Texas Jeans is proud to sponsor Hailey Gentry as part of our Team Texas Jeans. 

     Hailey started taking riding lessons when she was 8 years old. The riding lessons were a Christmas gift from her grandparents. She started off riding English but soon decided the English style was not for her. She had heard her grandma, Martha Gentry, talk about barrel racing and thought it sounded very exciting. So, she switched over to riding Western style and loved it! She learned how to barrel race and pole bend on a 34 year old rescue horse named Buddy. Her and Buddy rode together for about a year and competed in several events together until it became obvious that Hailey was ready for a younger horse that she could compete more frequently on.

 So, she got her first barrel racing horse, Star, for her birthday that year. It was a complete surprise for her and she was so excited. Star and Hailey immediately hit it off! She started practicing on Star almost every day. She started off doing the NBHA barrel shows on Star a couple of months after she got her and was doing very well. She then competed in 4-H District Horse Show and won 1^stplace in every event she competed in which included barrel racing, pole bending, flag race, Texas barrels, and stake race. She went on to compete in the State 4-H show in Raleigh and won was 2^ndoverall in the entire competition.

Hailey started the rodeo about 2 years ago and needed another barrel racing horse just for the rodeos so she then got her second horse, Reece. The first year she competed in the rodeo circuit she ran the Junior SRA division and qualified as a finalist in the championship. Last year, she switched over to National Jr. High School Rodeo Assoc because of the opportunity to win scholarships. She didn’t find out about this association until half way through the rodeo season but decided to go ahead and start at that time instead of waiting for the beginning of another season. She ended up qualifying for the NJHSRA finals in Gallup, NM which was held this past June. The NJHSRA finals rodeo is the 2^ndlargest rodeo in the world. This was a wonderful opportunity and she had a great experience there.

     During her rodeo season, she was also still competing in NBHA shows and qualified for Youth World Barrel Racing Finals which was held in Jackson, Mississippi this past July. In Jackson, Mississippi there were 750 contestants and only 150 made it back to the final short go. Hailey was one of the 150 that made it back to the short go which was a huge accomplishment for her.

Hailey hopes to continue barrel racing and participate in the professional rodeo circuit when she gets older.

Watch a short clip of Hailey's amazing skill here at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoou5R20Ljk