Elk City, Okla.-Her name is XV Wildchild and for most of her 13 years, she has lived up to it. But Teddy, as she is affectionately known to her owner, Tana Renick, is also one of the toughest barrel horses going down the road in the Prairie Circuit in 2010 and she proved it with a gritty win at the 72nd annual Elk City (OK) Rodeo of Champions.

Renick bought the bay mare from a good friend, Terry Ogle ("one of the nicest people you'll ever meet), when Teddy was just 6. Though Renick had been trying to buy the mare for several years, Ogle hadn't wanted to sell until the horse bucked her off one day.

"There was just something about her," Renick says of her desire to buy the horse despite her broncy nature. "I watched Terry lope a half circle on her when she first bought her and I just thought, I love that horse."

Unfortunately, it wasn't a mutual affection at first. "It took a lot of riding," Renick laughs, saying the mare was really spooky. "I took her back to the round pen for 60 days and treated her like a colt." After a few months, the Kingston, Okla., cowgirl decided to enter the AQHA show down the road in Ardmore.

"I thought no one would be there, that I could slip away to see what I had." As it turned out, it was packed with some of the toughest talent in the country but Teddy quickly outclassed the proven champions with a slick 16.8 posted on a standard pattern.

Renick started taking the mare to rodeos but it was a long road to consistency. In her first trip to Mesquite, the mare chased the television cameraman at the second barrel up the fence. Many "humbling moments" followed but the talented mare and her jockey qualified to Houston after their rookie season. However, Teddy had trouble finding the first barrel in the large confines at RodeoHouston.

"It was so wild and embarrassing," Renick laughs. "On the way home I could hear Sharon Camarillo (RodeoHouston's barrel racing color analyst) but I couldn't hear what she was saying and I thought, it can't be good!"

Despite the wild child antics, Renick hung tough and the mare began to settle down and start winning. Many trials and tribulations have interrupted their journey including a pair of broken arms on Renick and cracked ribs on Teddy. Plus, Renick and husband Henry welcomed a daughter, Tacee Ray, to the family three years ago.

"We've had a heck of a time staying sound, both of us," Renick laughs saying she finally feels like things are going their way in 2010; they are having a fabulous year, ranked second behind Wrangler NFR bound Jeanne Anderson in the Prairie Circuit and amongst the top 30 in the world as well.

"It took her a long time to settle down where we didn't have those moments. I think around Austin this winter something just clicked with her," Renick says. "Guess it was all that hauling and donating but she's finally getting it."

Consistency is becoming Teddy's best quality. With several wins on the rodeo trail in 2010 including Mesquite, Big Spring, and Canton, all in Texas and an eighth place finish at the Greeley (Colo.) Independence Stampede, one of the largest Fourth of July rodeos in the country.

"She's very gritty and tough and smart," Renick gushes about the horse she has loved for years. "If she slips or something goes wrong, it's like she knows she has to hurry to make up the time and she will. She's done a lot for me and I'm so thrilled that she is getting some recognition now."

After three unsuccessful trips to the Elk City (Okla.) Rodeo of Champions, Renick returned in 2010 because she says she's always liked the rodeo.

"I like the arena there and Beutler's rodeos are great because they keep things moving along and exciting." She and Teddy had never drawn a check there before and a "panic" moment could have undone the fourth chance to win there.

"She smoked the first barrel which is her lick, and the reins flipped over so both reins were on the right side of her neck going into the second," Renick describes. "I don't know how but somehow they got flipped back over before the third and she smoked that turn too. I was thinking, oh my god, really?"

Renick says the panic moment made her doubt that the run could be fast but as it turned out, she took the title in an ultra competitive race by two one-hundredths of a second. From first to tenth was just about three tenths in time.

The win paid $1,534 and inched Renick closer to Anderson for her first Prairie Circuit championship to be decided at the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo in Park City, Kansas, October 29-30, 2010. Renick trails Anderson by just about $2,000.

For more information on the Elk City Rodeo of Champions, visit them on-line at elkcityrodeoandpbr.com.