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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 408
| I am relatevily new to the barrel racing world, I am by NO means a 1D rider although I do like to think that even though I am not a spring chicken I still, some day, can ride in the 1D. I have always dreamt to run at rodeos and this past summer I had the opportunity to exhibition at one. Yes, it was a disaster, horrible and not a very good experience. EVERY SINGLE HORSE before us was either slipping, tripping, falling and the horse right in front of us went ALL THE WAY down. When our turn came, my horse wasn't having it! The ground felt like we were running on concrete and there were these big hard craters around the barrels at which my horse proceed to trot around... anyhow, you guys get the picture! Total DISASTER and an EMBARRASSMENT. So, after the rodeo, I was feeling like a total looser and a "NO GOOD ENOUGH rider". I know in my heart that if the ground would have been decent, my horse would have done his job but... maybe we are not cut out to be a rodeo team. Nonetheless, after seeing all those horses having issues, falling down, slipping etc, I asked a couple of my fellow barrel racers why the rodeo producers don't drag, don't take care of the ground. The answer I got was "it's the way it's always been, either you are cowgirl enough to ride it or not" (not an answer that I wanted to hear as it did not help me to heal my very wounded ego but ok. My dreams of riding at rodeos kind of got crushed right then and there :( ).
So, After hearing the terrible and devastating news about Dreaming of Foose, I can't help but wonder what will take for producers (both barrel races and rodeos ) to take the ground as very serious business. I get it, I know life happens and no matter how careful you are and how well you work the ground, accidents are bound to happen, that's just the nature of the beast but....it seems like lately we are hearing more and more about horses and riders having wrecks due to bad ground. Do you guys think is ok just to say "well, it is the way it's always been"? wouldn't this way of thinking make riders decide not to run? (I know I won't jeopardize my horse's safety and well being. I don't really need the vet bills either)
Also, I believe our horses are getting faster and more aggressive in competition, they have changed, shouldn't the producers take that into consideration when getting the ground ready? I know we always have a choice of running or not if you think the ground is not safe, but wouldn't the rode/barrel race producers want to attract riders to their shows by providing good ground?
"My heart is broken to hear what happened to such a wonderful horse. Such a tragic loss"
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 The One
Posts: 7998
   
Location: South Georgia | Rodeos are known to have pretty rough ground. The arenas are often set up on site and there are rarely tractors there to drag once it is prepared. I'd venture to say that MOST barrel racers don't do rodeo very often. It takes a special horse to put up with odd sized arenas and rough ground.
However, is there a reason why you can't just go to real barrel races? The ground will be groomed at a barrel race. |
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Expert
Posts: 1599
| They should have never held the barrel racing in the coliseum. Yes, it's great for the prestige of running there, but there is no way that ground made for pleasure horses to look pretty and for reiners to slide will hold a barrel horse.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 408
| Oh I do and love them, I am honestly an addicted to them LOL. But I would have loved to do rodeos as well but like you said, it takes a special kind of horse/rider combo. But even if I had the right horse, after seeing the ground at some rodeos, I am not sure it's worth the risk (again, just my opinion :-) )
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 408
| But they had held barrel races there in the past correct? |
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Veteran
Posts: 233
| I don't do western pleasure, I don't do Big Lick, and I don't ride my horses in a situation where I'm putting them at higher-than-normal risk of injury. We don't canter on concrete, I don't jump out of reining footing. . . . . I can't control what other people do, but I don't feel bad for taking care of my horse. They can't do for themselves. |
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 Expert
Posts: 5293
| This is precisely why awesome NFR horses make the NFR but rarely " WIn" big huge open barrel races on fast perfectly groomed ground. It takes a special kind of horse that can run and win on trash. Thats what makes a rodeo horse a rodeo horse. I love to watch fancy pampered barrel horses at rodeos that are used to perfect ground 24/7 try and navigate a difficult pen. LOL |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| When we produced rodeos, we always drug for barrels during the show and after for the slack. We always prepared the ground during the week too if the rodeo grounds people wouldn't do it or they allowed us to. There were a couple of old biddies that would not shut up about the ground. Finally one night my dad told the lady if she didn't like it we would refund her entry and then to never enter again. She shut up to us but still complained in the back, but at least the guys didn't have to hear it. NO barrel racer ever thanked us for trying to give them as good of ground as we could.
