STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Hi, my name is Celia Ausen, I live in Eleva, Wisconsin, just South of Eau Claire, and my favorite hobby is riding horse, or barrel racing. The first time I ever sat on a horse was around the age of 2, and I have grown up with them my whole life. My grandma was the one who got my whole family started on riding horses, except my dad. She has roughly 22 horses, but about 7 of them are my family’s. I didn’t start competitively barrel racing until about 5 years ago, but I was already familiar with the events. There are multiple riding clubs around us that we often go to, there is one in a nearby town of mine that we are members of and go to every week in the summer. This is called Midnight Riders, every night we run 5 events and depending on our times, we get a certain amount of points and at the end of the year we get prizes. In the past years I’ve won two belt buckles, buckets, horse tack, and vet supplies. Around the same time we started that club, we also joined the Little Britches of Wisconsin Rodeo circuit, which was similar to Midnight Riders, but more professional and it was a whole weekend deal. We traveled all over Wisconsin for these rodeos, and met a lot of new people. We were still young at the time, so we never really got in the top placings, but it was still an amazing experience and sometimes I really miss doing it.

​

In these more recent years, we realized that doing the rodeos we didn’t receive much, so we decided to attend more local one-day barrel races, where you would have more of a chance of winning something. When we started this, it was also when I was training a new horse, which was Jake. He has come a long way since then, and I am so grateful for him. We also have a really nice facility that was only 5 minutes from where we lived that had a nice heated indoor arena along with an outdoor arena for the summer. In the winters, they started a series that I have been attending, which is really nice because most of the time our horses don’t get worked very much in the winter and this is perfect to keep them in shape. Last winter went really well for me, I earned quite a bit of money at each race, along with an end-of-the-year prize that included a bucket, custom halter, whip, and vet supplies. Total money from last winter that I got was around $600-$800. That series is actually starting again this weekend, October 29, so I am very excited. There are many other places around us as well that host these events, here’s a few, Winona, MN, Fall Creek, Wisconsin, Merrill, Wisconsin, and Eau Claire, Wisconsin. On my birthday weekend this past April, we actually went to Winona for the first time and I won $300, especially for my horse never being there before or stepping foot in the arena before we ran, I was so happy.

​

This was kind of my background of barrel racing and where I’m at right now. I am very excited for this winter to continue racing, and hope to keep bettering my and my horse every run. I also hope I can keep this hobby with me, in my future, because it really does teach you so much that you never thought it would. Just having a tight relationship with an animal is an amazing experience, and I hope to never lose that.