Let me start out by saying even though I have shown and judged horses for many years I learned a lot during my first year showing barrels with the Girls Barrel Racing Association, also known as G.
B.
R.
A.
As a rookie there are certain things that nobody thinks about telling you.
One of the things I learned was to bring plenty of cash.
Cash is needed to pay your entry fees.
It turns out that same cash is then used for the payback money.
In other words, checks or debt cards are frowned upon.
Each time you run warm up barrels you needed cash.
A second surprise to me that nobody told me about was when you register for your G.
B.
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classes you will be doing so at someone's horse trailer, instead of entering at the office or entry booth.
This is because another club is hosting the show and has agreed to let G.
B.
R.
A add their classes to their show bill.
These things all worked out fine.
Luckily, I had members take me under their wing and guide me to the person's horse trailer that was assigned to collect the entry fees.
Since I was only showing one horse in barrels I discovered there was a huge amount of down time in between my classes.
Sometimes I would have four to six hours between classes.
I learned you have to be skilled at entertaining yourself during this free time.
Entertaining myself turned out to be no problem at all.
It's in between classes that I found time to eat, visit, read, journal, and maybe even nap.
When the show is over on Saturday evening there is usually time for a club meeting or pitch in.
This actually turned out to be fun and a great way to bond with my fellow club members.
This was a little different from the formal, stuffy meetings that I was used too.
After the club meeting I would finish taking care of my horse's needs and retire for the night in my trailer.
It was time to shower, read, journal, or whatever.
I found that most of the time this turned out to be a long night for me.
I don't sleep that well at home in my own environment and sleeping in a horse trailer at a different show each weekend did not help.
Good thing I brought plenty of books.
I have kept a journal for the past 35 years.
Needless to say, I have plenty of them.
At barrel shows I discovered the need to start a different kind of journal.
In this journal, I kept records of all my barrel runs.
I made notes about the condition of the arena footing and how my horse performed.
I also recorded how my horse was doing in general.
This has come in handy when I stopped to analyze how long a particular problem has been going on.
Using my journal in this fashion has helped me decide on which area of barrel racing I want to try to improve next.
I had wanted to barrel race for a few years before I actually tried it.
Since I was over forty, I didn't know if I could physically and mentally meet the demands and challenges barrel racing presents.
My priorities had changed.
I had stopped competing to start a family for the past thirteen years.
I would visualize a great run in my mind.
I would often stand at the arena and map out the place on the ground where I wanted my horse's feet to land.
I must admit that many of these runs where not pretty.
Even though I had successfully shown and judged horses for many years, this barrel racing thing was a whole new world for me.
I learned many new things and met some great people along the way.
I will definitely do this again next year now that I have a better idea of what to expect.