At the Ruby BuckleWest in South Jordan, Utah, Marcie Wilson had an impressive week of barrel racing and sat down to explain how she trains her signature rounded turn into her The Goodbye Lane progeny.

In the derby aggregate on June 21-22, Wilson and MJ Lola Lane, a 2015 daughter of The Goodbye Lane and out of Pappys Fools Ta Fame x Easy Illusion earned the $10,200 win, along with $1,275 for the owners of The Goodbye Lane and $1,275 for their family as the breeder. Wilson also earned $1,700 for a fourth-place finish in round one with her 16.158-second trip, and $1,700 for her fourth-place finish in the second round with a 16.137-second time, giving her 32.295 in the aggregate and pulling ahead of round one champion Kyle Leleux and KB Talents Ta Heaven, who finished second overall with a 32.296 on two.

See results from the Ruby Buckle West futurity and derby here.

Wilson’s parents, Mark and Linda Jarvis live near her home in Spanish Fork, Utah. A decade ago, Wilson restructured her training program to focus solely on the progeny of a largely unproven stallion that her family had taken a gamble on, The Goodbye Lane.

“He’s done so much for our family and our program,” Wilson said. “When his babies became old enough, I sold everything that wasn’t a (The Goodbye Lane offspring) and only rode those.”

Listen to Marcie on The Money Barrel here.

Fast forward to 2023 and The Goodbye Lane boasts millions in sired money-earners in barrel racing. Wilson has trained many winners out of her family’s program like 2022 NHSFR chamion and former Pink Buckle futurity standout, Slingshot Lane and Open standout, Our First Goodbye, whom she hopes someday her young daughter will have the opportunity to jockey.

When Wilson (35) started training “Lola,” she didn’t just have home-field advantage on the stallion side. She had also trained and ridden Lola’s dam.

“She won ProRodeos, held arena records,” Wilson said. “Her dam was an awesome horse to run. They have the same kind of style and she is like a lot of The Goodbye Lane’s, but I did feel like I got a do-over. I was young when I trained her mom, so I feel like I’ve got to take everything I’ve learned and apply it with Lola.

Here’s some of the concepts Wilson used when training Lola and with her current horses that have helped her bank hundreds of thousands in earnings, from futurities to rodeos.

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Marcie Wilson’s Pro Tips for the Perfect Pattern

Don’t fear big turns.

Marcie Wilson: Lola likes to get tight, so I really focus on keeping her big in her turns. I do a lot of walking and trotting her through. She’s a pretty typical The Goodbye Lane. They like to make their perfect circle and I keep them round, because they tend to naturally hunt those barrels and turn them.

Lola’s perfect turn

MW: I try to get her hip past the barrel, set the hip, then let her hunker down for the turn with her feet still moving. That’s basically how I train a turn on most horses. I like to keep horses free all the way through the turn, keeping those feet moving and holding their shape. With Lola, I have to really keep some shape in her coming out of the barrel so that she doesn’t drag them over with her hip. If you took that mare straight off a barrel, she would pull it over a lot.

If they stay round, it’s more of a fluid turn anyway. It’s never stopping, no rollback, I just keep the feet going so that it’s one big, smooth motion through the turn. Lola’s shape is a perfect circle around the barrel. When she runs, I don’t even think it looks like that, but in slow work, it’s a perfect, round circle.

Learning how to run

MW: Through the stages, there’s some horses that you never have to teach how to open up and run. For the ones that don’t catch on as naturally, my husband will track the lead steer on them. That teaches them to chase something.

Something I love about The Goodbye Lanes is that most of them have the natural want to go fast. Usually, it’s just perfecting the turn and teaching them how to get that down, then they get the confidence to run.

One thing I’m proud of in my program is that I feel like my horses get better with age. They do fine in their futurity year, but I get to watch those horses figure it out and progress throughout their lives, continuing to win. Slingshot Lane, Our First Goodbye, CM Waitin On Lane, they keep improving as they age. BRM

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