So you think barrel racing is easy?

Barrel racing seems pretty easy right? Little does everyone know, barrel racing is fast paced, requires dedication, and is extremely dangerous. To be a barrel racer it takes agility, guts, trust, strength, and a lot of patience. It’s my job to show you that to be a barrel racer, it’s all about the bond and the trust you have with your horse because without that, you will not have a successful barrel racing career and you or your horse can get hurt.

For the people who don’t know what barrel racing is, it’s a timed rodeo event where you and your horse run a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels in a triangular arrangement. A good time on a small pattern is around 15 seconds and on a big pattern is around 18 seconds. 15 and 18 seconds is not a lot of time meaning you have to run full speed on your horse to make that time crunch. I don’t know if you know this or not, but running full speed on a large animal such as a horse is extremely terrifying and if you don’t hold on, you’ll end up on the ground. Running at such fast speeds on a horse takes a lot of practice especially when you have to slow down just enough to make a turn around the barrel and then pick back up that same speed as before. It isn’t smart as a beginner to just hop on a horse and try the pattern full speed on your first try because you will either hurt yourself or the horse. When beginning barrel racing, its best to just start off walking the pattern and then eventually work your way up to a lope before running. Speed is a large part of barrel racing and it takes a lot of guts to run that fast on a horse.

Barrel racing is not just something you can master in a few months; it takes years to learn the correct skills in order to win. With that said, dedication to the sport and your horse is crucial. Most barrel racers spend years perfecting the skills they learn so that they know how to correctly run the barrel pattern without knocking over a barrel. The deductions in barrel racing consist of adding 5 seconds when knocking over each barrel. This means that if you can a 15.46 barrel time but knocked over two barrels, your final time would be a 25.46 basically meaning you wouldn’t place. Barrel racers focus on making sure they either don’t take the turn too wide or two tight causing a barrel to be knocked over. This sport takes a lot of patience and time especially when your horse doesn’t want to listen to you. If your wanting to train your own horse into a barrel horse then you should expect it taking years till your actually ready to compete. You really have to put a lot of time and dedication into the sport and your horse if you’re hoping to compete and win.

Are you still not convinced barrel racing is tough? You might just think it’s some silly sport where girls run around in circles as fast as they can, but let me tell you, it’s so much more than that. Barrel racing is dangerous and it takes a certain kind of person to be able to handle the pain that comes along with the sport. While barrel racing you will probably experience a lot more pain than expected. Girls fall off their horses, get stepped on by their horse, hit their shins on the barrel, hit the fences, and even get dragged behind their horse when their foot gets stuck in the stirrup. Let me tell you, cowgirls are tough and if you have a low pain tolerance, barrel racing is not for you. When people say barrel racing isn’t a sport and then see how much pain barrel racers go through, it changes their whole perspective. In the end, the pain is worth it when you get to have fun doing the sport you love with the horse you love.

I hope the things I have said have convinced you that barrel racing is a lot more challenging than what some people make it sound like. We barrel racers work really hard to accomplish the things we do and I think we deserve a little more credit then we usually receive. Truthfully, the speed, dedication, and danger is what makes barrel racing so thrilling and is the reason why we love it so much. With that said, barrel racing is not as easy as it looks.