About
Barrel Racing
The true
pioneers of women's professional sports gripped reins instead
of golf clubs, rode wild horses and bulls instead of thoroughbreds,
and competed in dusty arenas rather than on grass courts.
America's first female pro athletes grew up on farms and
ranches of the West. From the late 1890s through the 1920s,
cowgirls like Dorothy Morrell and Tad Lucas were popular
stars of big-time rodeo competitions like the Calgary Stampede,
the Pendleton Roundup and the World Series Rodeo in Madison
Square Garden of New York City.
But
as the sport of rodeo organized under the Rodeo Association
of America in the 1930s and came under the dominating influence
of Gene Autry, who believed women belonged at home rather
than in the arena, cowgirls found fewer and fewer opportunities
to compete. By the end of WWII, women were excluded from
all main rodeo events.
On February
28, 1948, 38 women gathered at a hotel in San Angelo, Texas,
and the first-ever rodeo association just for women--the
Girls Rodeo Association--was born. The group’s primary
purpose was to give women legitimate, honest opportunities
to compete in all-girl rodeos. They drafted and approved
rules and regulations, and they enacted a point system
to crown world champions. Their rules took effect in May,
1948, and GRA board members went to work, persuading rodeo
committees and producers to hold women’s contests
according to GRA rules. Committees were given the option
of choosing which event they would hold, and most picked
barrel racing.
Two years
later the GRA had more than 100 members. In 1981 GRA changed
its name to the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
Today, the WPRA has more than 2,000 members and sanctions
some 800 barrel races per year in conjunction with PRCA
rodeos with prize money exceeding $3.9 million.
For the
barrel racing event, the arena is cleared and three barrels
are set up at different marked locations. The riders then
enter the arena at full speed, quickly rounding each barrel
in a cloverleaf pattern and then exiting where they entered.
A stopwatch or timer is used registering down to a hundredth
of a second.
Speed
is what it is all about in this event. The riders steer
their horses as close as they can to the barrels trying
to shave precious seconds off the clock. For each barrel
they knock over (which happens sometimes) a 5 second penalty
is assessed to their total time. Leaving the barrels standing
and ripping through the course is every barrel racers goal.
The barrel
distances for a standard size arena (130 ft. wide by 200
ft. long) are as follows: from the score line (starting
line) to the 1st and 2nd barrels is 60 feet. The distance
between the first and second barrels is 90 feet, and the
distance from the 1st and 2nd barrels to the 3rd barrel
is 105 feet. A good run would be any time under a 17.50.
Not
all arenas are the same, so some use a smaller pattern,
reducing the distances by 5-10 foot increments for each
measurement. 13 to 14 seconds is generally a winning time
in the smaller patterns.
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