‘A great feeling’: Rock Point cowgirl on a tear in junior-high pole bending

CAMP VERDE, Ariz.

It took a little while, but Oodessa Barlow has something to be smiling about.

The Rock Point, Arizona, cowgirl has been on a tear as of late in the Arizona Junior High School Rodeo Association.

Last month, she earned 25 points in four rodeos in the pole bending event, including a pair of top-five finishes at the Camp Verde rodeo held Nov. 21-22.

“There were (27) girls and I came in second,” Oodessa said of her first run during the two-day rodeo.

The third generation cowgirl is the daughter of Eugene Barlow and Irene Littleben. Her siblings include older brothers Montana and Leegene Barlow.

At the Camp Verde rodeo, the Rock Point Community School seventh grader clocked in at 22.729 in that second-place finish. On the following day she turned in a faster run at 22.254 for fifth place.

Those two runs earned her 15 points as she made a big jump in the season standings with 33 points, which ties her for fourth overall with Casa Grande, Arizona, cowgirl Lacey Benge.

“She’s very consistent,” her dad said. “She really doesn’t know that because she doesn’t look into the standings. She just goes out there and does her thing.”

Along with her poles, Oodessa is also making some huge gains in the barrel-racing event as she is sitting eighth overall with 28 points. In the eight rodeos held this past fall, she’s earned points at six of those rodeos including a fourth-place finish in Wilcox.

“I’m still working on my barrel horse,” Oodessa said of Gloria, a horse she’s been training for the past 18 months.

“When we got her she barely knew barrels so I had to teach her myself,” the 12-year-old cowgirl said.

Since joining the local AJHSRA affiliate last year, Oodessa has been nearly perfect with her runs. In her inaugural season in 2019, she didn’t drop a pole or a barrel as that season was cut short because of the pandemic this past spring.

“She was starting to climb in the standings in the barrels and the pole bending,” her dad said. “I think she would have qualified for nationals but the season got shortened.”

In her second year with the association, Oodessa had a rough start as she dropped her first pole at the Payson rodeo in late September. But on the following day she bounced back with a third-place finish of 22.971 seconds.

“It was our first rodeo and it was her first time going through the pole pattern again,” she said of her other horse, Journey.

With six more rodeos before the state finals, Oodessa is looking to add to her season total as the rodeo season will pick up next month on Jan. 9-10 in Tucson.

Her goal this season is to make nationals in her two signature events with the association taking the top four contestants.

As for her other events, Oodessa said she’s looking to make progress in both the breakaway and goat-tying events.

“I want to get better,” she said. “I’m practicing a lot on my (roping) dummy and for practice I tie my feet together for my goats.”

To help her get prepared for the fall tilt of the AJHSRA, the Barlow family traveled to neighboring states in Utah, Nevada and Idaho during the summer, competing in a number of sanctioned events with the National High School Rodeo Association.

“We were running up there when things were closed down here with the pandemic,” Eugene said. “She competed against other kids up there.”

At one of those rodeos, Oodessa turned in a personal best of 21.7 seconds in the poles at the Utah High School Invitational in Panguitch.

“That was a great feeling,” she said. “I really didn’t think it was going to be that fast.”

After making that run, she was closing in on a top finish in the average race but her horse got startled on the final pole due to a photographer’s flash.

“The arena was kind of dark on that end and all she had to do is get a 23 (second-run) or better,” her dad said. “She would have had a chance to win the poles that had over 100 contestants.”

And while she’s excelling in poles at the moment, Oodessa has a lifelong dream of making the NFR.

“The other day she came up to me and says, ‘Shizhéé, can you lead me into the Thomas & Mack Center for me, 10 years from now?” Eugene said. “That’s how bad she wants it.”

Needless to say, that was proud moment for the Barlow patriarch as he’s going to hold his daughter to that promise.

“I’ll make sure to do that when she grows up,” he said with his voice cracking.

That lifelong dream began four years ago when Oodessa took part of the Kassidy Dennison barrel racing school in Cuba, New Mexico.

“She’s inspired me to do that,” Oodessa said of her idol.

Since then, Eugene said, they have been communicating with one another.

“Kassidy has been really supportive of her,” Eugene said. “She checks in on her to see how she’s doing.”

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