Hello! I am Julie Steckner Gerona and below is how I got started in the barrel horse training business.

"My career as a barrel horse trainer all began with a cute little filly named Queenie AND it was all an accident!

When I was about 10 my dad got talked into buying a weanling filly for me. The man who did the talking was RB Caraway,the owner of a stallion called "Tiger's Music" (I don't remember begging... not once!). At the time Tiger's Music just was known for calf roping and western pleasure.

HIS babies were NOT crazy barrel horses! (or so I was told!).

Anyway the weanling grew up and got sent to RB for breaking. While away she, "Babydoll", got hurt and RB offered me my pick of that years weanlings to replace Babydoll. Up to Alabama we went and I picked out the cutest little filly. I was SO excited! Well...RB called and told me that the filly got hurt while halter breaking and I had to have the only filly left. THAT filly was "Tripple Music Too" or "Queenie" and THAT was the happiest accident ever! Queenie came to Florida and grew up. RB broke her and returned her to me with a warning that she would not make a barrel horse. For weeks I tried to get that filly to lope slow with her head down like a pleasure horse but she was as stubborn as me and it wasn't long before we started barrels. Well, of course a kid who had never run barrels has no clue how to train one so we learned together.

Queenie began to get better and better and before long we went from local playdays to rodeos. When I was about 15 my dad took me to Martha Josey's Barrel School. I learned SO much there about barrel racing and this is where I learned my best barrel racing lesson... how to gracefully accept a defeat. It was the finals of the school... there was a shiney BIG buckle just waiting to have my name on it. Queenie and I went out and ran the fastest time of the whole school EXCEPT we tipped the third barrel over! I was devastated. I had never seen such a beautiful buckle. I cried, I was heart broken but I had learned a great lesson about sportsmanship, dusting yourself off and trying again.

For the next few summers (late 70's) we went to Rockdale, Texas where RB would drag Queenie and me all over Texas to whip up on those Texas barrel racers. Little did I know that Tiger's Music was becoming a name in the barrel racing industry and it was all due to Queenie, I was just having a great time! RB took us everywhere. Funny that he never mentioned western pleasure again! Queenie eventually was bred to Magnolia Bar and produced a GREAT barrel horse called "Hermit". Get this true story...the evening after I had Hermit gelded, Steve Mullins, who owned Magnolia Bar, called to say Maggie had died. He wanted to buy Hermit to replace Magnolia Bar! AGGGGHHHHH! Anyway, I sold Hermit to Laura who LOVED him and won tons on him.

One summer, while at RB's, my dad bought me a pretty 2 yr. old, brown filly named "Pretty Music Tiger". RB wanted us to run her in the 1981 TBRA Futurity. We set our sites on that race and I started training her. Just another barrel race to me (I was 18) but to RB it was the race that secured "Tiger's Music" as a proven barrel horse sire. I made a bet with RB before the race that if I ran the fastest time he would give me a colt. WELL...Pretty and I ran the fastest time of the whole futurity! We won the first go. We would have won the whole thing but we tipped the second barrel over in the finals, never the less, I FINALLY won my buckle for running the fastest time. It was the "Pat Wilson" Memorial Buckle AND I got to pick out my colt.

Pretty and I went on to rodeo in Florida, Texas and all over the North/Southeast. This was all before the NBHA and finding a barrel race was no easy task if you lived in Florida! We won the "Rookie of the Year" in the FBRA and placed 3rd for the year in poles. We won 4th in 1983 at the Josey Jr. World. She ran against the best horses of her time and on any give day could beat any of them. Pretty went to the NFR as a back up horse for Cheryl Lynn Mann (late 80's/early 90's not certain of the year) which was qutie exciting for us. She was a great mare. Pretty was bred to "Killian Pacific" and produced "Prettyspacific" (Frisco - named after the hottie on General Hospital). I trained and sold him to Billie Kaye Pendray. At one point she was offerd $60K for Frisco but declined. Frisco also would have won Josey's Jr. World, with Jodi Nelson aboard, except they tipped barrel in the finals.

