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 Member
Posts: 43
| My fiance and I are looking at moving up to Montana and we have a lot of flexibility as to where. So of course, my main question is where is the best place to live with horses and barrel race?
I am originally from Eastern Montana, outside of Billings, but left home at 18 to the Navy and have been gone since. I just got back into riding in 2012 and barrel racing here in Nevada and I want to keep the ball rolling!
Thank you in advance!
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 Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
 
Location: Central Montana | I live in the Billings area now, but am from the Glendive area. Welcome back  I'm trying to make the switch from barrels to reining but there are a lot of barrel races here and within an hour or two drive.
Edited by GoinJettin 2014-09-28 7:29 PM
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
 
Location: Montana | Bozeman area has by far the most barrel races I think, but anything really around Billings, Bozeman, or Helena. Actually about anywhere but where I live have a lot (I'm around Great Falls).Welcome back and have fun!
ETA: Great Falls has one fairly good sized jackpot series and one smaller one that I'm not certain will be put on forever, but over the last couple of years we have lost 2 different jackpot series, so I guess it just seems like less.
Edited by mtcanchazer 2014-09-28 9:30 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 2258
| Welcome back I am in western Montana and we have a fair amount of races but not near as many as staying in the Bozeman, Billings, Helena or Greatfalls area . On my side of the state I have to drive so far to get to any good ones with added money. Maybe Greatfalls doesn't have as many but more than Hamilton where I am at. | |
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Member
Posts: 43
| Thanks everyone! Definitely good to know! :D | |
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Location: Oregon | NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. | |
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Expert
Posts: 2258
| I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM
NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one.
We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much. | |
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Location: In my own little world | There are barrel races all over Montana, winter spring summer fall. I live on the west side and I have been to 1 jackpot a weekend if not 2 all summer and fall long and that will continue until the end of November. In the summer there are weeknight runs as well as runs on the weekend. Northwest MT has a weekly rodeo series from May - September where you can run 2 horses and there is a winter rodeo series in Kalispell that runs every 2 weeks in the winter. There are 9 very active NBHA Districts in MT and there were over 120 NBHA races across the entire state last year with $10000 added in the Open at the finals last month. There is a barrel race in an indoor pen in Polson every weekend in November and there has been a least 2 per month all spring and summer. The runs at Sapphire Arena in Corvallis are starting shortly and there was a weeknight series in Hamilton all summer. Mytty's have barrel races at Lolo Peak Arena during the winter. There is the Little Rockies Assn on the highline around Havre, the OBRA Assn on the far east side is very active. JJK has a winter series and a big summer series with a big finals in Great Falls. They also had jackpots at the Wild West Arena in Vaughn. There is a series in Whitehall, the Circle L races and Copper Spring jackpots in Bozeman, Helena has the BSBRA weeknights all summer. There is generally winter jackpots at an indoor in Livingston. Billings is a hothouse for barrel races. Miller's Horse Palace in Laurel has winter rodeos andPolar Bear series winter barrel racing jackpots and a variety of people produce barrel races there in the summer too, Cottonwood Arena in Silesia outside of Billings has jackpots year round. Plus there is the Billings Barrel Race Assn/Series. The UBRC has sidepots at about 30 some jackpots all year long across MT with a big finals the beginning of Sept. More than plenty going on. It doesn't matter what you do in MT, you have to drive no matter the activity as we are a big state. But I would never say there aren't very many. If I did it would be because I didn't look very hard or didn't really want to go that much! Sites you can look on for jackpots are BRN4D website, NBHAMT website and Big Sky Barrels has a generic listing that includes all associations and producers who send their dates to her for publishing. Welcome back to Montana. Lots of places to get your colts or yourself seasoned. | |
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Location: Oregon | cutnrunqhmt - 2014-10-11 5:56 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much.
I'll be there at the beginning for the time onlies. I'm just surprised that I moved to Montana and all the races are so far away and there is only an open, senior and peewee. Theres no novice, futurity/derby or under $500/$1000 classes anywhere remotely close. I saw they were running some races in Hamilton awhile back but it was at like 4pm on a wednesday. What's up with that? Definitely will be moving after my externship | |
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Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 9:16 AM cutnrunqhmt - 2014-10-11 5:56 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much.
