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Ally Diefenthaler and Moonlight round a barrel during 2007 National Barrel Horse Association competition.

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Ten-year-old Allyson Diefenthaler’s penchant for speed has her competitors over a barrel; or at least around a couple of them.

A natural barrel racer since the age of seven, the Cypress Middle School sixth-grader was one of more than 100 riders (under 18) to qualify for the National Barrel Horse Association Youth World competition with a time of 17.558. She and her horse, Moonlight, qualified during the District 10 NBHA competition, which drew top racers from Clewiston, LaBelle, Ft. Myers, Arcadia, and Immokalee.

Barrel racing requires a deep trust between rider and horse as the two work as one, rounding the barrels as fast as possible in this NBHA timed event. Their time is measured to the one-hundredth of a second, and Ally knows there’s no room for errors.

“I crashed once at Ft. Myers,” she says of a prior race. “We were running towards the barrels and she jerked left. I landed on top of the barrels and fell to the barrel. I received a “no time” and there’s no do-overs, unless you have another run.”

While her mom, Tami, has yet to witness such a fall, she has seen the resulting bruises.

“Her knee was the size of a grapefruit,” Tami says, adding, “Luckily, it’s always Daddy who’s there when she falls.”

Mike Diefenthaler understands his daughter’s “need for speed.” A late model stock car racer, he holds many top local titles from his days of racing off Radio Road in South Naples.

Ally’s trainer Alicia Weeks polishes her young apprentice’s talents and horsemanship skills.

“She really loves her,” Tami says of Weeks’ dedication to her daughter. “Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, Alicia is there because Ally doesn’t want to be there without her.”

Although Ally qualified for the Youth World competition in Mississippi, Tami says gas prices and the economy made it unfeasible to go this year. Instead she will be competing closer to home at the Arcadia Youth Rodeo at 2 p.m., this Saturday, Aug. 2, and again on Aug. 23.

That competition will include pole racing and goat tying in addition to barrel riding.

“I just go with it,” she says of the two extra events, but she admits with a laugh that she has yet to successfully tie a goat. “You run your horse down close to the goat, run up to him, and when you’re close enough, you flip ‘em upside down, then you tie the goat’s two back legs, and his one front leg.”

So far, the goat’s slipped her grip.

“I’ve been practicing at home at least three or four times a week,” Ally explains as she slips Moonlight’s pink harness in place for another round of practice.

She frequently looks over to her trainer following a tricky turn or for simple guidance before entering the arena.

“She helps me when I’m doing something wrong like pulling back on the reins, which slows me and my horse down,” she explains, crediting her trainer for her determination to keep getting back up into the saddle.

On days when she’s not perfecting her barrel racing times, Ally enjoys riding with her family off 19th Street SW in the Estates, where they keep two other horses, Achilles and Rain.

When it comes to effort, Tami sums up her daughter’s unbridled determination with six words -- “Go fast, go fast, go fast.”