She opted to wear warmer socks for Round 9 instead of the unicorn variety and placed in a tie for sixth. That meant the unicorns came on for the final night of the 2024 campaign, and Beisel finally grabbed a go-round buckle for this NFR. The socks may have worked for her mental game, but there were a lot of other factors that came into play.

Chief among them was following the recommendation of eventual world champion Kassie Mowry. After Beisel struggled with the dirt for a few rounds, Mowry suggested Beisel change the shoes on her horses – Ivory On Fire, an 8-year-old brown mare she calls Liza; Namgis D 33, a 14-year-old gray gelding she calls Chongo; and Teasin Dat Guy, an 8-year-old palomino gelding she calls Chewy.

“I’ve never changed shoes like that before,” Beisel said. “I’ve always had a good NFR, so why would I just start changing stuff now? In Round 7, Chongo came out and ran a (13.5), but I tipped the second barrel. I think I’d have been second in the round.

“So the next day, I had LaTricia Duke’s son come help me, and he ended up changing all four shoes on Liza. We’d only changed the back two shoes on Chongo, but we changed all four on Liza, and she went out and won checks the next three rounds. It was a big difference for her.”

It was also a big difference for Beisel, who has won at least one round at all six of her NFRs. This year, go-round winners pocketed $33,687. By placing sixth in the aggregate, Beisel added $21,190, collecting about half her Sin City income on the final night of the 10-day championship.

“I was so tickled to get an average check, because it wasn’t like I was having bad runs; I just wasn’t having great runs,” she said. “We were close to putting it together, but we couldn’t quite get it done, and close doesn’t get you paid in Vegas.

“I was so happy for those girls that were battling it out. Of course, I wanted to give them a little more competition if I could have, but it just wasn’t our week to put it together. We had to adjust, make some changes and get a little more experience under our belts, and hopefully we can learn and live from it and apply it better next time.”

The shoes and socks made a difference for Emily Beisel in the final stages of this year’s NFR, and it’s something for her to always consider as she makes another run at rodeo’s gold in 2025.

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