TX for OK, Another Success!

On June 1st myself with Dreaming of Three and Jackie Parish with BAR Productions collaborated yet again for another successful benefit. Everyone came together to throw this event together in two weeks and it was spectacular.Our Copperstone Farm $1500 Added 5D Texas For Oklahoma turned out to be a wonderful race. We had 122 horse/rider combinations in our Open race and paid out over $6500 in Cash and Prizes thanks to our wonderful sponsors including Copperstone Farm, Charleigh's Cookies, A Horse Box, JT International, Bekki Cakerice, Suerina Guerin, Tyler Coon, and BAR Productions.

Our 1D winner and official Arena Record Holder of Gibtown Arena was McKinley Goodger. She jockeyed her sorrel mare Roxy to a 17.525 and won over $1000 in cash and prizes, including an Angel Wings Breast Collar from Twisted Tack! Our 2D Champion was Kelsey Mackay on Ky Finest Redneck who won close to $600 in Cash and Prizes. Shelbey Starnes on Charge was our 3D Open Champion AND our 1D Youth Champ. She took home over $600 in cash and prizes all together. Emily Winders and Jack took the 4D and the Youth 2D for over $500 in cash and prizes as well. Our 5D Champ was Terry Vest on Red and they finished up with about $300 worth of cash and prizes as well. Our 3D Youth champ who also finished 2nd in the 5D was Mary Duffield and she brought home over $300 in cash and prizes. Wow!! What a payout these girls had!

Also want to give out a congrats to Kelly Jones who was our Cake Lope Winner! She chose a delectable German Chocolate cake. How fun!

Of course the most important part of this whole race was not our payout but how much we raised for Oklahoma. Texas for Oklahoma raised over $2600 to add to the tally for Dreaming of Three to send up to the great state. We will combine these funds with Cowgirl's Tuff's live auction funds of $2290, The Bayberry Horse with $150, Clyde Saddle Club/IBRA PA $250, donations of $125 PLUS we still have the Tshirt total left! Dreaming of Three believes there should be at least $7000 when it's all said and done to send to Orr Family Farm and Horse Feather's Equine Rescue. So for everyone that sent a silent auction item, bought a t-shirt, ran in the class or bought an exhibition, or won a silent auction item THANK YOU. These small combined efforts turned into something GREAT that will really make a difference. These funds will be distributed to Orr Family Farm and to Horse Feathers Rescue as soon as we get all of the money in total.

TX for Oklahoma had a fantastic crew out helping make the race run smooth and move along quickly. Jackie Parish announced and oversaw, Erica Cole, Danny Kraatz, Mike Minders, Paige Autenreib and Jackie's parents all helped in the office.  Jessie was nice enough to drive the tractor and Kim and Ashley Perkins, Raylee Moss and Samantha Collup set barrels all day. Last but certainly not least Jo Haigwood took some beautiful pictures of our runners that day! Thank you so much crew for putting forth such awesome efforts. I know it was a long day for everyone.

It was a tremendous effort by everyone and wouldn't have been a success without all of the wonderful jockey's who came out to race! I hope to see everyone back the See No Evil Race 2 on July 13. BBR approved, added money and prizes yet again. The Alamo Saddle is ordered and I can't wait to see our Year End High Point Winner win it!

For more info visit the following:
Dreaming of Three www.dreamingofthree.com
BAR Productions www.gibtownarena.com
Jo Haigwood Photography www.johphotography.smugmug.com
Twisted Tack www.twistedtack.com
Charleigh's Cookies www.charleighscookies.com
A Horse Box www.ahorsebox.com
JT International www.jtidist.com
Key'd Up Rodeo www.keyduprodeo.com
Smith Brother's www.smithbrothers.com
Cosequin www.nutramaxlabs.com

 Above the Cake Lope winner Kelly Jones and below 1D Champ McKinley Goodger and Roxy

Texas for Oklahoma

As most know Oklahoma has suffered a series of tragic tornadoes that have caused a huge amount of destruction, death and devastation to many communities. On May 20th, an EF5 mile wide tornado with 200mph winds tore through the town of Moore, Oklahoma. I was shocked to turn on the news and watch the tornado live on TV from it's beginning to its dissipation. Immediately as I witnessed it's massive path I knew that the aftermath would be horrific. Given Moore is a somewhat rural town, it would be inevitable that many families would be losing their beloved pets and companions.