You mean they have all that extra stuff? Man, where I go there isn't even a senior division (which I was there was so my mom could run if she wanted to). We have pee wee, youth, and open. We have a couple futurities and derbies, around I know that much! :) | |
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Location: Oregon | mtcanchazer - 2014-10-12 11:45 AM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 9:16 AM cutnrunqhmt - 2014-10-11 5:56 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much.
Edited by I<3BarrelRacing 2014-10-12 2:38 PM
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Location: In my own little world | I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 1:35 PM mtcanchazer - 2014-10-12 11:45 AM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 9:16 AM cutnrunqhmt - 2014-10-11 5:56 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much.
I <3BarrelRacing, how long have you been in Missoula? There are several runs in the area, They were just discussing them at a jackpot today with some of the gals from the Missoula/Stevensville area. As they said, it got to be rather expensive last winter because if you try to support all of them you could spend a lot of money so they were having to pick and choose which ones to run at. Sapphire, Hamilton Series and the big Turn and Burn race in Aug, Mytty's, a big one 3 weeks ago in Darby, there have been some in Arlee, Paws Up Ranch, and those are all within a 30-40 mile radius of Missoula. The reason you don't see the Novice, $500/$1000 classes is you don't need those races with a 4D format and too many people can and do cheat at it. There used to be a bunch of assn/clubs that ran with this format and there was always disagreements because people can't be honest and try to take advantage of the system. Futurities/Derbys are a whole other ballgame and unless you put up some good added money they won't come and play. And there aren't that many who play the futurity game on the west side, just a handful of people and a producer is not going to invest the time, money and resources into something that will not generate the profit needed to sustain it. There has to be the numbers there or you are just running against your own money minus the cut the producer takes.Not cost effective. For any of us who do run futurity horses there are some pretty big added money futurites to enter by going to Pasco and Walla Walla in the spring, the Canadian Futurities in the summer, Barrel of Gold in Billings in late Aug, plus Copper Spring. There is no sense entering a futurity if you are only going to run against yourself. As far as races go, as producers everyone tries to work together within a 150 mile area to not overlap on race dates because there is only so many barrel racers to draw from so we aall vieing for their entry fees. So it is best to work together with dates rather than splitting everyone up that are in a relatively close area. Heck when I lived in eastern MT it was 50 miles just to get from the ranch to the nearest town so traveling 100-150 miles to a jackpot is no big deal. Hope this gives you a better understanding how we all work together to make it work for everyone.
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| More divisions are great...
We need one with the riders aged from 18-24 and the horses have to be 14.1-15.2 hands and the combined career earnings of the duo cant be more than $4324.
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Location: Oregon | ropenrun - 2014-10-12 10:41 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 1:35 PM mtcanchazer - 2014-10-12 11:45 AM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-12 9:16 AM cutnrunqhmt - 2014-10-11 5:56 PM I<3BarrelRacing - 2014-10-11 7:12 PM NOT Missoula! I moved here for a year long externship to finish up school and there is pretty slim pickings and everything is at least 2 hrs away, and that's "close." Maybe I was spoiled back home, but there was WAY more races back home than here. Oh well though, it's only a year and I just have a young one. We have one in Corvallis this month at the sapphire arena. I am in Hamilton and it is tough to find anything without driving all over. This is why I don't get to do much.
I've been here since July. The hamilton series wasn't an option since I work full time and 4pm on a weekday doesn't work for me but I was at the one in Darby. I called the Mytty's, they don't think they're running this winter. I check BRN4d, NBHA, and 4 fb groups. Everyone keeps telling me about the equestrian park.... only problem is, there hasn't been a single race out there that I've seen. I'm headed to the saphire for the race on the 25th and heard they're doing practices out there soon but thats still not real close for me. My horse is 5 and just coming around but theres no sence entering her in the open when she's not going to place and just end up pushing her harder than I want to. I would enter smaller classes if it was an option, I'd still probably end up donating my entry fee but I'm not willing to donate $75 in the open. Especially with how much my truck costs to drive. So I stick with the time onlies and get her out when I can, it just seems a lot more limited than I'm used to and I assume there are more races in other parts of Montana. | |
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