Has anyone ever flipped on the TV and on came a Rodeo? The audience probably sees cowboys riding bulls and broncs, tackling cattle, and roping steers, all for the fun of the game and for the paycheck for risking their lives for the world’s entertainment. In the middle of all those cowboys though are the few cowgirls who take part in the sport of barrel racing. The cowgirls usually make it look easy, three turns at breakneck speed to beat the clock and win the money. Has anyone ever considered though how those Cowgirls make their horses turn that hard that fast and the most efficient ways they do it?
Barrel racing is a very competitive sport that involves a lot of time and dedication. Unlike most sports, barrel racing is a year round sport the does not have “seasons. ” The point of barrel racing is to run around three, preset, empty, fifty-five gallon, barrels in the fastest time. Knocking over one of these barrels will result in a no time or a five second penalty which is very costly. To most people five seconds seems like nothing but in the sport of barrel racing it can mean winning the race or not even in the top one hundred.
In 1948 women made a home in the sport of Rodeo. Women were finally allowed to allow their sport, barrel racing, into the sport of Rodeo. After that occurred the Girls Rodeo Association GRA was formed and is now called Women’s Pro Rodeo Association WPRA. The Women’s Pro Rodeo Association schedules and decides where and when the members of the WPRA run which are all female.
Although men are allowed to barrel race just not in the WPRA. If one would want to join the WPRA they have a website set up with the membership application that one would have to fill out, one must be 18 or lder to be in the touring WPRA but kids 17 years old and younger may join the junior WPRA. The Junior WPRA involves barrel racing and under Roping Programs. Both of the membership applications are a pdf so it is easy to get access to and you can choose to mail or fax the document directly to the WPRA. In the sport of barrel racing unlike your typical sports of basketball and volleyball the size of the court or arena may vary. In some arenas a 14 second run may win the race but in another arena a 19 second run may win the race.
The only requirements for an arena to hold a barrel race is the first and second barrel must be at least fifteen feet off the fence and the third barrel must be a minimum of 30 feet off the back fence. The standard size of an arena is one hundred thirty feet wide by two hundred feet long. The eye or timer is sixty feet from the first and second barrel, here is ninety feet between the first and second barrel and there is one hundred and five feet from the first and second barrel to the third barrel.
When anyone looks at the women on TV and see them running, one will see that they all have their own style of clothing. None of the cowgirls dress alike or look-alike because they all may express their own personality. Although they can express their own personality through the brands of clothing and the colors, there is a basis they have to follow. They must wear a pair of jeans of some sort, a collared shirt when running professionally which means you are running for the WPRA.
They must also wear cowboy boots, and it is optional to wear a cowgirl but again if one is running for the WPRA the cowgirls are required to wear one. Once one has packed for themselves and completed what they need to do, they begin packing for their horse. The basic items most people with horses that barrel race will load for their horses is a saddle, saddle pad, bridle, sport boots, bell boots, breast collar, wither strap, cinch, girth, over under/bat, tie down, halter, lead rope, hoof picks, brushes, blanket or sheet epending on the weather, feed, hay, water, hay bag, shovel/ pitchfork, and first aid supplies.
When most people look at barrel racing they see a horse and a rider turn three barrels super fast and run out the gate to get their time, but what does the horse need to know to do this? Before the horse can even be started on barrels the horse needs to know the fundamentals, such as side passing, flexing and bending, pivoting, and being supple to the bit. One now ay be wondering, what does those words even mean? Side passing is where the horse moves sideways off the rider’s inside rein and leg pressure.
Flexing and bending is where you pull the rein to your knee so the horse’s head has to follow that teaches the horse to give in to pressure. Pivoting is where to horse will spin a three hundred and sixty degree circle not picking their inside leg, they do this off the rider’s leg pressure and picking up the rein. The last fundamental they need to know is being supple to the bit which means when the rider puts pressure on the horse’s mouth the horse moves away from it and when the rider pull the horse’s mouth the horse follows its nose and turns into it.
Although the horse looks like it’s doing a lot of the work, the rider does have to help the horse in knowing where to go. When the horse and rider are running at any of the three barrels the rider has to make sure that the horse has five feet to the side of the barrels which is called the pocket. If the horse gets in the pocket they will more than likely knock the barrel because they do not have enough room to turn the barrel correctly. Although it is not guaranteed that the horse will knock the barrel if it gets in the pocket but it is likely.
The rider also has to make sure the horse finishes the barrel. When a horse finishes a barrel it turns it all the way around and does not blow out, which is when the horse fights the bit or the rider does not pull the horse all the way around it like there supposed to. Those two mistakes may cost the horse and rider a lot of time, which that causes one to get less money too. When the horse and rider are not competing at shows they are at home working on both the horse staying correct and the rider riding correctly. Some of the ways barrel racers keep their horses in check are by doing drills.
Drills are patterns that keep the horse doing things the way they are supposed to. Drills may not even be using the barrel pattern to keep the horse correct. Drill may use one barrel or six barrels, it all depends on what the rider likes to do and what keeps that horse correct because all horses are different and all riders ride differently. Although the horse might have done the drill before it does not mean that they are going to continue to do it correctly, that is why the rider needs to know how to do the drill to.
The rider also has to make sure that the horse is doing it correctly to see any improvement in the horse’s skills. That is why quite a few barrel racers will ride with a trainer or another person who will tell them if they see the horse doing something wrong that the rider did not catch being on the horse’s back. In the sport of barrel racing if one pays attention to how riders warm their horses up and how one may take care of their horse, one will notice not many people do the same thing as anyone else.
Everybody will do something different and somebody may not agree with it, but if you look at all the professional barrel racers out there in the world one will notice that all of those riders must have done something right with their riding skills and keeping their horse correct to make it that far. So if one drill does not work for your horse try something else and it might work better. As Sherry Cervi a famous barrel racer said “You mentally get a hold of yourself and don’t let that moment control you. You do what you’ve done a million times. You go get around three barrels. “
