Barrel racers make rounds at fair

The main event for the 159th SEMO District Fair on Sunday was the fourth annual Mouser Steel Heartland Barrel Racing Extravaganza hosted by the Barrel Racing Association.

The races began at 1 p.m. with the PeeWee division, where 10 riders ages 8 and younger took turns riding their horse around the track.

After the PeeWee class finished, the open class began, which consisted of 147 horses in five divisions.

Event organizer and Barrel Racing Association member Tyler Williams was pleased with the turnout this year.

"It really was more than we were expecting, I know last year our numbers were down; we had somewhere around the neighborhood of 130," he said. "We were really excited to have the turnout that we had and the number of people who were able to show up."

Williams said people travel from Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and across Missouri to attend. He said they also have competitors from as far away as Texas or California who are a part of the rodeo team and attend school at Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Barrel racing is a timed rodeo event in which the horse and rider complete a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels as fast as possible. The average time for each run is about 15 seconds, and the time does not count if a barrel is knocked over or if the horse crosses back over its path.

Sunday's event was an open division with side pots to determine extra winners. With an additional fee, each horse runs once and that time is used for both the open class as well as youth and adult divisions.

The youth side pot is for children 16 and younger and has three divisions. All those older are split into four divisions.

Kim Morgan has been a rider and supporter of barrel racing for close to 20 years. She has three daughters who race, and two of them, Kelly Morgan and Tatum Lowry, participated Sunday.

"You don't have to have the fastest horse, and that's what's nice -- you can be a half second or a full second off and still be successful," Morgan said.

That's possible because there are seven winners from each division, meaning that in the open class alone 35 people received prize money Sunday.

Whoever has the fastest time will win first place in two divisions: the open class and either the youth or adult side pot, Morgan explained.

Sunday a new winner took home the prize money. Bailey Below, 13, had the fastest time of the day with 15.169 seconds.

Bailey has been a competitive rider for the past four years, since the events founding, but Williams thought she had been riding for three years before that.

Besides seeing her children succeed, Morgan said her favorite part of barrel racing is the time she gets to spend with her family.

"Almost anybody that you ask who has a kid in it, they say it keeps them involved with their kids; it takes lots and lots of weekends and lots of hours. … It's a family commitment, with grandparents and everybody," she said.

To learn more about barrel racing or to find out the results of the Heartland Barrel Racing Extravaganza, visit the Heartland Barrel Racing Association's website, heartlandbra.webs.com.

smaue@semissourian.com

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