Persuasive Essay About Barrel Racing

Most people have told me barrel racing isn’t a sport, but hunter jumping is. I believe they are wrong about barrel racing. Barrel racing is one of the hardest, most expensive, and most dangerous sports out there.

The main part of barrel racing is the responsibility. I have met lots of people who do not realize just how big of a responsibility having a barrel horse is. There are many things about taking care of a barrel horse that people don’t take into consideration. The main thing is making sure your horse is healthy. It is necessary to worm your horse on a regular basis, as well as getting coggins on all of your horses. Having coggins is proving your horse does not have Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA). Coggins are often needed at shows and

to cross state lines. To get coggins, you need to have a vet take a sample of blood from your horse. From there, they will send it to a state approved lab, there they will test to see if the blood tests positive or negative for EIA. You also have to trim your horses’ feet and put shoes on them. Doing so will keep their nail from getting too long. If a horse’s feet get too long, it could get injured and have to be put down. It is also very good for a horse to be exercised every day for at least thirty minutes. After you exercise a horse, most people rinse them off. It is also good for the horse if you bathe it at least once a month. Every time you get a horse out, you need to brush it. You also need to feed and water your horse every day.

Barrel racing takes lots of certain types of tack. For the rider, you need a saddle, saddle pad(s), headstall, bit, and reins. Some horses need certain headstalls and bits. Some bits are easier on them, which means it doesn’t make them stop as easy and fast as some of the other bits. Also, some horses need certain types of saddle pads, some may even need more than one saddle pad. Certain horses may need a tie-down. A tie-down is a piece of material that connects to the girth and to the back of the nose band. Breast plates are also needed for some horses. A breast place is used to make sure the saddle wont slide off of the back of the horse. Some pieces of tack are used for the horse’s health. For example, leg wraps and bell boots. When the horse is running at a high speed and stretches out, these pieces protect the horse from clipping the back of the horse’s front legs.

Now that you know just how much it takes to care for a barrel horse, here are some reasons I think barrel racing is a sport.

Just like any other sport, it takes teamwork, dedication, and trust to barrel race. Also, it takes practice and you have to understand each other. If I were to compare it to football I could explain just how much of a sport barrel racing really is. Football players lift weight, I lift heavy water buckets, sixty pounds of feed and fifty pounds of tack. They work with a team of at least eleven, I work with a twelve-hundred pound animal, whom is most of the time too hot headed to understand English, but I still have to communicate with her. They have four-fifteen minute quarters to play. I have under thirty seconds to show what I’ve got. Also, when they fall it’s only a couple of inches. If I were to fall, it would be at least five feet going at least thirty miles an hour. They only play for one season, while barrel racing lasts all year. Even in the freezing cold and blazing hot sun. If anyone thinks barrel racing is less dangerous, they obviously haven’t had a horse roll on top of them or fell face-first going thirty miles an hour into a metal barrel. Barrel racing is actually one of the most dangerous sports out there if you don’t know what you’re doing. Even if you’re an expert barrel racer, your horse still has a mind of its own and can kill you in a matter of

seconds.

I have been told that barrel racing is easy and that a monkey could do it.

I have also been told by hunter jumpers, “Barrel racing isn’t a sport because you don’t have to know anything. You don’t have to change strides or hold on for your life like we do when going over a six foot jump.” I have quit a few comments about this thought. First, barrel takes lots of skill, if you don’t have that skill, you will get hurt. While barrel racing, we do have to change strides, otherwise you would go around the barrel too fast and would either get injured because your horse slipped, or you would turn too wide, causing you to lose. Second, if we didn’t “hold on for our lives,” we would go flying out of the saddle. When you get to a barrel, you have to sit, turn, and keep your eye on the next barrel. Another reason barrel racing isn’t easy is because, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you will get hurt. If you don’t get hurt, your horse will and in my opinion, I’d rather get hurt than see my horse in

pain.

Needless to say, barrel racing is a very dangerous and expensive sport. I don’t know how people could think it isn’t a sport. If they think golf is a sport, barrel racing is definitely a sport. I love barrel racing and like any other sport, it keeps you in shape. If I didn’t barrel race I would probably be bored all the time and I would be very out of shape. Before every run, I pray a special prayer. Which is, “Lord, I might seem so little sitting up here all alone, astride the mountain of a horse you made of muscle, of bone. But, together we’re a team, Lord. With one goal in mind, to make it around the cloverleaf in record time. Please, keep my horse surefooted, let me hang on to the quirt, racing around those barrels with one stirrup in the dirt. As we make that last runaround and we quickly race for home, win or lose, record or not, with You we’re not alone. I thank You for being there, keeping my horse and me safe and Lord, with Your divine help, we will compete in our next race.”