Lakeside student takes rodeo talents across the state
Lillykate Lindsey is a 10-year-old fourth grade student at Lakeside Intermediate School but she is also an avid horse rider, competing in rodeos all over the state with her horse, Pistol.
Recently qualifying for the Youth World Barrel Racing Championship this July in Perry, Georgia, Lindsey has competed in many youth events, even competing in barrel races against adult riders.
Along with rodeo barrel racing, she competes in pole bending, which, she notes, is her favorite.
“I do barrels and poles. They both are speed events. They’re both timed to see who can do it the fastest. Poles, you go in and weave all six of them, turn around, do it again, and come out. Barrels, you can either go right or go left; I go left. You go left, then you turn that one, and then both of the other ones and come out as fast as you can,” she said.
Barrel racing is a sport where the rider and their horse must race around a set of barrels in a triangle formation and back into the gate in the quickest time possible. Pole bending is an event where the horse and rider snake through a line of six poles and back in the quickest time possible.
Lindsey competes for a lot of different associations around the state. She is a part of the Southern Junior Rodeo Association, the National Barrel Horse Association, the Arkansas Barrel Racing Association, the Southeast Arkansas Horse Show Association, the Arkansas Elite Barrel Series, and the Riding for the Brand Rodeo.
“I’m really happy about it,” she said. “I really like doing it. I’m happy. I’m not really scared. I was scared at first, but I’m not scared anymore.”
Her parents, Frank and Meredith Lindsey, are supportive of their daughter and cannot believe what she has been able to do in her competitions at such a young age.
“She amazes us,” Meredith Lindsey said. “Her father and I are very supportive in what she does. She has been competing for a year and a half. Every time she rides I’m amazed. I don’t really get scared; I have been a few times. She does her thing and we are so very proud of her. We are just enamored by her.”
The family shared the story about how, at eight years old, Lillykate Lindsey decided she wanted to ride horses and eventually got into rodeos.
“I walked down the stairs one day when we were at our old house and said, ‘Mom and Dad, I want to ride horses.’
That’s it,” the youngest Lindsey said.
Her mother picked up the story from there, giving the parental side.
“Well, she just said, ‘Hey guys, I think I want to take some horse lessons,” Meredith Lindsey said. “And we were like, ‘OK.’ So we decided to get her some basic, normal riding lessons. That was in April of ‘22, and by May of ‘22, we decided to sell our lake house and buy a farm in Glen Rose. By August of ‘22, she had saved up enough to buy her own first horse.”
Lilly Kate Lindsey shared that her favorite thing about rodeos is the people. Her goal is to make it to the National Finals Rodeo, or NFR, which is one of the biggest rodeo events where the top money-winners from the season compete for big cash prizes. It is held every December at the Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
She shared one of her favorite memories from an event in which she competed:
“Me and my best friend, we do this thing, because my mom is friends with our photographer, and me and my two other friends had a challenge of who can make the funniest face going out to the photographer when we were doing poles,” she said.
Lillykate Lindsey competed this weekend for the Arkansas Barrel Racing Association and will compete next weekend for the Southern Junior Rodeo Association in Benton.
Offering a piece of advice for people who want to start riding, she said, “Probably the most important thing that I would say is, at first, it’s not about going fast. Basically, you need to figure it out first.”