After the storm had cleared, news crews immediately started filming and learning about survival stories. One of those being from an exercise rider(a rider who works out race horses in the morning) who hunkered down in a stall, which collapsed on top of him and in the end actually saved his life. After he arose from what little rubble was left, he was left looking around at nothing but flat land blown away and scattered to who knows where. Barns gone, horses gone, everything gone! The 106 acre Orr Family Farm was lost into oblivion and the saddest part was that the horses where gone to. Scattered across the farm and else where these beautiful creatures where left to be found by their owners. My heart bled for the farms who lost so much and I immediately reached out to my "Jackies", Jackie Harris, Do3 Founder, and Jackie Clifton, Barrel Director of BAR Productions who has been my guiding light hosting the See No Evil Races. So within hours we had a plan to host a benefit barrel race to help Orr Family Farm. Little did we know this quick throw-together race would turn into such a huge inspirational endeavor!

Quickly the race gained steam with support and donations from sponsors and racers. Our little race was receiving a little bit of added money and awards and things where starting to look up. Then to my surprise, Bekki Cakerise, whom is a local racer who wanted to help, did us a little favor. After mentioning the race to the ranch she works at, Copperstone Farm stepped up to make a huge donation to our race to help give local jockeys more incentive to come run for a cause and wanted to help the those of Oklahoma as well. Thanks to their generous contribution we are now able have the Copperstone Farm $1500 Added Texas For Oklahoma 5D Benefit Barrel Race which will also include a $300 Youth Incentive, Cake Lope(think cake walk on horses), Silent Auction, Raffle Prize and breast collars to champion in Each D. Twisted Tack and The Western edge wanted to join in on our efforts and they donated one of their Angel Wings Breast Collars, Valued at $325 to our 1D winner. This fabulous race will be held at Dancing Oaks Ranch(Gibtown Arena) in Poolville, Texas on June 1st.

To make things even better, Cowgirl Tuff reached out to me to let me know that they decided to hold a live auction after their B.Tuff Foundation Race so they could combine 100% of their auction money to our money raised! I am absolutely on cloud 9 yet again to see how the western community can come together in such a huge effort. I am determined to make Dreaming of Three's Benefit's some of the best local benefit's in Texas and they are well on their way to that! To have Cowgirl Tuff and Copperstone Farm behind us in just almost unbelievable. Thank you so much to both of you for making such a big difference!

We are also going to be using the new ProLine SE System form Barrier Tec which combine's social media with the computer program to run the races. It sends a text to your phone when you are 20 runners out, sends a text to your phone with your run time, has immediate results and payouts and so much more. It truly is the future of speed events and we are one of the first to be able to demo it thanks to Danny Kraatz and Barrier Tec! 

The race will run exhibitions from 11-3 with the Cake Lope following Exhibitions and the Open to follow the Cake Lope. I cannot wait for this race to get here because I know it's going to be fantastic for everyone! We want to make it great for our jockey's as well as the Orr Family Farm. There will be a $40 Entry Fee with 80% Payback. Gibtown Arena is also going to set the official Arena Record at this race, therefor will be awarding our 1D winner an ADDITIONAL $100 to their earnings! It's going to be a great event for an even greater cause and I am thrilled to be hosting it along side Jackie Clifton. I could have never been able to do all of this without her! I'm excited to see what we can come up with for Orr.To even imagine being in their shoes and suffering what they have gone through in unbelievable, heart wrenching and I hope Dreaming of Three's efforts can help make a difference for them in every way possible.  For more information visit www.barproductions.com for arena info or visit the FB Event page https://www.facebook.com/events/604952009525736/https://www.facebook.com/events/604952009525736/

T Shirts sold from  Dreaming of Three to benefit Orr

 Angel Wings Breast Collar from Twisted Tack

 A Horse Box Sent down 5 Boxes for our Race!

 Gibtown Arena where the race will be held at.

 Race Horse Tote donated by In Classic Fashion for our Silent Auction

 Gift Bucket from Smith Brothers!

 Damage from the Tornado, not sure if this is Orr Family Farm

 Where barns, an indoor arena, horse walkers and more used to be.

