Barrel Racer
By Jackie Culham
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I’m a barrel racer from way back in the day. We’d all get together, grab three rusty old barrels, several garden rakes, step off the measurements, get a lawn chair, a stop watch and a flagger, and have a race.
We’ve ran with the fences around the arena and some with none. It was a privilege to run indoors. We drove mainly bumper pulls, slept in the back of our trucks, brushed our teeth and washed our faces out of the same spigot we watered our horses from.
We had to wait for the next newsletter to see our results. We called our entries in, redialing over and over again until we got through. An average entry fee was about 35 bucks. Fuel was 68 cents a gallon.
A true barrel horse was a rare find and rodeos, at one time, were the only place to run. If a horse wasn’t working, you’d change bits. There was such a thing as good ground or time onlies, The only goal was to be on the fastest race.
We’ve come so far in our sport but what still remains the same… the horses have to have the heart, they have to try their hardest for their rider under any circumstances.
We all have the common thread, there’s a deep love for what we do…We live for it and work toward it…the word hobby is not part of its description…It’s a lifestyle accompanied by a strong desire to win.
