Ok I'm maybe opening a big can of worms here and I confess I'm likely naive to be thinking the barrel industry is immune but I'm going to ask anyway. 

i compete in both barrels and reining. I don't do either event great but i enjoy both. I was getting to a crossroads of choosing to focus on reining after dealing with never ending soundness issues with my barrel horse.

However with the NRHA legalizing (yes I said legalizing) the use of sedivet in the show pen I'm honestly now questioning my future in the sport, which makes me sad because I have a super nice 3 year old I planned to start showing next year. I'm disgusted that an association has taken this route. I've spent the weekend reading 100's of comments from members in fb groups and I would say the huge vast majority or dead agsinst this and Carol Rose is now speaking out against the nrha, asking where have the true horsemen gone.  While I always knew there was some drugging going on I was very naive and now realize it was rampant. 

This got me wondering about the drug use in the barrel horse industry. Obviously we don't want our horses to be dead heads running barrels, but is there drug use in the barrel industry? Do the different associations and rodeo associations have strict rules regarding specific drugs? 

I'm disgusted by this and their reasoning behind it. Instead of cleaning up abuse they are compromising is what I've read. 

Go look in the trash cans at a barrrel race. 

Of course there is. In my area the one that wins the bigger 2 day race runs  3 horses and its rumored she gives cocktails. I've also heard of others that run in my NBHA district and the local weekly rodeo also do the same. 

Yep, just look at trash cans at barrel races BUT you never know if its a performance enhancing drug or not. Lasix is very common as well as banamoine/Bute/ etc. All legally prescribed by vets. probably some Ace syringes in the mix to. I'm going to be the odd man out here, but I really don't see a problem with it. What someone does with THEIR horse is their business. 

You'll likely find a variety of needles & syringes in any trash can at a barrel race. A lot of people will run unsound horses on banamine. Bleeders take lasix. Some run on Dex, ace, etc. There's a variety of drugs used. I've seen many people give cocktails at big races. And theres some old school people that still give cocaine. The barrel industry is well experienced in equine drugs. CBD is getting popular now for calming/focus. Some people give Ace to amp theirs up as well. 

I also spent a year as a loper for cutters and I can tell you that most of the horses are sedated with Ace, typically small doses. We gave several 1/2-3/4cc everyday before we got on them. Any type of equine sport that isn't regulated with regular drug tests is going to have drugs, period 

Here's a good article:  https://barrelhorsenews.com/barrel-racing-articles/horse-health/altered-states/

Just remember that some of these are NOT 'bad' drugs. Lasix is a necessity to some horses so they don't feel like they are drowning. Some people give bute, banamine, Equioxx during the 2-3 days barrel races to help with some stiffness or soreness from their previous day run or from hauling. Jus tlike we do with Ibuprofen or Tylenol. Some of these are simply basics of taking care of horses and not 'drugging' them. Now yes there are some that give things to sedate the horse or like stated above cocaine. If you see a syringe don't automatically assume it is something horrible. It could easily be Adequan for their joints or something as such.

I'm not really opposed to drugs. I was just stating various uses I've come across and how common drugs of various kinds are used. I have given lasix for years, banamine for some soreness over long weekends in stalls or on concrete. I gave my mare Equioxx for a time while working through her KS treatments with my vet for when I'd take her to expo or take her to a clinic where she had more saddle time than normal. I don't agree with giving your horse banamine to cover up the limp they've had all week because you can't handle the idea of staying home, or I've seen a couple give their horses bute or banamine to cover up a physical issue like KS that they don't want to fix or believe is affecting them. Thats what I don't agree with, using it to cover up a soundness issue. I can make an exception for navicular. Buting/banamine for a horse thats sore as **** that you just don't want to put money into at the vet or don't agree with injecting, thats not ok. Otherwise I don't care much what people give their horse. If you need to give Sally Jo a cc of ace to keep her from frying her brain in the bumper car warm up, power to you 

Completely agree!! 

When you work as a loper, are you loping them down till they are ready to ride?  What does a loper do exactly?  I am guessing lope them till their tongue hangs out, but do they do that to all of them? 

I can't speak for what other trainers do, but as a loper I didn't do much actual loping. Neither did the few trainers we'd haul to sometimes to ride with them. You just warm them up to the point the trainer can immediately get on and go to the flag or work a cow. So I'd have 4 saddled on the hot walker just slowly walking at a time. And you'd pull one off the walker to get on, usually would spent a couple minutes bending, flexing, refreshing buttons, etc. Then trot a couple laps and lope a couple laps. My job was jsut to warm their muscles up enough to do the big maneuvers is all, then walk them out. The ones we had to ace were a few of the older show horses that just got really fresh when we'd work cows, like stupid fresh. To work flags we didn't ace them, they were fine. So you basically ride for a few minutes, and then the trainer would get on and work the flag or cow for 15-20 minutes while you cool out the one they just got off. And then grabbed the next to warm up. Loping for me was really mostly just saddling/unsadlding and juggling horses to him. Days we'd just ride the colts we'd only be on them maybe 15-20 minutes, they're broke out at 18-20 months old so we didn't put a lot of pressure on them. They start cutting cows or the flag spring of their 2 year old year. We worked the flag or cows 4 days a week, the other 3 were just straight riding, where you just get on an exercise them. Still only 20-30 minutes each, and a decent bit of walking during that. I'm sure there are places that really do lope them down hard, but for us we liked them fresher. They have more action when they're not tired, you just have to make sure they had the focus. The couple we aced were still alert & ready to roll, they just weren't stupid about it. 

Yes, drugs are used in barrel racing. Various attempts have been made to test but theres very little support for those programs. 
The other side of the coin is that there are plenty of horses that win that run clean. 

In the case of therapeutic, no problem. 

Cocaine, adderall, and a nice mix of other items, I do object to. 

And, while it is their horse and their business.  That is wrong.