Three Barrels, Two Hearts, One Dream

You wouldn’t think that making a horse turn circles around three 50-gallon steel barrels would be “fun”, but every day, thousands of western riders spend hours trying to get it “just right.” For some, this high-speed horseback sport is a not just a fun hobby, but a serious lifestyle and career. The competitive spirit runs deep in this part of the Western Horse Industry.

Competitions with thousands of dollars at stake­—even up to $100 000­—exist all over the USA and Canada. This exhilarating, intense sport has spread across the planet like wildfire.

The horses are fast and powerful, and come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. There is a three-barrel, “cloverleaf” pattern that the horse and rider combination completes individually in an enclosed sand or dirt pen. The barrels are either steel drums or plastic and come in a variety of colours, often with logos of the Association or major sponsor.

The fastest pattern wins (with the exception of time division-formatted races, but we won‘t get into that today!), although the uneducated spectator might think the competition is really about who’s got the brightest neon colours or the most animal print and Swarovski Crystal packed onto their 1100lb chunk of fire-breathing, power-packed equine.

So, who's idea was this?

Barrel Racing. The name couldn’t be any more self-explanatory (except, perhaps, compared to “Polebending”). It has also been known as the Camas Prairie Stump Race of the Appaloosa Horse Club, and it is believed that modern Barrel Racing originated from the mounted games of the Nez Pierce Native Americans from a couple hundred years ago. Aside from cattle-working and roping events, Barrel Racing is one of the older western sports in the world. 

At first, the sport began as a ladies-only sport in Rodeo circuits around the beginning of the 20^th century. Nowadays, it has expanded to include men. In many Barrel Racing Associations, men are currently dominating the sport in numbers, although winning has been evenly divided between men, women, and even children. Rodeos still follow the traditional rule of “ladies only”, but with the addition of Youth classes, boys under the age of 18 may compete as well. With multiple clubs and Associations from grassroots up to National and International levels, the sport is one that is wide-open to anyone with a horse who wants to compete­— the young, the old, those with slow horses, those with fast horses, expensive horses or cheap horses, beginners up to advanced riders. 

Let’s take a look at this “Cloverleaf” pattern!

The Barrel Racing pattern has one accepted identical format that runs in many various associations across North America (American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, Appaloosa Horse Club, National Barrel Horse Association [NBHA], and International Barrel Racing Association, to name a few).

Left: All American Quarter Horse Congress, Columbus, Ohio. Right: Navan Fair, Navan Ontario.  

NBHA dictates how far each barrel must be from the fenceline and timer line. Each Association has its own regulations for distances and its own set of penalties for knocking over a barrel or losing your cowboy hat. The NBHA even dictates how many horses should run before the arena footing is “dragged” (smoothed out by the tractor with an arena groomer), and what is considered an “off-course” run. Aside from the Breed-specific Associations, nearly all Barrel Racing Associations are open to any breed of horse or pony.

The “Cloverleaf” pattern may be started by turning either the right-hand or left-hand barrels that are closest to the timer line. Many riders choose to run to the right-hand barrel first, although many horses are capable of running just as well to either direction. 

 

These seemingly uniform movements being run by hundreds of competitors might sound monotonous, but once you spend some time watching the progression of a competition, you’ll quickly realize that the patterns are anything but identical. The style of turning the barrels varies greatly from horse to horse, just as a riding style differs from rider to rider. What looks like a fast run might actually be average, while a run that looks slow may be setting a new arena record!

The simplicity seems deceptive!

Though the sport is reasonably safe compared with other equine sports (such as jumping or regular track racing), with the speed increase also comes the increase of potential for injury to both horse and rider. Speed also raises the ever frustrating risk of “off-course” patterns or “no fun for anybody” riding skills (or lack of). 

Sugar Bear getting his legs iced with the GameReady Equine machine while trying to convince Sarah to give him her sandwhich.I have personally never been injured or had a horse get injured while Barrel Racing­— just pure luck, safety-oriented paranoia and good horse health management. I have witnessed some serious wipe-outs and nasty injuries over the years. Sometimes it’s just an accident or a wrong step, but in many cases, you can see it coming through the horse’s training, attitude, hooves, the arena footing, or the rider’s lack of skill. Aside from the competitor’s safety, the only risk of injury to the spectators is permanent damage to their eyes from all the bling, neon nylon, and zebra print.

What's with the bling, anyway?

The usual required outfit for a Barrel Racer of any gender is a collared shirt (sleeve lengths vary depending on each rulebook), jeans or trousers, boots with ½ inch to 1½ inch of heel, a belt, and a cowboy hat or ASTM-Approved riding helmet. In Ontario, ASTM riding helmets are mandatory for any Youth riders (aged 18 and under) whenever they are mounted on the competition grounds, let alone competing. 

Optional accessories include, but are not limited to: gloves, spurs, bandanas, large belt buckles, jewelry, hat strings on the cowboy hat, tie, western chaps, and sunglasses. Fabrics and colour choices have absolutely no limitations, as we can easily see from the Barrel Racing fashionista pictured below. 

There are as many styles of Barrel Racing saddles, bridles, reins, saddle pads and bits as there are Toonies in Canada. Barrel Saddles are usually designed with a deep seat and a tall saddle horn for the rider to grab during turns. They are shorter from front-to-back to fit shorter-backed galloping horses, and much lighter in weight than the average western saddle. I classify the saddles, saddle pads and bits into four categories: Stylish, Innovative, Functional and Fugly.

You really don’t want to see the “fugly bits” category… it’s brutal, literally. Some of those things should never be anywhere near a horse, let alone in the horse’s mouth.

Then, we have the accessories for horses, which I shall only briefly mention: protective leg boots, Headgear, Untraining aides, and whips. “Headgear” and “Untraining Aides” fall under a broader category of “Stuff You Should Never Use On A Horse”. These items are available in plain leather, nylon, or blinged-out/animal print versions to match your saddle, bridle, belt, or reins. Gods forbid your horse’s outfit doesn’t match (or does match) your own!

How strong is that "competitive spirit?"

Barrel Racers in general tend to be very competitive people, but in Ontario, the Barrel Racing population contains a big majority of some of the most friendly, pleasant and welcoming people in the competitive western horse industry. Ontario is home to a Canadian branch of NBHA, the Ontario Barrel Racing Association, the Eastern Canadian Barrel Futurity, and several grassroots riding clubs and Agricultural Fairs that host Barrel Racing and other speed events. My younger sister, Betsy, and I have competed in all of these associations as well as seven local riding clubs in Eastern Ontario.

L to R: Jesslyn Millen on "Lady Doc Olena", Leslie Richards on "Zip", Maddy Wright on "RJ My Pony's Got Jets" and Sarah on "Wish I'd Get Lucky" at Horse-A-Rama Club show, Brockville, 2008.

The end goal of Barrel Racing is not just to be the fastest—nor even is it always to “have fun”—it is to do all both of those, and look great! No, I don’t mean you should start gluing Swarovskis on your horse for that “extra” glitter (although I do have friends who use glitter-glue to draw sparkly patterns on their horse’s rumps!). A correct, well-ridden pattern is wonderful to watch, exhilarating to ride, and exemplifies the symmetry between horse and rider.

The fastest horses aren’t the ones who get chased with the whip or spurs— the fastest horses are the ones who are happy in their sport and have a ton of heart.

In true Barrel Racing tradition, I’ll conclude with a sappy, intense, very corny video, starring my own barrel horse, "Zip Code Bay B"... also known as "Turbo".