Beasley Equine Podcast
Welcome to the Beasley Equine Podcast, where horse lovers, riders, and industry experts come together to explore the fascinating world of equine care, training, and culture. Hosted by passionate equine Veterinarian Dr. Travis Beasley, each episode dives into the latest trends in horse health, innovative techniques, and inspiring stories from the saddle. Whether you're a seasoned competitor, a backyard horse owner, or simply captivated by these majestic animals, join us for practical tips, expert interviews, and a celebration of all things equine. Saddle up and tune in—your next great ride starts here! New episodes every Tuesday!
Beasley Equine Podcast
Beyond the Arena: Claire Woods' Journey
The future of rodeo shines bright through riders like Claire Woods, the fourteen-year-old breakaway roper we're proud to sponsor for the 2025-26 season. Fresh out of school for summer and heading into her freshman year, Claire opens up about balancing practice sessions with the everyday responsibilities of country life.
At the heart of Claire's rodeo journey stands Steve Earle – her loyal horse who, as she repeatedly assures us with a smile, "is still not for sale." This partnership has already produced impressive results, including a personal best breakaway time of 3.99 seconds. Though qualified for finals, Claire's chosen to focus on open rodeos this summer, with her sights set on the Whippoorwill finals where consistency will be key to success.
What makes Claire's story especially compelling is the wisdom she's developed at such a young age. She reflects candidly on overcoming the paralyzing nerves of her first rodeo experience, the mentorship she receives from rodeo veterans Larry Darnell and Abby Stevens, and how she's learning to channel competitive anxiety into focused performance. Beyond the arena, Claire embodies the full country lifestyle – caring for her seven dogs (six corgis and one mini Aussie), fishing with her brother, and nurturing her connection to the land and animals that define her world. Follow Claire's journey this season as she and Steve Earle chase dreams one calf at a time, representing the timeless values that make rodeo not just a sport, but a way of life.
All right, we got Claire Woods here, one of our sponsored writers for the 2025-26 season. How are you doing today, Claire?
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:Are you out of school for the summer?
Speaker 2:Yes, you didn't have to go to summer school.
Speaker 1:That's good. So what have you been up to besides rodeoing?
Speaker 2:What have you been up to besides rodeoing? Just have been doing some chores around the house and been practicing and getting ready for all the rodeos upcoming.
Speaker 1:What do you got upcoming Finals?
Speaker 2:I'm not going to finals this year, but I did qualify. I'm going to do the open rodeos this year.
Speaker 1:Oh, cool. And who are you riding this year? Steve Earl, he's my main horse.
Speaker 2:Oh, cool During the summer. And who are you riding this year? Steve Earle, he's my main horse.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, Are you familiar with Steve Earle, the country singer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard of him before.
Speaker 1:Anytime you bring the horse here I get the old song Copperhead Road stuck in my head just because of that name. But Steve Earle is awesome and he's still not for sale.
Speaker 2:No, he's still not for sale. No, he's still not for sale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think I could afford him anyways. So what all events are you doing on Steve Earle this year?
Speaker 2:Mainly breakaway, but when I go to Flickrwood I do polls too.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fun. Does he like doing polls?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is he good at it? Are you good at it? Yeah, what kind of time are you clocking in the polls?
Speaker 2:My fastest time, I think, is like a 23 or 22 maybe.
Speaker 1:Wow, what about breakaway? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:My fastest time in breakaway is maybe like a 3.99.
Speaker 1:That's crazy fast. Yeah, you'll probably say, oh, that's slow, because people can do it in two seconds. Yeah, how old are you right now?
Speaker 2:I'm currently 14.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what grade are you in?
Speaker 2:I'm going to be a freshman.
Speaker 1:Oh, are you excited or nervous for high school?
Speaker 2:I'm kind of excited and kind of nervous at the same time. Yeah, you're going to do fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, high school's way, way, way better than grade school and middle school. Yeah.