Really, dragging before the girls run is about all the rodeo people can do. They have to keep the show going and to drag after every 5 is just not going to happen. We limited the perf to 10 girls and in slack we ran the barrels first and drug before they ran. I can't remember if we dragged again after so many girls ran or not, but since we multiple perfs - Thursday night, Friday night, matinee Saturday and Saturday perf, there was usually only 30 or so in the slack spread out on Friday and Saturday.
But y'all are right the barrel horses should have safe ground to run on no matter if it is a rodeo, jackpot or big show.
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | There are a lot of places I don't run because the ground is not to my liking. Luckily I have some great arenas in the area though.
My home town prodcuces a couple fo rodeo series during the summer. Most of us here don't go there due to the poor ground conditions. Most of these producers do not want to put in the work every week to get the ground right. They just don't get it, but then also compain that they have a lack of participants. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 460
| I totally agree with "hannahbug" here. Your horse can't protect themselves... so personally I only run at places where the ground isn't terrible. There are some jackpots around here with worse grounds than our rodeo arena, so I pick and choose between which races and grounds I want to run at. I used to have dreams of trying to get my wpra card, but the older I'm getting, it's not worth it to me to put my horses at risk anymore. I can have just as much fun at local rodeos and jackpots where I know if my horse should falter, it wouldn't have anything to do with an outside cause. My horses are already accident prone enough as is, I don't need to add another obstacle, haha =] |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| GoMistyGo - 2017-11-16 10:01 AM
There are a lot of places I don't run because the ground is not to my liking.  Luckily I have some great arenas in the area though.
My home town prodcuces a couple fo rodeo series during the summer.  Most of us here don't go there due to the poor ground conditions.  Most of these producers do not want to put in the work every week to get the ground right.  They just don't get it, but then also compain that they have a lack of participants.
I never understood the producer's lack of effort. My family is not a traditional rodeo family, though. We are farmers and ranchers, but also business men and women. I think my dad and brother looked at the rodeo company through a business man's eyes in that you need to put some effort into a product to make it good. We wanted the barrel racers to come, we needed them to come. They paid a 5 dollar office fee, and all we had to do was work the ground. We wanted our bucking stock to be on good ground, not deep ground or hard ground, either.
That is why if I were a barrel racer, I would pull out of really bad ground and let the producer know why with out gripping or whining. Personally, I couldn't replace my good horse very easily, it would have taken me a while to save that money up.
I have seen girls pull out when the ground was treacherous, heck some of the NFR girls have said the ground was dangerous so they pulled out. Usually it was because of the mud being slick though. |
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Nut Case Expert
Posts: 9305
Location: Tulsa, Ok | Yes they have had lots of barrel races there before. But the quality of the ground for barrel races starts with WHICH dirt they put in. There are many piles of dirt af the facility and what is used for say the reiners sliding dirt) or a horse show is not the same dirt that would be put into the building for big barrel races like the BBR or Shootout or BFA. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 408
| I sure hope after all the accidents we are hearing about lately that something will be done. I hate to see barrel races or rodeos going down in numbers due to lack of participants.
I do understand that producing a barrel race/rodeo is very hard work, it takes money and it can be very ungrateful job (you can never make everyone happy). So please don't take this post as I am ditching the producers. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 602
| I know at the Reno Rodeo, they drag during slack. Is it like that at other rodeos? I know a few girls who wont drag their personal arenas at home or try to make the ground trashy to get the horse use to it. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| love2ridepre - 2017-11-16 10:28 AM
I sure hope after all the accidents we are hearing about lately that something will be done. I hate to see barrel races or rodeos going down in numbers due to lack of participants.
