A “Barrel of fun” At Reeves Arena in Perry

“The Southern States Triple Crown NBA Chase Super Show”, as it’s called, draws over seven hundred participants each year. Perry has been hosting this event for about eighteen years. Barrel racing has become a popular sport not only across the country but especially here in Perry. Garry Steinhoff a long time participant and now vendor from Oklahoma said, that this is “the nicest facility that we come to, the people here are great and everything is top notch.” Mr. Steinhoff is very well known across the Barrel Racing community having had a championship horse in the event for many years.

Barrel racing has it’s roots going way back to early rodeo days here in America. According to Gerald Seale another long time participate in the barrel racing world, “it started out in a back pin, because the ladies of the rodeo riders were bored and wanted something to do.” Barrel racing is made up of a lot of good folks and centered around good times. Mike Dameron, the man who officially runs the show, when ask his official title said, “I don’t know that I have a title but I’m not the one that makes this thing go, it’s all the people around me.” Mike stated, that this event used to host over a thousand entries, however, back then they had more races to compete in. We would run for three days straight and “it just got to be too much because these people have other jobs they do during the day. When Monday came that had to get back to their ranches.”

Shelby Gunby, a rider from North Carolina, stated that she has been coming to Perry for about fifteen years and when asked what makes this event special she replied, “It’s not just about Barrel racing is also time I get to spend with my horse “Linda”. Madison Phillips from Georgia, now twenty five years old has been riding horses ever since she could sit up in a saddle. “I have had been racing even before I was born, my mother competed while she was carrying me in the womb.” Phillips said. Barrel racing is not just a fun sport, there is also big purse involved as well. All the competitors have an entry fee and 80% goes into the pot according to Mike Dameron.

When asked to explain what barrel racing is to the horse racing community, Mr Dameron said, “it’s the Nascar of horse racing.” Barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to complete a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. Like Nascar, races can be decided by the thousandths of a second which is the blink of an eye. However, Barrel racing is more than racing horses around barrels it’s a community of people who love what they do and the time they share doing it. Perry also hosted the Youth World Championship this week with the final round being held on Saturday. Nearly 2000 youth from all over the world gathered at the Reeves center at their chance to win the big prize. A record time was set by Michael Duffie from South Carolina with a 14.428 on his horse “Reclaim Fame.” Monica Gordon from Unadilla Ga at just 12 years old ran a fast time of 15.098 on her horse, “Good Time Non Stop”. For other Barrel racing news visit www.barrelhorsenews.com/bhn-webcasts.

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