Reba McEntire Stands Confidently On Top of a Horse as a Young Barrel Racer (PHOTO)
Now there's something you don't see every day.
Long before she took over the world of country music, Reba McEntire was just a girl with a horse.
Or, in this case, a girl standing on a horse.
In a throwback March 6, 2015, Instagram post, the current Happy's Place star shared an unbelievable photo from her childhood of her standing on top of a horse that gave fans a glimpse into her life before she became one of the most well-known and recognizable celebrities on the planet.
"Back when I thought I really was Annie Oakley!#tbt #throwbackthursday," McEntire captioned, referencing the famous late-1800s American folk hero.
The photo itself is stunning. Although it's a little blurry, fans can immediately recognize a young McEntire — curly red hair and all — and she confidently stands on her horse.
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That wasn't the only time McEntire posted a vintage photo of herself and her horse, however. In a separate September 14, 2017, Instagram post she shared another snap of her childhood. This time, she was actually sitting on her horse, "Fancy."
(McEntire looks like a total badass with her curls sticking out of her winter cap, doesn't she?)
"On my barrel horse, which Delores Smith said was the ugliest horse she'd ever seen. So I named it #Fancy just to make it feel better. #tbt #throwbackthursday," she wrote in a caption.
The phrase "barrel horse" may be unfamiliar to many fans, so here's a quick explainer.
In short, it's a horse specifically trained and bred for the sport of barrel racing: a competitive event in the rodeo circuit that involves horses running through a course and navigating around barrels. (It's essentially the horse-racing equivalent of alpine skiing, a Winter Olympics sport.)
Needless to say, McEntire was a big barrel horse racer back in the day, as these amazing throwback photos show. (And we're sure that nobody would complain if the star posted more delightfully old-school pics again.)
Reba McEntire opens up about her Oklahoma ranch upbringing
McEntire standing on a horse is impressive, but what she revealed to the Wall Street Journal in 2024 may be even more so.
In her interview, McEntire revealed that growing up on her family's 8,000-acre cattle ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma meant that there were always chores for her and her three siblings. So, she didn't wait to get a learner's permit to learn to drive — she picked up that skill before grade school.
"I began working on our ranch at age 5," McEntire explained. "If Daddy needed a driver to move grain in his pickup truck, he came in and got whoever was there."
Given that the pint-sized McEntire was too short to operate the truck properly, her father devised an ingenious solution.
"I was so little that Daddy put a 50-pound feed sack on the driver's seat before putting me on top of it," McEntire continued. "I'd be on my knees to work the steering wheel."
