Barrel racing, in which horse and rider gallop in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels, is the fastest-growing rodeo event. Author Sharon Camarillo, a successful contestant-turned trainer, teacher, and commentator, presents a comprehensive program that takes the novice barrel racer from the process of choosing her horse up to preparation for and taking part in real races. More than just a specialized manual, Barrel Racing for Fun and Fast Times offers advice that will benefit riders of all disciplines, including ways to care for and condition the equine athlete, selecting appropriate and proper-fitting equipment, acquiring the “winning edge” that allows us to achieve competitive success, and more. 160 color illustrations.
Few equestrian sports are more exciting than barrel racing, in which horse and rider carve a lightning-fast cloverleaf pattern around three barrels, then gallop down to the finish line. Time is measured in hundredths of seconds, and winners receive substantial prize money and the admiration and respect of fellow competitors and spectators alike. As thrilling as barrel racing is to watch, doing it is even more fun, as thousands of people are discovering every year. To help them--and you--get started, champion racer and internationally respected instructor and clinician Marlene McRae shares her program that has taken hundreds of her students to success in the arena, as well as to becoming educated horsemen and-women: * Selecting Your Champion Horse: Choosing a barrel-racing prospect based on conformation and temperament; finding a qualified veterinarian to help you assess the prospects. * Choosing and Using Equipment: Determining the right saddle, bridle (including bits), leg protection, and other tack to buy, as well as their proper fit and use. * Feeding and Nutrition: Establishing a basic commonsense feeding regimen for your horse; the role of supplements, as well as their possible misuse. * Shoeing and Foot Care: Proper foot care, with an emphasis on working with your farrier and veterinarian to avoid foot- and leg-related injuries. * Conditioning and Exercising: A comprehensive program for developing your horse's stamina and fitness, along with ways to avoid unsoundness problems. * Getting Started in the Barrel-Racing Patterns: How to set up the pattern correctly; techniques for training the horse, with an emphasis on rider position, balance, and using hands, legs, and voice as communication aids. * Competing: Locating entry-level local events, clubs, and associations; the "mental game of competing to stay focused; achieving teamwork with your horse." Barrel Racing 101 is the perfect textbook for the sport. Study it and use it, and you're bound to finish at the top of your class.
Barrel racers put a lot of effort and expense into improving their skills and developing their horses. But even when they seem to be doing everything right, it's not uncommon to continuously miss the mark in competition. The problem often lies in inconsistencies or weaknesses in the rider's inner game - the aspects of competition that aren't always easy to see, but have perhaps an even greater impact on our end results. Finally, a resource has been created to assist barrel racers on the path to truly becoming more confident from the inside out. The Confident Barrel Racer covers eight key areas and concludes with two special bonus sections. Challenges of Competition - Develop awareness that prevents you from falling victim to the dangers that exist in the competition environment. Fierce Love - Get off the endless roller coaster of emotions to develop a steady, unwavering level of confidence regardless of your circumstances or results. Self & Source - An introduction to two key relationships, that when developed and nurtured, will turn your life around. Four Steps to Confidence - A step-by-step guide to creating confidence, by helping you to first master change in the moment, then offering support all the way through integration. Be Here Now - Today is a gift, that is why we call it the present. Learn how to be in the moment, the perfect mental space to be in a run, where self-doubt cannot exist. Practices - Being a winner in the arena means developing winning habits in all aspects of life. Develop practices in three areas to optimize your confidence. Tips for Competition - Specific action steps for overcoming nerves, getting into the perfect mindset, and creating laser-like focus to perform your best. Confidence Smashers - Have past experiences, horses, or people damaged your confidence? Get tips for overcoming past and present challenges. The Confident Horse - There's more to developing a confident horse than just being a confident rider. Learn how to build your equine partner's confidence. Additional Resources - Recommend books, programs and more for further personal development and confidence building.
