Charmaine Newkirk grew up around raising and showing Morgan horses in Gunnison Colorado. Her dad was brought up in the rodeo entertainment industry and his Uncle George Shaw was his sole influence, teaching him everything he knew about raising and training horses.

Charmaine’s love for barrel racing began from a very young age. She related and desired to emulate Charmayne James for many obvious reasons, they had the same name, she was young and she was an incredible rider and continues to be as she teaches and trains others.

Wanting to run barrels and not having any horses bred, raised or trained to do the event, she trained whatever horse she was riding at the time. Soon over half of their broodmares knew the pattern. She took the best of the herd, her dad’s trick horse, and competed in 4H coming in third and beating a good friend with a trained barrel horse.

When she was 10 her dad traded for an old throughbred gelding she called Buddy. He was her fist real barrel horse. She gave riding lessons on him to all the neighborhood kids. Unfortunately, two years later after only competing in a hand full of Little Britches Rodeos together Buddy colliced and died.

Her dad soon traded breaking a few horses for ownership of their first Quarter Horse, Pokeys Hangin Tough who they called Cactus Hill. She helped break this gentle three-year-old stud horse and soon she was training him to run barrels and poles.

Without the finances to sustain many runs she competed in very few NBHA races before she went off to college. Charmaine graduated Dodge City Community College with a degree in Equine Science and went on to the University of Tennessee in Martin. While at Martin she trained barrel horses under Dickie Alexander of Union City Tennessee. He was impressed when he saw what she had done with the now gelding she called Cactus Hill. After working with Dickie for two years, she was moving back home to Colorado and when she approached Dickie to purchase one of the horses she had been training, he had now become extremely out of her price range and she forever wished she had bought the horse before she had trained him.

Still her desire to compete and train at a high level was huge and her dad decided he would help her buy a horse that could compete at the pro level, or as far as she could go with the price they could afford. She ran EB Chuck for seven years getting as far as the 2D level with him down in Texas. During her time in Texas she has also trained three different mares, coached friends and clients in barrels, and rode and fixed problem horses.

Now she has lived in Texas for five years and, after training multiple horses without the breeding and pedigree to back up the training, has decided to focus her time and energy on well bred animals that may have potential to compete in the Futurity world and beyond. She has coached young barrel racers and kids in 4H events and continues to be available for lessons.

Her breeding program is just beginning, but she is starting small with high quality horses. She has mentors in this area that she refers to for guidance as she continues to train and raise barrel horses to be stellar athletes.

Matilda is a grade mare by a QH stud named They Call Me Cutter by Cutter Bill. She was trained and sold to Heidi Toppings in Colorado. This is them running at the Breast Cancer race in 2010.

Flyin Bubble Trouble (Paisley) was out of a mare Charmaine took to a Martha Josey Clinic. She is papered Dry Doc on the top, Skips Report on the bottom. She heels and runs barrels and will be part of the breeding program scheduled to be bred to Perks Alive in 2011.

Otoe Dash (Coco) was trained by Joanna Kysar but had some gate issues and had to be drugged to run well. While Charmaine had her, she was able to run without drugs and compete in the 2D's. She is now owned by Holly Walker and her daughter Hannah is doing well on her in AJRA and BRAT.

JP Final Investment (Ladybug) was a wedding gift as a 4 year old. She was broke and trained by Charmaine and is the first horse with a solid barrel racing pedigree that she is seasoning now as a 5 year old. Right now she is 1 second off the fastest times with minimul hauling and showing real promise.