We owned many other horses that I trained and futuritied over the years...
Yella Rose of Tiger "Rosie", Ma Magnolia (Maggie) (Ma Magnolia - ROM performance & ROM performance producing daughter of Magnolia Bar. Ma Magnolia has run out $40,000 in barrel earnings - also setting a new record at the Lazy E.) I sold her to Steve Mullins who owned Magnolia Bar, Nassau Gold (Gold) I sold him to Mike and Talmadge Green, Hod Durn Ya (Slick - A Mister Oh Jay bred colt, won 3rd at the FBRA Futurity in the mid 80's) I sold him to Laura Spenser, Cowboys Music (Cowboy) I sold him to Allison Geiger, Tiger's Lone Star (Tiger) who lived with the Reddish's, I am Calvin (Calvin) who I sold to Lemme Tate and many more. I also rode outside horses and gave lessons.

At one layover in Texas I stayed over at Martha Josey's and helped her instruct at her schools for the summer. This was a great experience. I even got to ride "Sonny Bit O Both" to help keep him fit. At one rodeo we hauled to, I was supposed to video Martha for her. Well I had never run on of those cameras but I was too shy to tell her. When we got home and popped the tape in the VCR all that was on it was bleachers and ground...oops! I still haven't lived that one down!

I worked at Pine Knob Farms in Tennessee for a while. Magnolia Bar was still alive then and standing at Pine Knob. I did everything from starting colts to hauling finished horses. Before I left to go to college I sold Steve a Maggie filly that I trained named "Ma Magnolia". I think I remember that Maggie ended up with Lynn McKenzie. Not 100% sure but would love to ask Lynn.

Anyway that gives you some background on my history in barrel racing and horse training. I sold everything in the mid 80's and took about 10 years off. In 1998 I bought one filly to just trail ride but the barrel racing fever hit hard and I found myself back with a passion for training barrel horses!

Now my goal is to train one or two really nice barrel horses a year and place them with people who want to win. This is not my living, just an addiction. I don't go thru 15 or 20 horses, then sell the worst and keep the best. I choose the bloodlines and individuals carefully for my training program. If one of my horses is not quite making it in the barrel pen they are sold and recommended for other sports. The horses I train and sell have not been passed around and ridden by many different people. They benefit from steady training methods by one person. They are not pushed, they progress at their own pace which keeps them level headed and helps them have long, successsful careers. I also accept outside horses for barrel horse training and have enjoyed watching them and their owners learn and compete at all different levels of competition. One of my favorite things is the fact that my customers and I keep in touch. They know how much I love my horses and I get to see them progress and win for years to come!

I learned my horsemanship and horse training from a GREAT old time cowboy - RB Caraway. I learned my barrel racing from the GREATEST barrel racer of all time - Martha Josey. (Queenie also taught me alot, I usually just hung on.) I got coached by the best coach in the world - my dad (who is the consumate perfectionist) and he is like a sponge! He has absorbed every correct detail of barrel racing over the years and helps me after each run. He was (IS) better than a video camera!. I would also like to add that in the 80's and 90's my father, George Steckner, traveled and worked with Ralph Goldman from Goldman Timers. Ralph was first in the industry to have the complicated timing systems that printed out results, had the winner boards and was the INVENTOR of the red light, green light race entry system that you see today. Ralph and dad timed ALL the big shows... Congress, Fort Smith, Joseys Jr. World, all the major futurities and barrel races during those 15-20 years. Ralph used to tease me that he had a "Julie Button" on his timers so that I would will all the races... (unfortunately that button didn't always work so well...)! Ralph has since left us but those that knew him will always remember a wonderful friend.

I would also like to thank "Rob's Miss Muffet" for her part in my horse history. Muffet was a western pleasure horse that I rode in a show in Ocala, Florida when I was about 10 yrs. old. I was instructed to ride on a loose rein. Well, my reins were practically dragging the ground. When we were asked to canter on the rail, Muffet lapped the arena twice and then ran SMACK over the judge! I could never understand why I didn't get to show the next day! Thank you Muffet for teaching me to crave SPEED and EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!"