I do understand that producing a barrel race/rodeo is very hard work, it takes money and it can be very ungrateful job (you can never make everyone happy). So please don't take this post as I am ditching the producers.
We used to produce rodeos and I don't take you as ditching the producers. But, we have to make it clear to producers and rodeo committees that the contestants deserve SAFE conditions in which to work. And it is not cost prohibitive to drag before the girls run and then after every 10. We did it as a small rodeo company. Rodeos don't have the massive entries that big barrel races do. To help, I would gladly pay an extra 5 bucks to kick in for the diesel and tractor driver.
As part of a small rodeo company, there is no excuse for them to not drag the ground for the girls and really no excuse for the rodeo committees to not prepare the ground for the contestants. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| hannahbug - 2017-11-16 9:31 AM I don't do western pleasure, I don't do Big Lick, and I don't ride my horses in a situation where I'm putting them at higher-than-normal risk of injury. We don't canter on concrete, I don't jump out of reining footing. . . . . I can't control what other people do, but I don't feel bad for taking care of my horse. They can't do for themselves.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 408
| the rodeo I went to they did drag right after performance, with a harrow on top of the ground... then let all the slack team ropers (and there were a bunch!) do their thing and without dragging, they set the barrels.
I am with you, I wouldn't mind paying a little "tractor fee" to make sure the arena is drag properly :-) |
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| FLITASTIC - 2017-11-16 9:40 AM This is precisely why awesome NFR horses make the NFR but rarely " WIn" big huge open barrel races on fast perfectly groomed ground. It takes a special kind of horse that can run and win on trash. Thats what makes a rodeo horse a rodeo horse. I love to watch fancy pampered barrel horses at rodeos that are used to perfect ground 24/7 try and navigate a difficult pen. LOL
There is a difference between trashy ground and dangerous where they can’t even stand up. I’ve watched rodeos where even the seasoned top rodeo horses were falling every drag. After a few drags the girls who did not draw out loped or trotted the pattern-not wore the risk. I have also watched rodeos stop the race after fllasand slips and work the ground, there are other options besides leaving it as is, especially since they were falling the day before.
Ive seen that too, jackpot horses outrun the big dogs. I attribute some of that to the ground but also some rodeo horses just don’t fire the same at a jackpot. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| rodeomom3 - 2017-11-16 10:49 AM
FLITASTIC - 2017-11-16 9:40 AM This is precisely why awesome NFR horses make the NFR but rarely " WIn" big huge open barrel races on fast perfectly groomed ground. It takes a special kind of horse that can run and win on trash. Thats what makes a rodeo horse a rodeo horse. I love to watch fancy pampered barrel horses at rodeos that are used to perfect ground 24/7 try and navigate a difficult pen. LOL
 There is a difference between trashy ground and dangerous where they can’t even stand up. I’ve watched rodeos where even the seasoned top rodeo horses were falling every drag.  After a few drags the girls who did not draw out loped or trotted the pattern-not wore the risk.  I have also watched rodeos stop the race after fllasand slips and work the ground, there are other options besides leaving it as is, especially since they were falling the day before.  Â
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Ive seen that too, jackpot horses outrun the big dogs.  I attribute some of that to the ground but also some rodeo horses just don’t fire the same at a jackpot.Â
I totally agree with you, rodeomom and have seen the same thing. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| I love to watch a barrel race where the horse can just hang it all out there and just let 'er fly. I also love to see these salty rodeo horses bare down when the ground is trashy and gut it out. I HATE seeing these horses asked to do it on plain treacherous, dangerous ground. It's not right.
Not all areas have the soil make up to have perfect ground, but it can be made as safe as possible. It just takes some work, which sadly, not everyone wants to do. Yep, I said it. Flame suit on.  |
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