Down a gravel driveway just east of the railroad tracks sits a medium-sized brick home and a barn on a 130-acre horse ranch. Inside, a grandfather watches college basketball and referees kids, while a grandmother makes spaghetti and meatballs for the family. In Quarter Horse country near Purcell, Okla., this is an average scene.

Joyce Loomis-Kernek is not your average grandma, though. She is a world-champion barrel racer, an author, a horse trainer and a teacher who has been in the business her entire life. Kernek first sat in the saddle on the family cattle ranch in New Mexico when she was six weeks old and is still riding horses today.

“It’s fast, scary and I love anything to do with horses,” Kernek said of her passion.

She was crowned Miss Rodeo America in 1963 and still looks like a rodeo queen today. Kernek’s long blonde hair and hazel eyes do not immediately give away the tenacity and work ethic that long-time friend Kathy Smith said lies beneath the surface.

“My father was a real cattle rancher, hunter and cowboy, and my mother was a beautiful city girl,” Kernek said. “I wanted to be like both of them.”

Many would say she is. Kernek won the world barrel racing championship in 1970 and was the first woman to hit the $10,000 mark in rodeo winnings. She has won world titles for flag racing and ribbon roping, and she also has won the National Finals Rodeo. Even Kernek’s daughter, Bobbi Jo Loomis, became Miss Rodeo U.S.A. in 1999.

Kernek said she became fascinated with barrel racing when she was eight years old after she read a Western Horseman article on barrel racing sisters, Sherry and Florence Price.

“You couldn’t find barrels in those days,” Kernek said. “We’d turn mesquite bushes and logs. We would just use anything we could.”

Kernek said she first learned how to barrel race on ranch horses and mules. Because the sport was so new then, she had to train herself.

“There were no videos or clinics,” Kernek said. “There was zero. You would go into the arenas late at night while people were working, and you watched.”

She said she learned from people she met at rodeos and questioned as many horsemen as she could. After absorbing knowledge from such a wide range of people, Kernek said she developed her own style of riding and training.

“You gotta have discernment,” Kernek said. “One way doesn’t work for everyone. When you arrive at your own good method, you can turn out good horses every year. You can’t say what’s right and what’s wrong so you do what’s fast. A horse taught me that.”

Not only did Kernek teach herself to win, but she has a knack for teaching others to be winners, too. According to her Web site, Kernek has put points and/or dollar wins on more than 140 horses. Both people and horses trained by Kernek have won world-championship titles.

At her ranch, Kernek hosts interns who come from across America and Brazil to learn from her. She said she is serious about what she does and she expects her interns to be, too.

“I like lifers,” Kernek said. “I don’t push them. It’s hard work, and they have to want to do it. Don’t go into this unless God put it in your heart. But if He did, no one can knock it out.”

Kernek said she has always had the heart of a teacher and enjoys passing her knowledge to others. It is especially important to her now that society is becoming less rural, she said.

“The next generation is a big challenge,” Kernek said. “They didn’t grow up riding. They don’t know as much about hard work. You gotta teach integrity nowadays.”

Kernek travels to do clinics across America and in Brazil. Barrel racing is one of the fastest-growing equine events in Brazil, according to Turn Magazine. Kernek said she has been there six times helping to teach people about the sport.

U.S. clinics are three days long, and some in Brazil last as long as 21 days. Each clinic is unique, depending on who is there and what their needs are, Kernek said. One thing is the same each time, though.

“I won’t go unless I can have a church service on Sundays,” Kernek said. “It is optional, but the people always come.”

Her faith is at the forefront of everything Kernek does. Her Web site includes a page about her own spiritual journey and devotions and articles she has written herself. Included at the end of each chapter of her book, Barrel Racing: Just the Basics, is a section of Bible-based principles for those in the horse industry.

The traveling lifestyle of a rodeo cowgirl might not always make it easy to attend church, but Kernek said she did not let that stop her.

“My church was wherever my truck and trailer would fit,” Kernek said.

She and her husband, George, had just begun dating when she invited him to a revival. When he called to tell her he was running late and would meet her there, he mentioned he was used to sitting on the back row.

“Well look for me down around the front,” Kernek said.

That is where you can find her when she is passionate about something, like her five young grandchildren who come to stay with her often.

“She really enjoys her grandchildren and when they are out of school she has them,” Smith said. “She always plans activities for them to do.”

Another important part of Kernek’s life that does not involve horses is her work with people at a local assisted-living center.

“Recently, she put together a banquet for the shut-ins at the center just before Valentine’s Day,” Smith said. “She didn’t make it about Valentine’s though, because there are so many there who have lost their spouse. It was just a special celebration. She does very cool stuff. She’s a world champion, but she doesn’t forget the people that are less fortunate.”

In fact, Kernek said one of her favorite quotes by D. Wayne Lukas is about helping others even when the demands of success are astronomical. With all the traveling she has done and all the people she has met, Kernek said she has learned lessons you cannot get in school.

“She’s very bright,” her husband George said. “She doesn’t have a college degree, but she is educated.”

Sitting at a wooden table covered in children’s handprints and drinking Brazilian coffee that would knock most people over, Kernek can look out the window and see years of accomplishments behind her and even some ahead. She reminds others to find their passion and work at it.

“There’s a butt for every saddle, and a saddle for every butt,” Kernek said.

To learn more about Kernek or the services she offers, visit http://www.loomis-kernek.com.

Story by Heather Condict