Meet your coach,

Samantha Winslow-Holmes

The diversity in our barrel horse breeding programs means there is no “one size fits all” for pattern, turn and posture in barrel horses anymore.

Starting in 2009, I collected Interval or Split Timing data at barrel races all over Canada & The USA.

What I saw was astounding and made me rethink everything I had ever learned about turns and barrel racing and I had the times to prove it.

I collected over 1 million interval/split times and over 5000 overhead videos, applied that to the biomechanics and locomotion research I had learned being a gymnast and coach and have created guidelines to follow for different builds of riders and horses.

More horses can be successful as barrel horses than any other discipline BUT this also means you have to restyle your riding to the horse you are on for it to work for YOUR build & THEIR build.

It is why there is more contradictory information in Barrel Racing than in any other sport.
What someone says will work. They just don’t say which build of horse & which build of rider.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I have been on a wellness journey to heal the cancer in my body.

My 1st diagnosis was Oct of 2019 and due to a lot of medical misjudgements and lack of testing, I was given the “all clear” in 2020, but the cancer had actually moved to my torso bones & lungs and was re-growing in my breasts.

In May 2023 after fighting for better diagnostic testing and not believing them that what I was feeling in my left side was scar tissue growing, I was re-diagnosed as stage 4 terminal metastatic breast cancer.

It had spread to my lungs (on & in), my entire skeletal torso, including my spine. We also had a mass in my spine that spanned T9-T12, and a large mass that was wound through my left pectoral muscle that was 10cm (4inches) x 20cm (8 inches) x 30cm (12 inches).

I chose to keep working and do treatments around my rodeo production schedule, because I thought it might be my last opportunity to work at shows I had fought SO hard to get to including The Calgary Stampede, The Ponoka Stamped & The Canadian Finals. I also tried to keep coaching through this, but the wheels started to fall of the wagon.

In 2024 I had a breakdown and had to step back from the Academy. The pressure of helping others while helping myself was too much for me.

Thankfully, I was able to get connected with a social worker who specializes in terminal diagnosis and I am learning to prioritize my mental health and physical health and see the warnings before the wheels fall off.

My scans have shown the lung tumors are clearing, the breast tumors are down to less than 10% of their original sizes and my bones are fighting back and filling the holes the cancer left in the vertebrae and ribs, sternum, collarbone & pelvis have less active markers on each scan.

I am beating the odds with the help of amazing family, friends, horses, faith and coloring far outside the lines of modern cancer treatment.

After a 15 month break I am SO EXCITED to get back to sharing my research.