Karen lives on a small property outside Kilcoy, QLD with her husband Ian, their two dogs, Missy and Cocoa, Karen's horse, Honeycomb Jay and their cat, Hank. Karen has three children aged 27, 24 and 21 who have all grown up and left home. Her two eldest children have provided her with a grandchild each, a little girl called Indi and a little boy called Parker, whom she loves greatly.
Karen is the Marketing and Communications Coordinator for the North Lakes Resort Golf Club.
Introduced to the National Barrel Horse Association (NBHA) by a neighbour in 2012, Karen and Ian attended NBHA events, held at their neighbours property, as volunteers. Karen would help out in the office taking nominations for the days events and Ian would help cooking the BBQ for the competitors and attendees throughout the day.
Karen and her young family regularly attended Rodeos over the years and Barrel Racing was the one event Karen loved the most. It was something she really would have liked to attempt to do. But back then Karen had never ridden a horse yet alone owned one she could try her hand at barrel racing with. So when Karen and Ian started helping out at the NBHA events, it was only a matter of time before Karen got up the courage to nominate herself in an event and give it a go. That fateful date was Saturday 4th August 2012, in Harlin, QLD. Since then Karen has attended a Barrel Racing School at Gunalda, QLD, conducted by Mitch and Carolyn Shoemake from South Carolina, USA, and competed in the NBHA for the past three years.
At the NBHA Finals, in October 2015, Karen was awarded the 2015 NBHA Open Encouragement Award and the NBHA 2015 Most Improved Rider Award. In December 2015 Karen was notified that she had qualified to attend the 2016 NBHA World Championships in Perry, Georgia, USA. "I had heard of fellow competitors qualifying for the World Championships and had stayed up till all hours of the night watching live streaming of the World Championships and my fellow NBHA members competing over the past three years. I had always secretly hoped that one day I would qualify for the World Championships, but I thought it would be a long way off, if ever. I can't believe my secrete dream to represent Australia in the NBHA World Championships in the USA is actually coming true!" Karen Gosney.