Speaker 2:From what I remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that what other people have told you too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my mom's, like you're going to do, fine, yeah.
Speaker 1:We're not worried about you, claire. Yeah, so if you could give Steve.
Speaker 2:Earle a superpower, or if he had a superpower, what would that be Probably to run like really, really fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and stay calm like Steve Earle. Yeah, he is one of our favorite horses that come in. He's pretty, he's well-mannered and he tolerates me poking and prodding and Autumn trotting him in shots and everything like that. He is a really cool horse. We all love Steve Earle, so do you have any goals for you and Steve Earle for the rest of the year?
Speaker 2:My main goal for like this summer is to make it to Whippoorwill finals and basically to keep catching and be consistent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you make it to finals and you win, do you get a big shiny belt buckle?
Speaker 2:Possibly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you can do it, and we want to see it when you win. Okay. Okay, we want a win picture. Okay, and can do it, and we want to see it when you win okay, okay, we want to win picture. Okay, and we want to see the buckle in person. Jenny that works here just won the finals and she got a nice pretty belt buckle. Yeah, I think she's got it here, if you want to see it. Okay, yeah, she won't let me wear it, but um, so what? When did you start riding?
Speaker 2:um, I started riding earl, I think when I was about.
Speaker 1:Is that when you started riding, or were you doing other stuff before that?
Speaker 2:I was riding before that. I started on like a really old horse that my grandma owned and then I got Steve Earle after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and is that who brought you here today your grandma? Yeah, she's awesome, isn't she? Yeah, yeah, we love our grandmas. We got to take care of them too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:For sure, yeah, grandmas, we got to take care of them too. Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. So who's? Who's some of your heroes?
Speaker 2:right now in the rodeo world. You have any? Um, yeah, I have my mom, my dad, both of my grandparents, and larry darnell and abby stevens who have been helping me yeah, you're going to the right place there.
Speaker 1:how fast can abby rope us to your or a calf? How fast?
Speaker 2:can Abby rope a steer or a calf Pretty fast, probably like a two something or maybe even a one, I don't know Like really fast.
Speaker 1:That's crazy to me. Yeah, that blows my mind. So you spend a lot of time at Larry's.
Speaker 2:I spent all last week there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you and Avery are pretty tight, aren't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of fun when you guys are here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lots of laughs. Um, do you what? Do you remember the first horse show or rodeo that you won or did something that you were really, really proud of?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, the first rodeo um I ever went to. I was super nervous to like do it and it was my first time and I got super upset in the box, like I was just nervous to come out of the box and when I was healing I caught a leg or two. I can't really remember but I know I caught a leg and I was super proud of myself for coming out and doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. I remember my first run on live steers. It was at Larry's. Yeah, a long time ago. Yeah, I asked Shailen this earlier, but do you ever have to do pushups?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Does he still have an 87 year old grandma that can swing a rope faster than everybody? Okay, yep, I heard that line. Yeah, a lot, yeah, yeah. And then we were talking about corgis. Earlier, lenny, the dog in here was sniffing you and you said you probably smell like dogs. Yeah, how many corgis do you have? Do you guys raise them? Is that right?
Speaker 2:yeah, we raise them, and currently I have seven of your own?
Speaker 1:Yeah, are they for sale, or are they just your dogs?
Speaker 2:They're just my dogs. We don't have any currently for sale right now.
Speaker 1:Seven dogs. Are they in the house?
Speaker 2:No Only one is in the house.
Speaker 1:Are they corgis, or what all you got?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have six corgis and one mini Aussie.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you like the. Do you know why a cowboy always wants a corgi? Cause he wants a long little doggy.
Speaker 2:That's a good one yeah.
Speaker 1:You can, you can tell your dad that one, okay, um, what about outside of the rodeo world? What do you, what do you like to do?
Speaker 2:Um, I like taking care of animals and spending time with family and basically just being a country girl, being being able to be outside and everything Do you go fishing. Sometimes with my brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and your brother rides and competes too, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, who's the better fisherman, you or your brother?
