Formula 707 Featured User

World champion barrel racer is just a down-to-earth horse-lover

You might expect the top money-winner at last year’s NFR and the current leader in the world championship barrel racing standings to have a bit of an ego. But a conversation with Lindsay Sears is like a front-porch chat with the All-American girl next door — never mind that she’s Canadian.

“I was raised on a ranch in southern Alberta,” Lindsay says. “I’ve been riding horses and around horses as long as I can remember.”

Sears has been barrel racing almost as long as she can remember as well. “I got started at a little local rodeo series called the Nanton (Alta.) Nights when I was seven or eight. I did that every summer, but rodeo didn’t become a priority for me until I got to high school and began to think maybe this was what I really wanted to do.”

Sears did well enough in high school rodeo to earn a rodeo scholarship to Texas Tech University where, in addition to more rodeo experience, she earned a degree in economics.

Then came Martha.

After she graduated, Lindsay – known as “Linz” to her friends – came back to Nanton to work in the family business while she contemplated her next move. Before long, she found herself looking seriously for a rodeo horse.

“Originally, I had called my friend Dena Kirkpatrick and she said, ‘I don’t have any rodeo horses, all I have is this five-year-old mare.’ I said, ‘Nope. Not interested.’” Lindsay said. “I told her I really didn’t want to season a young horse; I wanted a rodeo horse and this mare hadn’t been anywhere.”

Months passed and still her friend encouraged her to try to the mare.

“Dena is saying, ‘I really, really think you should ride this horse. I haven’t had a horse like this since Willie Nick Bar.’ So, I said, ‘Alright, I’ll be there’ and we drove south, and the horse was Martha, and I tried her and bought her, and the rest is history.”

And quite a history it’s been — at last year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Lindsay and Martha were on fire, winning five of the ten rounds — including three of the last four — for a paycheck of $119,254 and a place as the #2 barrel racer in the world.

So far this year she’s “doing pretty good — I won Houston and that’s a big one”. With earnings of over $90,000, Sears is leading in the standings and looks as if she’s well on her way to another NFR appearance.

“There'll never be another Martha”

Lindsay is quick to give credit where credit is due.

“You know, there’ll never be another Martha,” she says. “She’s definitely an exceptional horse, and she’s young – she’s just eight years old this year, so she’s got a lot of good years left in her. We’re just trying to take care of her to make sure she’ll have all those good years.”

One of the protections Lindsay employs is a daily ration of Formula 707 Daily Essentials™, Joint Essentials 5-in-1™ and Formula 707 Glo-n-Go™.

“Whatever Martha needs, Martha gets, that’s kind of my motto,” Lindsay says.

Because she says Martha has a tendency to tie up, Sears also feeds Formula 707 Vitamin E, Selenium and Thiamax™.

“Martha is a picky-picky eater,” Lindsay told us, and one of the things she really appreciates about Formula 707 is that Martha seems to enjoy it – especially the apple-flavored Glo-n-Go. “I’ve found that it was really hard to get Martha to eat different things sometimes, but she really does like that oil,” Lindsay says.

A little horse business

Most top barrel racers prefer a horse with a little seasoning, so the field is often dominated by horses that are ten or more years old. Following her stunning success with such a young horse, Lindsay is bringing along a small string of prospects.

“For me, it made more sense buying young horses instead of going out and buying a 12-year-old to back up Martha,” she said. “So I take them to the smaller rodeos and to the rodeos where I don’t want to ride Martha. That gives them more experience for the big rodeos, and it keeps Martha more healthy. I hope it will help Martha’s career be a little bit longer by doing it like this.

“Besides,” she laughs, “I figure they have a lot more ability to appreciate than depreciate — it’s become a little business for me.”

Whether blazing around the barrels or tending to her string assets at home, Lindsay Sears is a down-to-earth woman who appreciates the partnership she has with Martha and all of her horses. That’s why she does everything she can to make it last.