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Written by Jonna Castanos
Local barrel racer Dwana Salisbury has been around horses all her life. Her entire family –parents, aunts, and uncles– are heavily involved in rodeo so that’s how she was raised, always around horses. She started participating in barrel races and other gymkhanas when she was only 5 years old. With direction and guidance from her family, Dwana started training her own horses and has been buying and training her own barrel horses since high school.
Dwana has an accomplished career as a barrel racer. She made it to the College National Intercollegiate Finals two times and one year ended up 3rd in the world. She has gone to the Mountain State Finals Rodeo for 10 years and the Badlands Finals Rodeo for 5 years. She’s done very well over the years in the Futurity & Derby Barrel Races for young horses as well and is proud to sell her horses to younger riders who have gone on with them and done well.
There are many things Dwana loves about barrel racing; taking a young horse from start to finish, the adrenaline rush she gets from running, the camaraderie of her posse of friends, and the love she has for her amazing athletic horses. One of her favorite memories from her years of competition took place at the Badland’s Circuit Finals when she was 7 months pregnant with her son. She had to work hard to keep her balance and strength throughout the whole year, and it was not easy. However, she came out on top and placed first! At this event she rode an amazing horse named Comrade, “Star of Denver”.
Dwana routinely uses and proudly endorses Colorado Mills livestock feed products because it works for her horses and her program. Her parents started using RGR with their racehorses and they saw a big change in the horses’ energy level and noticed their coat started getting shiny. Dwana took this information and tried it with her barrel horse. She found the RGR was giving too high energy levels with the younger horses, so she went in and talked with our staff about what she should try next. We recommended our Black Gold feed; a 100% sunmeal pellet that provides steady, level energy to the animal. She now feeds Black Gold to her younger horses (4-5 years old) and a combination of Black Gold and Billy Allen 1212 to her rodeo horses. As a special treat after a job well done, she treats her horses to her NB 26 ATM cubes! These 7/8” cubes are enriched with Vitamin A and trace minerals and the horses absolutely love them. She lives in a very sandy area, but she has not had any problem with sand colic since using Colorado Mills products.
“Colorado Mills Staff are fabulous. I love them, they are my people. They are kind, helpful, fun and I enjoy going in to see them."
Dwana also uses many of our other products! She loves our proprietary Fly Spray formula and even uses our High Oleic Sunflower Oil in her own mixture for her horse's mane and tail conditioner as well as for cooking! She uses Sunnies Naturals Facial and Eye serums every day to help protect her skin while she’s hard at work and keeps a Wild Raspberry Lip Balm in her pickup truck.
Custom Lynn McKenzie Special saddle by https://doublejsaddlery.com/.