For the tried and true competitor, rodeos aren’t just a weekend event, they’re a way of life.

And no one knows that better than Whidbey Island professional barrel racer Barb West.

“I was competing at 4,” she said. “I had older sisters and my grandpa taught us. I got my first ribbon at 4.”

It’s an intense sport, but West is an intense person and she hasn’t looked back since.

She started out with Pony Club events and gaming shows as a youth in Langley, B.C., and eventually worked her way up to compete in amateur rodeos.

In 2000, she joined the Womens Pro Rodeo Association (WPRA). In 2003 she made the finals of the Columbia River Pro Rodeo circuit, the local WPRA-sanctioned circuit. And this year, she and her new number-one horse Scotty Too Hottie placed 27th in the world.

“It’s absolutely wonderful,” West said. “I figured that he could run well, and it was just so nice to go weekend after weekend after weekend and collect checks. I’m kind of thankful too. I want to be able to do this as a living, so it was great when it all just came together — and I hope it keeps going.”

The top 15 barrel racers each year make it to the National Finals Rodeo in December, and West hopes to make the cut next year.

But making it in the top 30 this year is quite an accomplishment, not only for West but for Scotty, her 10-year-old, 14-hand Appendix quarter horse gelding. Scotty, who was born and raised on Whidbey Island, and is making his rookie appearance in the WPRA. West bought him in December 2003 from Kim and Larry McMaster of Moonviews Meadows Farm in Freeland.

West said Scotty had participated in some Sheriff’s Posse events, and had done some “gaming” in rodeo-style events which can include barrel racing, but hadn’t had any formal barrel training.

“He was very well-trained,” she said. “I just put him on the pattern and seasoned him.”

On the way to her 27th place finish this year, West earned over $34,000 competing in just 35 rodeos. She said pro racers can count the money they earn in no more than 100 rodeos a year toward their year-end total, but most don’t want to have to travel to that many. Fortunately, West earned the bulk of her money competing in and winning the Columbia River circuit.

In July, West won the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo in Joseph, Ore., taking home more than $1,900. And she pulled in more than $500 at the Washington County Fair in Hillsboro, Ore.

She came home with just over $1,000 after placing first at the Thunder Mountain Pro Rodeo in Longview. And at a mid-August rodeo in Hermiston, Ore., she set an arena record of 17 seconds and won the three-day time average, raking in more than $5,000.

West also took first at the Omak Stampede and the Yakima Valley Pro Rodeo in Grandview, wrapping up a streak of six straight wins.

“It was a good year,” she said. “I think I won 10 rodeos in my circuit this year. And circuits are a big deal because it qualifies me to ride at Pocatello, Idaho in March, 2006.”

There she’ll compete against other circuit champions from across the U.S. Dodge sponsors the event, and has offered up a truck up for whoever wins.

The circuits are part of the year-long WPRA season, which begins and ends in November. This year, because Scotty was new to barrel racing, West didn’t begin rodeoing until May. She spent much of the early part of the season competing with Scotty in Barrel Racers National 4D events to get him ready for the WPRA. Her persistence paid off, as she was this year’s BRN4D champion.

The BRN4D, based in Oregon City, Ore., are smaller barrel racing shows structured so more competitors have a chance to win prize money. West, who hosted one BRN4D event here on Whidbey Island, said the shows allow barrel racers of every level to be competitive. The 4D structure means that payouts to competitors are based off the fastest time. The winner is considered the 1D. Anyone who runs a time a half-second slower than the winner falls in the 2D set of payouts, anyone one second off the winner falls in the 3D set of payouts, and anyone with a time two seconds off the winner falls in the 4D set of payouts.

During her five years in the WPRA, West has also been fortunate to pick up sponsors Sequoia Custom Homes, based in Clackamas, Ore., and Good Ropes, based in Stanfield, Ore, and has just recently been sponsored by Hawaiian Tropic.

“It’s fun,” she said of her sponsorships. “It promotes them and supports us, because it’s certainly expensive.”

With the nearest rodeo in her circuit at least five hours away, sponsorships help defray some of the cost associated with driving to and entering rodeos. She competes in sponsor-logoed shirts, and displays decals of her sponsors on her horse trailer.

Fortunately, the long drives are made more bearable by her traveling companions. In addition to Scotty, West almost always travels with two of her dogs: Bean, A miniature Australian Shepherd, and Daisy Mae West, a miniature long-haired dachshund. She’s also fortunate to have her husband Brian as an occasional traveling companion.

“We met when I was amateur rodeoing,” West said of her husband. “I didn’t really know him. He was just the good looking guy from the States. That was in the mid ‘90s. I didn’t see him again until Ellensburg in 2002 and then a couple weeks later in Pendleton.”

Brian rodeoed as a tie-down roper, and had previously competed as a steer wrestler and team roper. The two started dating in the fall of 2002 and rodeoed the 2003 season together. They were married in October of last year, and live just south of Oak Harbor.