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LITTLE BRITCHES IN THE SENIOR FINALS PEYTON GLENN MAKES HER WORLD SHOW FINALS DEBUT AT 10. BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR When No. 11 in the go rocketed down the chute in the senior barrel racing finals at the 2008 AQHA World Championship Show, you might have thought the jockey looked a little small. That’s because 10-year-old Waitingintheshadows, aka “Reba,” was piloted by 10-year-old Peyton Glenn of Edmond, Oklahoma. How did that happen? The mare is owned by Mary Ellen Hickman, barrel racer and breeder from Norman, Oklahoma. Peyton is the granddaughter of Mary Ellen’s longtime barrel racing friends, Charles and Nita Brock. In fact, Mary Ellen and Charles were part of the group who founded Future Fortunes, Inc., a popular bonus-money program for barrel racing progeny of nominated stallions. Since she was old enough to ride, Peyton and her little brother, Parker, 8, have gone to “barrel racing camp” with “Grandpa Charles.” And Peyton has gotten awfully good. On a whim, Mary Ellen decided to let her ride Reba at a barrel race in Ada this summer. “It was a small pen, so nothing really could happen,” Mary Ellen said. “She went in there, went through the chute and won the class. I’d run (Reba) there before, and it was the fastest time she’d ever had there. I said to myself, I cannot believe this.” Peyton rode Reba again in Stillwater, in a bigger pen, and again won the class with the mare’s fastest time for that pen. And then she placed second in another barrel race in Chickasha. And that’s when Mary Ellen thought Peyton could run Reba at the World Show in Oklahoma City. Peyton was game, as were her dad and mom, Diane and Rodney Glenn, and her grandparents. “When we got here and we saw how long the run down the chute was, and we weren’t allowed to walk her up to the gate, we were all really nervous,” Mary Ellen said with a laugh. “But Reba just dropped her head, walked in, and halfway down the chute, I thought, Peyton, you better get her ‘up’ a little bit!” Peyton and Reba qualified for the finals with the fifth-fastest time, a 17.138. They finished just out of the Top 10 with a combined time of 34.145. Not bad for a first timer. “We were thrilled,” Mary Ellen said. “Our goal was to get to the finals. “Now everyone is making fun of me because a 10-year-old girl is out-riding me on my horse. Reba just loves her. And she runs so much harder for her.” Peyton smiled shyly. What’s the most important thing to remember in all the fuss about being the youngest competitor running in the senior barrels finals? “Have fun,” she said.
RESULTS
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