Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Weaver.
Gaines Weaver won two Youth World Championships this year in barrel racing.
For Gaines Weaver, months of practice and perfecting her sport can boil down to 20 seconds or less in the arena.
Weaver, a lifelong Vestavia Hills resident and seventh-grader at Liberty Park Middle School, has been barrel racing since she was 8 and is now competing against riders of every age across the country.
“It’s really fun, and I meet a lot of different, new people,” the 13-year-old Gaines said.
This year, her honors have included two Youth World Championship titles and a Reserve title from the American Paint Horse Association, a World Barrel Racing League Finals Top 4 winner, an All-American Youth finalist, a National Barrel Horse Association Youth World and Open qualifier and several Alabama Open Horseman Association top 10 wins.
Gaines and her family are at shows around the Southeast about twice a month and nearly every summer weekend, so she can compete in barrel racing, pole bending and occasional other events. Barrel racing requires Gaines and her horse to ride a cloverleaf pattern around a set of three barrels, while pole bending involves weaving between a set of poles spaced across an arena. Both sports are done at a gallop, with riders competing for the best time.
So far, Gaines said her fastest barrel racing time is just over 15 seconds. She has tried out some non-timed events at shows as well, but they aren’t her style.
“It’s too slow,” she said. “I like to do the fast stuff.”
To compete at a national level means making sacrifices. Gaines is at the barn five days per week training and riding two horses of her own and two others she competes on.
Between riding and schoolwork, there’s often not much time for anything else.
“School comes first, but she would rather horses come first,” said her mother, Elizabeth Weaver.
There’s also the expense of caring for the horses and entering them in shows, as well as time spent traveling to shows. It’s “a whirlwind,” Elizabeth Weaver said, but worth the cost so Gaines and her older sister Ema can get to do the things they love.
“We make some sacrifices, but we have made some wonderful friends,” Elizabeth Weaver said. “It’s been very fun for her. It allows her to do the only thing that she enjoys doing.”
Gaines said when she’s at a show, the hard part is not thinking too much about the race she has to run before she gets in the arena. If she gets nervous, her horse will feel it and get nervous too, which can mess up their run and cost valuable seconds.
“I have to be really calm,” Gaines said.
Some of Gaines’ wins so far have earned her award money and scholarships, and she has no plans to get out of the saddle anytime soon. When she sees professional rodeo events on TV, Gaines sees the future.
“I want to do it for the rest of my life,” she said.
