She’s A Firecracker: Florida Barrel Racing’s Audra Tyson

By L.A. Sokolowski

In addi�on to her own �tles, Audra can light a fire under her students, like Crosby sisters Haylee and Heaven, winners (respec�vely) of 2018-19 Miss Silver Spurs and 2022 Miss Teen Rodeo Florida �tles, and last June, Rachel Sasse Wire thanked her for the role she has played in their horse-loving family’s life.

“Every now and then you are blessed to have someone in your life that truly cares about you and your family,” she said. “I am thankful for Audra and her generous heart, and how she turned our li�le girl into a Rodeo Queen,”

In the pen, riding her 10 year-old AQHA chestnut gelding, Firen La Jolla, aka The Hemi, Audra has shaved seconds off her cloverleaf pa�erns while shaving more than 35 pounds off the scale thanks to riding and living with a healthy outlook.

“Four years ago, I lost 38 pounds in nine months,” Audra says. “And I kept it off by staying on a program that I learned from an online coach, who was a nutri�onist and weightli�er, I found on Instagram.” She started working with the coach online during COVID because, “No one could get to a gym anyway.”

Now planning a healthy program of meals is as a comfortable a habit as finding a deep seat in the saddle.

Instead, she says, go for it. “Whatever you’re doing, do it with the confidence of a four-year-old kid in a Batman t-shirt.”

“I prep meals a week in advance. Then it’s easy to just grab, eat, and go.” Instead of building a menu around three big meals a day, “I have five or six small meals. Including four ounces twice a day of chicken or fish, and protein shakes,” she says.

“I’m the kind that, once I set my mind to something, I do it. I’ve been told it takes 30 days to change a habit. But it really took more than a year for my body to accept the changes to my diet, and say okay, I give in. I s�ll get cravings (I love sweet tea and miss pizza) so maybe once a week I’ll give in to a li�le treat.”

Audra’s training and riding schedule should earn her a treat or two, since a typical day starts around 4:00 a.m., without coffee.

“No coffee,” she laughs, “ but I love my caffeinated energy drinks! I can drink TRUE lemon® packets all day. I’ll have an energy drink before going out to feed the horses and do stalls. Once they eat I eat my breakfast, usually oatmeal and a protein shake.

“Then I’ll turn out the horses that have been in, grab one that’s been out all night, saddle up, and start riding. I try to ride three or four horses in the morning before it gets hot. If it’s too hot to ride, I’m doing everything else. Chores. Groceries. Fixing fence lines or pressure washing the barn.

“I run by daylight, not clock, �me. I’m done a�er the last horse is done and it’s dark out,” she says, adding that’s why meal prep is grab and go. “Finally, I’ll pour a tall glass of my lemonade and add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar. I like the sweet/tart flavor.”

A li�le heat and a li�le sweet: Just like a good barrel horse and pa�ern. WE