HAMBURG — One look into Mazie’s large brown eyes, and Charlene Metroka knew the young South Dakota-born foundation Quarter Horse was something special.
“Not only was she beautiful, but there was an intelligence there,” recalled Metroka, 36, who’s been riding horses since almost before she could walk. “You can read a horse’s personality by their eyes. Some have a wild, frantic look. Mazie doesn’t; she has a very soft, kind eye.”
Metroka’s instinct was right on.
Aboard Mazie, the Schuylkill Haven rider recently won an International Barrel Racing Association national championship in women’s barrel racing at Cowpokes Arena in Cloverdale, Indiana.
Mazie, registered as Kingwoods Lady May, turned in a 16.773-second run, only two seconds off the fastest pace among about 450 horses. It was Mazie’s first 16-second run on a course, or pattern, that size. When Mazie’s score was announced, it took Metroka by surprise. In that moment, bursting with pride, she wept.
Mazie’s gift
Growing up on a farm in Germansville, Lehigh County, it was natural that the former Charlene Lingo would take to horses.
She entered barrel riding contests as a teenager. A fall during competition in her 20s, however, derailed her barrel racing career for more than a decade. She wasn’t injured, but her competitive spirit was broken.
About three years ago, aboard Mazie, she regained the confidence to return to racing. Trust between horse and rider is essential in barrel racing, Metroka said, and Mazie restored hers.
They train at Raven’s Run Farm, whose rolling green fields form an idyllic setting against the backdrop of Blue Mountain, east of Hamburg. Metroka manages the farm’s 30 resident horses.
She said it’s as if Mazie was born to run barrels. She has plenty of muscle and speed — essentials for horses that compete in barrel racing. Rounding a barrel, Mazie’s strong rear haunches propel her for the finish line with the zest of a Ferrari coming out of a hairpin turn.
Mazie was gifted with the essentials for barrel racing, Metroka said: good balance, grit and a lot of heart.
Beyond expectations
Metroka went to the IBRA nationals, held between Sept. 28 and Oct. 3, with modest expectations. If Mazie turned in an 18-second run, she’d be happy. They weren’t there to win, but to gain experience competing against the best barrel racers in the country.
At least, that’s what Metroka thought. Mazie had different ideas.
First, she turned in a very respectable 17.3-second run, well beyond Metroka’s 18-second expectation. In barrel racing, tenths or even hundreths of a second matter.
Mazie, eye-catching in her sooty buckskin-colored coat, was just getting started. Her 16.773-second run was off the charts. Metroka was on pins and needles until 90 horses ran — any one of them capable of knocking Mazie off her top spot.
“Lord, please let us hold that,” she wrote on Broke Girl Fast Horse, her Facebook page. Her plea was answered.
Star status
It’s somewhat of an understatement to say that Mazie relishes attention. She’s on Facebook and TikTok, where she has about 7,000 admirers.
It was as if she was posing for the camera during a recent photo shoot. “She loves to pose, and she loves to show off,” Metroka says. “That’s her personality.”
Mazie is so smart she even knows her name — Metroka’s too — when introduced for competition by an announcer.
“She’ll be quiet, sleepy. When her name is announced, she comes alive. She pulls me into the arena,” Metroka said.
Metroka and the horse she trained from a yearling to a champion were among the barrel racing competitors registered for the Schuylkill Stampede at the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds.
Mazie has a few more good years in her before retirement. If Metroka has her way, and Mazie’s willing, maybe there’ll come a day when she gives up barrel racing for motherhood.