Ashley Castleberry entered The Stampede the sixth-ranked cowgirl in the WPRA, but her debut didn’t go as planned Friday.
Her horse Sky tripped rounding the first barrel and almost went down, ending up in a 19.33-second time. In Round 2, she was 17.34 and won the round as the first barrel racer out.
“We were a little shook up after yesterday,” Castleberry said. “I give a big thank you to the ground committee, they put all of their efforts and hours into getting the ground right for us, so that was a big deal. I worked hard on getting Sky feeling better last night.”
The win paid her $7,000 and has her in the fourth and final spot to advance out of Pool A with one performance left to go on Sunday.
Round 1 winner Tiany Schuster has $11,250, last year’s runner-up Lisa Lockhart has $11,000 and Jessica Routier has $7,750.