Around The Traps

Competing at the 2019 Streaky Bay Rodeo, where Alishia won the Junior competition and came 3rd in the Open (Image by Kurt Walter Fine Art Images).

YOUNG RIDER

The queen of speed

Barrel racing is a discipline in which horse and rider sprint around a circuit of barrels in an attempt to achieve the fastest time – and that’s something at which Alishia Thomas is very, very good, writes AMANDA MAC.

Seventeen-year-old Alishia Thomas hails from Whyalla in South Australia. Last year she completed her Year 12 studies, which included a Certificate Three in Horsemanship. She comes from a family of four: dad Andy, mum Melissa and sister Courtney all ride and compete.

The thing with Alishia though, is that she’s blisteringly fast in her chosen sport of barrel racing. So fast, that she was the 2019 Australian Barrel Horse Association National Finals Junior 1D Champion, and scooped the 2019/20 season Junior Barrel Race Champion, Second Division Champion, and the title of Junior All Round Cowgirl on the Festival State Rodeo Circuit. She also won the 2019/20 season First and Second Junior

Divisions in the South Australian Barrel Horse Association Championships, and was awarded 2019 Female Sportsperson of the Year by her school.

Alishia started riding early. “Basically it was before I could walk,” she says. “Dad had pacers and Mum grew up riding, so I rode their horses as well as smaller ponies.”

Her current racing partner is usually Shameless Little King (aka Rugar), an eight-year-old Paint cross Quarter Horse, but she also sometimes competes on her dad’s Paint, Roc ‘n’ Cleopatra. Then there’s Chick’s Hillbilly: “We broke her in recently. She’s a four-year-old Quarter Horse and I’ve just started competing with her,” she tells me.

Obviously Alishia is passionate about barrel racing and there’s a good reason for that. “When I was younger I loved going fast – and I still do. We used to compete in local shows in the hacking classes, but I really didn’t enjoy it because of the pressure, and whether you did well or not was down to someone else’s opinion. With barrel racing, it’s against the clock so it’s all up to you. We also used to compete in gymkhanas and team penning, but once I got Rugar and realised he was the horse that could run the drums, that was pretty much it.”

Alishia works hard to achieve the success she’s enjoyed so far. She trains six days a week, doing drills around cones and barrels, which helps with her horses’ flexibility, as well as flat work. “We also go to the beach during summer to swim the horses and ride in the sand. It helps to build their muscles and improve their breathing,” she explains.

As for future goals, there are one or two: “I want to compete in the 2021 Australian Barrel Horse Association finals and win the Junior 1D Championship again. I also help break and train clients’ horses with my dad in our business AMT Performance Horses, so I want to work towards becoming a really great barrel horse trainer.”

Much to her credit, Alishia believes in giving back to her sport and has served on the committee of the South Australian Barrel Horse Association as a junior representative. She is also more than grateful for everything her parents have done to help her. “They’ve gone to every length possible to support me,” she says, “and it’s with their help that I’ve been able to win the titles I

have over the last couple years.”

ABOVE: In action at the 2019 ABHA National Finals (Image by Frenchs Rodeo Photos). LEFT: Built for speed. Alishia and Rugar in the 2020 Dash for Cash at Lyndock, South Australia (Image by Kurt Walter Fine Art Images). BELOW LEFT: Alishia and Rugar after taking out the Junior 1D Championship at the 2019 ABHA National Finals (Image by Courtney Thomas).

From all of us here at HorseVibes,

congratulations on all your outstanding achievements so far, Alishia, and