 The exercise rider who survived the EF5 Tornado

 The mile wide Tornado

You can clearly see where the tornado traveled, directly trekking over Orr and taking out homes nearby as well.

Well Wishes

Today I headed back up to Cook's Children's Hospital to go see our Rodeo Kid Dominique. I had visited Dominique last week to see how he was doing with his stay in the hospital. After over a month he has finally received the ok to head back home to Abilene after getting over Pancreatitus. This time around I was especially excited for this visit as I had a big surprise for him and his Dad.

Upon my arrival and some brief chit-chatting I presented Billy, Dominique's Father with the envelope from Dreaming of Three. He pulled out the letter,a check for over one thousand dollars and began to read aloud my sentiments I had placed from pen to paper. It was so humbling to see a grown-man of such stature to get choked up and witness the truly emotional tole it has taken on this family. I cannot even imagine being in his shoes and seeing my child endure what Dominique has. Dreaming of Three is so honored to be able to give these families support in every way we can. Our financial help may be small now, but I think our physical support is making a bigger impact than any amount of money can assist.

Dominique was in much better spirits this visit. His release I'm sure was due in part to his more lively nature. He was sweet as always and we had a good talk. He promised to tell me all about his trip to Disney World when they get back in June! What a perfect vacation for such a deserving family.

So now they should be making there trip back home to Abilene where they can finally start getting back to a normal life. Dominique will continue to get his treatments there and will only have to come down to Fort Worth occasionally. It could not make me happier to see him feeling better and be able to get back to being a kid again. Good Luck Dominique, I hate to see you go but I wish you well! 

Fighting the Good Fight

In the midst of all the chaos preceeding and following the 1st See No Evil Race to help Dominique's Family I wasn't able to stay in touch with his father, Billy, as much as I would have liked. I was finally able to go visit them at Cooks Childrens Hospital in Fort Worth on May 22. This is has been Dominique home since April 18th, after he was addmitted with a fever of 101 and diagnosed with Pancreatitus.

I called Billy when I got there, and was able to sneek into Dominique's room while he was out. With my arms full of the delectible Edible Arrangement bouquet that Dreaming Of Three had made up, I shouted "Hey!" as walked through the door to suprise him! He had no idea I was coming and I think it was an uplifting suprise.

We chit-chatted about his stay at Cooks, and how much better Dominique is doing. It's looking like he will finally be released very soon. He's finally off of the feeding tube and back to eating solid foods(He was munching on some pizza while we visited). Dominique is very laid back and reserved, but he really warmed up to my 3 year old son Carson and it was very sweet to see how giving and caring Dominique is. He offered him all of his snacks and was very sweet.

I was thrilled to hear that their whole family is making a trip to Walk Disney Wold in Florida this June thanks to Make A Wish Foundation! What an amazing experience for them all, and I'm sure after this long and tedious stay at the hospital it will be just what they need to wind down and let loose.

We ended with a hug and a smile as Dominique's teacher was scheduled to be arriving. I was so happy to see him doing better and hope that his health will continue to improve. Do3 continues to inspire me and so many others. We may be a small organization, but I do think we do big things for the people and animals we help. It can only go up from here!

See No Evil Race 1

What an exciting time we all had this past weekend. The day had finally arrived for our 1st ever See No Evil Benefit Race. We had a few hiccups but I was blessed to have such great friends and family be able to come together to make this race a success for both Stacey & Dominique. Dreaming of Three, Jackie Clifton with BAR Productions and Tammy Kidd-Coward with Wild West Promotions collaborated along with the new Pro-Line Speed Event System created by Danny Kraatz. The Pro-Line System had it's first official test run at our race. This new system enables a text to be sent to your phone when you are 20 runners away, texts you your time and so much more. It truly is the future of speed events and we where lucky enough to use it FIRST!

The arena and facility was decked out in See No Evil banners thanks to Arlington Quick Sign! They also designed our barrel covers. If you need something done for an event, Arlington Quick Sign can get it done for you. Everything looked fantastic.

Exhibitions filled up fast, riders from all over Texas an Oklahoma hauled in and we had 90 horse/rider combinations compete. We had a few problems with the tractor but we had an understanding crowd who was patient for us to work through it.

