Barrel Racing and "stuff"

[Tom]

A friend of my wife brought some photos over today, showing off her kids. I enjoyed them so much that I wanted to share. 

These are of her daughter (dark hair) and nine year-old granddaughter, barrel racing and pole bending in Atlanta last year.  The little girl's horse is seventeen hands.  She needs a ladder to mount. 

I'm impressed!

[Raider Bill]

Tom,

What is that rope from the bridle to the low saddle strap for? Is it to keep the horse from raising it's head and rearing?

I notice only the smaller girl has one.

Also I'm surprised they don't have to wear helmets.

[Tom]

That's a tie-down and you're right, it holds the horses head down.  You can see it under strain in the third picture.  It also helps to keep a horse from rearing up.

"........real cowgirls don't wear helmets.  .......maybe some of the weird ones...."

You gotta be careful what you ask a 10 year old.  :D

[ErikC]

 Those Barrel Racing cowgirls can be a pretty wild bunch.  They ride hard and fast, and some of the horses get pretty wound up. It is a combination of hot blood for speed, anticipation of the upcoming run, and other things. The tie down helps keep the horse from slinging his head all around and fighting the bit. It can be a bloody nose and a headache on some horses without them.

[Roxie]

Those are great photos!  I love to watch barrel racing and pole bending.  It's even fun to watch while they are training them. 

[fishpharmer]

Great pictures Tom! Cool how both front feet of the horses are off the ground in all the pics except the middle one.  I agree with you Roxie its fun to watch. 8)

[sandhills]

Those are some good pictures, and those girls definetly have their hands full with those horses.  While in college our rodeo club had a rodeo every year and one of our barrel racers was doing other things around the event and asked if I'd warm up her horse for her.  We weren't in the arena, we were outside the building, basically in city traffic with people everywhere, I think I'd rather been on one of the bulls or broncs out there.  The level of energy and anticipation those horses have amazes me and those young girls deserve a lot of respect for just being able to stay with them let alone control them. 

[Ron Scott]

The level of energy and anticipation those horses have amazes me and those young girls deserve a lot of respect for just being able to stay with them let alone control them. 

I'll say!

[weimedog]

Bumping this I guess..."stuff" from the life experience file

Love those more performance oriented horse events....had a similar deal here. So here is a short synapsis of 10 years of stuff for one of my kids. One thing I can say horses can bring so much into a kids life..and scare the ( edit by admin) out of a parent watching their crazy sport! I had raced motocross for years..thought that was ...radical risky..right until i watched some of these horse events. The barrel racing brought a memory..and that spurred dusting off these pics.







National Champions 2011