Speaker 2:Definitely my brother.
Speaker 1:Oh Well, we'll let that slide, I guess. Yeah, but what are some things that? Steve Earle was pretty well trained when you got him right, yeah, so has he been able to teach you quite a bit along your journey too.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, people, until you've had a horse like him, it's easy to take for granted some things. Yeah, so you've got an awesome horse.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I said, we love Steve Earle and I'd probably give you $1,000 for him today. Is that a good deposit? No, not even $1,000. Yeah. So one thing I was going to talk to you about is you said you got nervous that first time. Do you still get nerves when you go out there at these horse shows and rodeos?
Speaker 2:Not as much at horse shows, but sometimes at rodeos. I get nervous. So yeah, is that because there's a crowd watching, or uh mainly because I just want to catch the calf and I know I can do it inside, but sometimes my brain tells me different yeah, yeah, a lot of it's a mental, mental game yeah, for sure I remember going to louisville and I think it was a quarter horse show and I'd done all the local stuff.
Speaker 1:Me and Laurie went down there. I remember riding into Freedom Hall just like my god, this is crazy. But yeah, that's, and that's true. With everything like the nerves, it's good to be nervous, you can. You can kind of channel that energy, yeah, and I think if you're not nervous then maybe you don't really care. Do you think that's true?
Speaker 2:Yes and no, Like sometimes I'm not nervous but I still care. And sometimes I'm nervous and I care.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just channel that nervous energy into confidence. Maybe Did you happen to notice all this stuff on the table back here? I did, yeah, did you know you get to go home with all this today? I did not know that, not this particular stuff but we've got backpacks full over there. So we got hats, we got some protect GI, we got backpack t-shirts, water bottles, stickers it looks like there's a hoof pick and then I don't, I think autumn what is this, john For cutting tags on cows, in case you're into that and a little stress horse from BI so you can use that. But yeah, we got all that together. We reached out to all these companies and told them we were sponsoring some of you kids, yeah, and they loved it. And the next thing we knew, we had boxes on our front porch full of all this stuff too. That's awesome to give you guys, yeah, so I know you'll represent them well and you'll represent us well, and then maybe at the end of the season we can have Steve Earle.
Speaker 2:Maybe Probably not. You can just see him on his visits.
Speaker 1:I won't hold my breath for Steve Earle, as much as I'd like to have him, but I noticed you had a buckle on. What are you sporting there?
Speaker 2:This is my buckle from when I won the rail class at one of our local shows near our house.
Speaker 1:How did that feel? That felt really awesome yeah did you beat a lot of people to win that?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but you guys work really hard, yeah, like we practice a lot, don't you? Yeah, yeah, we had one of our clients won not jenny, but another gentleman won the world and he's like, oh, it feels like a dream, and I was like, dude, you got good horses, you take care of them, yeah, and you work your butt off like you've earned it, yeah, and I think that's where you're gonna go too I hope so yeah, are you gonna play any sports in high school?
Speaker 2:um, probably not just keep rodeoing. Yeah, that's the cool thing about rodeo is you know a?
Speaker 1:lot of people's. Yeah, that's the cool thing about rodeo is you know a lot of people's athletic careers are done when they graduate high school. Yeah, you can do this the rest of your life. Yeah, and you can teach kids your age someday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I like about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, has Abby been pretty helpful teaching.
Speaker 1:Yes 100%, and Larry too, yeah, yeah, they're good people. We're lucky they're here in Southern Illinois yeah, because I don't know how many kids he's had come through there to start, and adults too. So that's awesome. Well, claire, we're grateful you stopped by today. We're happy to sponsor you and we can't wait to see what you do this year. Thank you, and do you have any questions for us or anything you need help with? No, I don't think so. Awesome. Well, thanks again for stopping by, thanks for tuning in, and until next time, take care of your horses and yourself.