The Secrets are OUT! Barrel racers are driven by an unrelenting desire to win. Unfortunately, they are often misled. The secrets have been well kept for much too long. The time has come for barrel racers to stop looking for success, in all the wrong places. In this revolutionary book, author Heather Smith boldly reveals the real reasons for slow times, tipped barrels, behavior problems and much more. Smith challenges readers to develop new perspectives and describes specific action steps, all proven to yield positive, fast results. Secrets to Barrel Racing Success provides an integral foundation, yet far from just the basics, it empowers barrel racers to demystify even the most advanced concepts: Sense and correct subtle mistakes on the pattern quickly and easily. Utilize special techniques to make any barrel horse faster. Realize what feel really is, and how you can harness it's power. Develop a barrel horse that is always mentally focused and with you. Communicate in a way that creates feather-light responsiveness. Become a rider and competitor that brings out the best in every horse. Achieve optimum barrel racing performance, through optimum horse health. Master your inner game for confidence every time you blast down the alley. Understand true collection, why it's so critical and how to achieve it. The secret to winning lies in becoming aware of and dissolving the lesser-known blocks (that many don't even know exist) standing in the way of success. In the process, a path is cleared for each barrel racer to achieve their greatest potential. Only when the secrets are revealed, does winning become possible. Heather Smith is a Wyoming barrel racer with a passion for learning and self-development. Through her own journey to achieving barrel racing success, she became inspired to help others do the same. Heather continues to compete and share her insights at BarrelRacingTips.com.
A New York Times bestseller 'A sensation ... a rollicking tale well told' - The Times At the heart of Born to Run lies a mysterious tribe of Mexican Indians, the Tarahumara, who live quietly in canyons and are reputed to be the best distance runners in the world; in 1993, one of them, aged 57, came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing a toga and sandals. A small group of the world's top ultra-runners (and the awe-inspiring author) make the treacherous journey into the canyons to try to learn the tribe's secrets and then take them on over a course 50 miles long. With incredible energy and smart observation, McDougall tells this story while asking what the secrets are to being an incredible runner. Travelling to labs at Harvard, Nike, and elsewhere, he comes across an incredible cast of characters, including the woman who recently broke the world record for 100 miles and for her encore ran a 2:50 marathon in a bikini, pausing to down a beer at the 20 mile mark.
When Jenny discovers barrel racing, she cannot wait to give it a try. Luckily, Jenny's dad has the perfect horse, Dash. Dash is very fast, but Jenny must learn to control him around all the tight turns in the barrel racing course. Even with help from her new friend, Hope, and her trainer Sam, will Jenny and Dash be ready in time for the upcoming rodeo?
As the second book in the BarrelRacingTips.com series, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion delivers that and much more. Author Heather Smith has gone above and beyond to share the critical and often overlooked elements absolutely necessary for achieving positive results with any barrel racing exercise. She has gone in-depth to explain why and when certain exercises are appropriate, as well as how they should be implemented to be most effective. With chapters addressing rider development, groundwork, quality movement, problem solving, the mental game for both horse and rider, and much more, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion provides tools for creating greater awareness and advancing skills to empower barrel racers to dissolve obstacles standing in the way of achieving high level barrel racing success. Guidelines are offered for training barrel horses as well as building strength and coordination - necessary for expressing speed on the barrel pattern. What sets this one of a kind resource apart is that it provides structure for developing mental engagement in horses resulting in greater understanding, responsiveness, communication and connection. Within many of the practical exercises featured are actually several exercises - described with possibilities for variation and expansion to build upon, advance, and customize to meet the needs of each individual horse and rider. Truly unique in that it addresses the mental, physical and emotional aspects of the barrel racer and the barrel horse, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion will become your #1 resource for learning, and continuing to do the simple things with excellence, which is the foundational element for success in barrel racing, and every other equine discipline.
“Brooks’ chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling.” —The New York Times Book Review “Horse isn’t just an animal story—it’s a moving narrative about race and art.” —TIME “A thrilling story about humanity in all its ugliness and beauty . . . the evocative voices create a story so powerful, reading it feels like watching a neck-and-neck horse race, galloping to its conclusion—you just can’t look away.” —Oprah Daily Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award · Finalist for the Chautauqua Prize · A Massachusetts Book Award Honor Book A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told is an inspiring personal narrative about a filly named Winning Colors who broke through the male-dominated world of horseracing, and a trio of gamblers who embark on an unforgettable adventure as epic as the horse's historic victory. It's Seabiscuit meets Narcos, and the best true-life gambling story ever tol
"A colorful story...Ruffian was nothing if not a heartbreaker. Her story, dramatically recounted by Jane Scwartz, epitomizes both the adrenaline-pumping glory and gut-wrenching ruthlessness inherent in the sport of horse racing." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD Here is the story f the exceptional filly, a horse so dominating, she was likened to legend. Beginning with her earliest days in Kentucky, the book follows Ruffian at every stage of her career and through the agony of her final hours--venturing behind the scenes of the racing world, and exploring the politics and personalities that came together to shape this exroardiinary filly's life.