Our Silent Auction turned out great and pulled in a lot of money. Deni Oster was our lucky raffle winner of the Hidez Equine Travel & Recover Compression Body Suit valued at $600.

We had a lot of fabulous runs from some amazing jockeys and horses at our race. However none could out run Patti Wellmon and her mare LuLu who out ran them all to be our 1st Divisional Champions with a 14.725. Shannon Black was a mere half second behind as our 2nd Divisional Champion on her horse Roanie with a 15.308. Celsey Rater jockeyed her sorrel horse Jets Flit Folly Bar to be our 3rd Division Champion with a time of 15.728. Terry Vestor rode her gray horse Brody for a time of 16.271 to be our 4th Divisional Champions. Each of our Champions went home with $198.75 each and awards from our sponsors including ribbons from Ribbons n Beyond, 10lb pails of Forco Digestive Fortifier, Intensify Challenge from Bluebonnet Feeds, Trophy Cuff Bracelets from Craft & Crown and Patti also went home with 1 Natural Alternative Grazers "N.A.G. Bags", 1 Quart of LubriSyn Equine, and one certificate for a HIDEZ Equine Travel & Recovery Compression Body Suit valued at $600.

After it was all said and done we where able to raise over $1000 each for both Dominique and Stacey. It could not have came at a better time as Dominique has been in the hospital for going on 1 month with Pancreatitus and a fever and Stacey is in the works of acquiring her Seeing Eye Dog and is needing to make arrangements with her eye doctor. Thanks to Jackie Harris, founder of Dreaming of Three, the barrel racing world is coming together to help these families!

None of this could have happened with out all of wonderful volunteers. They Bryant family helped out tremendously by setting barrels, digging stakes, and tractor driving, fellow Do3 Member Erica Cole worked hard learning the new Pro-Line System and doing the books, her father Billy also was a big help by doing a lot of the tractor driving as well. Paige Autenreib kept things flowing by handling the entry table, Bobbye Hayes, Randy Miller and Jackie served up the food in the concession, and Marvin Hayes helped set up the banners in the Arena. Jon Baker Photography did a fantastic job taking out runners photos and our win pictures at the end of the race. I am pleased to say that he will be our Official Photographer of the See No Evil Series and will be at all of our races. 

Below our are winners for our race. Not pictured is Shannon Black, our 2D Champion, who donated $100 of her winnings back to Dominique and Stacey.

Bigger & Better in Texas

So as it turns out the See No Evil Benefit Barrel Race has become bigger and better than I could ever imagined. I wanted to hold an exceptional benefit to help out my Aunt Stacey Miller and Dreaming of Three Rodeo Kid Dominique McAllister. I was getting so overwhelmed with the out pouring of support from product sponsors that I contacted that I thought of something that would truly make a larger impact for everyone involved, a series. So was established the See No Evil Series. I have decided to hold a series of 3 races, May 11, July 13, a race in September and then a finals in November. With races being every few months, it worked out best to help to continue to raise funds for Dominique and other local families, as each race will be a split benefit for him and another local family in need.

Each race will consist of an Open Barrel Race with at lease $100 added money and excellent awards, Silent Auction, Raffle, Door Prizes and Concession. We will have a saddle for the Year End Average Winner and many more wonderful prizes. There has been a website set up for easy information access as well at www.seenoevilrace.com.

Our first race in May is all set up to go and we are gearing up for our 2nd race in July. If you would like to pitch in or know of someone who would like to be a product or funds sponsor for the See No Evil Series please email me at  carliehayes@yahoo.com. We need all the help we can get to make this a success for everyone involved. This would never be possible if it wasn't for our Sponsors, Dreaming of Three, CM Productions and Bar Productions!   

Race 2  flyer

            

See No Evil

About a year and one half ago my Aunt, Stacey Miller, quite tragically and permanently lost her vision after suffering horrific side effects from a medical treatment gone terribly wrong. She was in the hospital for weeks and was very close to death on more than one occasion. Although Stacey, being the fighter that she always has been, pulled through, was told that she would never be able to regain her eye sight. Not only would she have to recover, she would have to learn to live this whole new lifestyle. I do not think I could ever had the courage and durability that she has had to get to where she is today. Recently I was shocked and so happy to see her able to do the dishes, boil tea, and even saddle up her daughter's horse! She has always been an intelligent, go getting woman, and clearly nothing has changed.

