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It's Just a Horse Race!

I can feel each muscle of T-Bone, my golden palomino quarter horse, flexing underneath me. My legs hang loosely at his side as he paws at the ground in the holding pen prior to the race. My breath is deep and steady and my mind is focused on the run as the announcer calls my name, "Next, we have Will Sawyer out of Sacramento, Ca. riding T-Bone". It's our turn to race, my hand pats T-Bones neck and he comes alive like a controlled explosion.

Exhaling deeply from my diaphragm, I drop my heels, sit deep in the saddle, lean forward and circle towards the left of the holding pen at a quick trot. About 20 feet from the gate I break into a lope urging T-Bone into a full out gallop as I cross the gate. My eyes are glued to a spot just beyond the first barrel. The explosion is released and T-Bone literally thunders into the arena, like a freight train; all 1300 pounds of him moves to the first of three barrels.

Behind the first barrel, T-Bone slides his weight under his haunches and wraps the barrel. One left and two rights and T-Bone and I speed wildly across the finish line. Hundreds of horses will repeat the same pattern over the course of the day. Every rider and horse team will race against the clock with the fastest time winning the cash prize.

Origins of the Race: Men Were Racing Barrels First

Barrel Racing is one of today's fastest growing equestrian sports. It is open to all levels of riders and all types of horses. People can race in their local community: small cash-added jackpot races to huge $500,000 races all over the country.

Today, the women of the Women's Professional Rodeo Association, WPRA, have created a history of barrel racing that excludes men from being involved in the event by perpetuating the myth that they started barrel racing in the 1940's as a place for women to compete while men ride bulls and rope. That is far from the truth. Speed events for horses known as gymkhanas were developed throughout the world well before that time.

Gymkhanas are the true origins of today's cloverleaf pattern barrel race. The history of mounted speed events can be traced back to the middle ages where knights competed to hone their athletic prowess and fighting abilities. Artifacts from the Fifth Century BC Olympic Games also depict men competing on horses. Prior to barrel racing in rodeos, the cloverleaf pattern was run as part of English gymkhanas and speed events in both England and India. So there really is no historical claim to barrel racing

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