Noelle Fairfield, Wiscasset, recently returned from Augusta, Georgia, where she and her horse, Rumor, competed in the World Barrel Racing Show championships. Fairfield and Rumor competed against the best of the best in the world, over 700 horses, and came home with a 25th place finish in Division I, the highest level.
The duo registered the fastest Maine time on record in 14.7 seconds. On his first run in Georgia, Rumor hit 15.7. On the second day of competition, Rumor and Fairfield scored their personal best 14.7.
Barrel racing is strictly for time. Horse and rider race through an obstacle course of barrels, turn sharply and return. If the horse hits a barrel, they are scratched and receive no score (time).
Rumor is fairly large for a barrel horse, standing 16.3 hands high. Farifield traded a “psychotic” horse for him. “He is the first horse I ever broke out and trained,” Fairfield said of the six-year-old Appendix (Thoroughbred, Quarter-horse cross).
Rumor’s full name is “Rumor Wins the Money” named by Sharon Higgins of Bath when he was a colt. Rumor has earned Fairfield some money on the Maine Barrel Racing circuit in weekend competitions from May to October.
He is the 2007 and the 2008 District I Reserve One D Champion, and the 2008 District I 2D champion. He missed being State champion when he hit a barrel.
Fairfield started training Rumor when he was four years old. “I started walking and trotting him and training him slowly. I started running him last year, but didn’t start pushing him until this year. He has a lot of attitude. While some riders enter the ring at a full trot, Fairfield starts Rumor out stationary. “Every horse is different. The more you let him run the worse he is. He is not focused. He gets himself all wound up and wants to go like a bat out of heck.”
There are four divisions in barrel racing, with Division I being the best. A half second is added to the time of the race winner, and that forms Division II.
At the World Championships, Fairfield and Rumor placed 25th. The top 20 made the Division I finals. Rumor fell “through the cracks” as his time was too fast to make Division II, and too slow to make the Division I finals.
“We were competing against the best of the best in the world. They were pretty high up there, we were competing against million-dollar horses,” Fairfield said of the World Championships. “Some riders rode five different horses for different people.”
Although Rumor did not win a ribbon or collect any prize money at Worlds, Fairfield said, “I got a lot of joy out of it. I couldn’t have been happier.” Fairfield made the trip with Jamie Parquette and her 11-year-old daughter, Haley Cummings, and Sharon Higgins of Andwemet Farms in Brunswick.
Fairfield qualified for the World event by placing twice in the top five in her district.
Fairfield has been riding horses for 15 years, since she was 10 years old and got her first horse, an Arabian named Nizzy.
Fairfield affectionately calls her 28-year-old Nizzy the “Old Man.” She road Nizzy on trails around her home for five years, before she started barrel racing on him when she was 15 years old, at Andwemet Farms with Higgins.
“The Old Man never hit a barrel. He never touched them, he was afraid of them,” Fairfield said.
Rumor is a different story, and would just as soon “lower his shoulder and plow into it if I don’t hold his shoulder up. He has a lot of attitude, but usually those are the good ones. He has been my amazing horse,” Fairfield said of her rambunctious, mischievous horse.
Rumor, is the horse with a temperamental personality and a wonderful charm that she loves and wouldn’t trade a world full of million-dollar horses for.
“Rumor is like a teenager. I have never had a horse with this much attitude. He’s a lot of horse. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to say goodbye, see ya. You can tell him “no,” over and over and he still does it. He’s not the easiest horse to ride. He bucks sometimes when he feels like it. When he’s ready (to race) he wants to bolt. I have to get him focused. I don’t practice barrels with him, just at shows. Once he’s got it, he’s got it. He is very smart and he gets bored. I trail ride him, usually bareback and do a lot of fine-tuning and different work. The quieter I can get him, the suppler I get him, the better he performs, Fairfield said of getting Rumor used to reacting to her body movements and leaning.
Fairfield leads a busy life with her husband, PJ, who is a lobsterman and digs clams. PJ learned how to take care of horse’s feet from his uncle and does some farrier work. When not caring for her horses, Noelle works at Ames Supply where she manages the horse department, and she is also taking college classes.