Immediately I began to think of something I could do to help Stacey and her family. I knew that the hospital bills would be never ending, she would need to go to school to learn how to regain her mobility and complete all of the other training she would need to be able to regain her confidence is world that she could no longer see. Being the barrel racer that I am, I immediately thought of a benefit barrel race. So right away I put everything together, had a presentation with Stacey and other family for what I had planned and everyone was quite excited for, what I had called, the SEE NO EVIL Benefit Barrel Race. There was one problem though, I had no idea how to actually host one of these races! I had no equipment, no computer software, no nothing and no knowledge. I asked around and got some responses but there was always a problem here or a problem there so I basically shelved the idea until the right time came along.

Recently at a local benefit called "Somebody Help The Boy" I was racing at I heard a loud speaker announcement after the race. Charmaine Newkirk with CM Productions basically said, if you know someone who needs help, and want to host a benefit, let me know! And "There's your sign"....I knew right away this was my opportunity to make this happen. Finally, the SEE NO EVIL race could possibly happen! After talking with Charmaine, she said let's give it ago. So I hit the road running, pulled out all of my prep work from so long ago and went to work.

My plans for this race where going to be a little different than I had planned. Recently I had been blessed to take Dreaming of Three's Rodeo Kid Dominique McAllister to his very first rodeo at the Stockyard's Championship Rodeo on March 9, 2013. Dominique, whom many of you know, is an 11 year old boy whom last year was diagnosed with Leukemia. He and his father live at the Ronald McDonald House in Fort Worth, Texas where he receives treatments 3 days a week. Dominique's father, Billy, travels from Abiline to Fort Worth frequently as his other two children live in Abiline, so he has been unable to find a job who is willing to accommodate his families needs of traveling. I had been, as well, trying to think of ways to help raise money for Dominique that could raise enough to actually make enough for his family. Nothing seemed to be big enough to help...until now! It was divine intervention that everything was coming together all at once in harmony to help both of these extremely deserving families who quite unfortunately have hit harder times than most of will ever have to go through.

So for about the past week I have endlessly been putting plans together to make this race a huge success. Salt Creek Arena is the chosen venue, as it is locally convenient for everyone and the date has been set for May 11, 2013. We have already received some MAJOR product sponsors for the silent auction including Absorbine, Heritage Brand, Mane 'n Tail, FORCO, Cowboy Magic and many many more. We have been blessed with our largest sponsor yet to be able to award the 1D Champion wit a HIDEZ Travel & Recovery Compression Body Suit, which retails at $600.

HIDEZ is an equine full body suits that helps rid the body of lactic acid build up so your horse does not get sore and increases blood flow to the heart, among many other great things it does. These are brand new to the US and I am thrilled that Matthew Spice, the owner and inventor of HIDEZ, is allowing me this opportunity to introduce this revolutionary product to the US and barrel racing industry.

We will also be awarding Trophy Leather Cuff Bracelets to the Division Champions, as well as a 10lb pail of FORCO, which is specifically designed to have your horses digestion track at optimum working condition. There will very likely be even more added to the Champion Division Awards.
There will also be awards to the Reserve Champions in the Division which will include a custom brush set from Craft & Crown, and more. We have where also able to have HORSNHAYES ART design a beautiful logo created just for this race. There will be a concession stand, hopefully catered by a local eatery. We are also having a HIDEZ body suit to be raffled off, among other raffle prizes as well. It's going to be a full on great event, and I'm hoping one of the best local benefits of the year. The books are planned to open at 11:00 AM, exhibitions to go from 11:30-1:30 and the race to start at 2:00 PM. We're keeping the entry low at only $25 and so far we have tallied up $300 in added money. I cannot wait to make this a huge success for Stacey and Dominique! I would never be able to do it with out all of the help from Dreaming of Three, Charmaine Newkirk and CM Productions and the extremely generous product Sponsors! Please check out the website for the race www.seenoevilrace.com for more info on the race and the amazing sponsors. If you would like to make a donation to help make this race a huge success for Dominique and Stacey please email me at carliehayes@yahoo.com for more information on how you can help.