BARREL RACING

Barrel racing is the oldest cowgirl event in the rodeo and is

the most competitive. A cowgirl must be an expert rider, able

to ride a horse at full speed while making a cloverleaf around

the barrels. Horses are highly trained and are very valuable. It

takes several years of hard work to get a horse trained well

enough to be competitive and to win at rodeos.

It takes a trim cowgirl on a smooth running cowpony to beat

the fast hands of a stop watch in this event. Many barrel

racing contestants are decided by a difference of one or two

tenths of a second. If a rider knocks a barrel down, she is

penalized 5 seconds for each barrel knocked down.

Until a few years ago, Cowgirl’s Barrel Racing was confined

to only a few rodeos. Today it is one of the seven major

events sanctioned by rodeo associations for The World

Championship points.