Have you ever thought of the variety of sports in the olympics? They all range, and are all a little different from each other but have you ever thought, can there be two different types of one sport. One example is horseback riding, dressage is considered an olympics sport but barrel racing isn’t, my opinion is barrel racing should be just as much appreciated and admired as dressage. Barrel racing should be an olympic sport because of how many people participate, the fact that dressage is in the olympics, and the amount of money it brings in to the economy. Barrel racing should be an olympic sport because of how many people participate. All around the world this event is a big deal and thousands of people compete, in Candia 17,557 children and adults are involved. Barrel racing can be both a very competitive sport, or just something fun and relaxing you can do on the weekends.
In the US 8,000 people are competitively involved, think if you added the amount of people that just do it for fun. Also in the National Barrel Horse Association, they have over 23,000 members all across the US and in 12 different countries including Australia, Brazil, Candia, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and last but not least the Netherlands. If just theses major countries can get this many people to run horses around three barrels in a matter of sixteen seconds, why wouldn’t take all the top professionals and see what they could do at the olympics? The competitive horseback riding sport ¨Dressage¨ is in the olympics but barrel racing isn’t. Dressage has been in the olympics since the 1900s in Stockholm, even though it had a fall out a few years shortly after, it returned in 1912. Barrel racing has been a competitive sport since early 1948, and brings in just as many people as dressage which was invented earlier. Dressage is considered a discipline test of the horse and riders ability to perform a set movements from memory at a slow pace.
Which is different from barrel racing due to the pattern being longer and the main purpose of running a barrel pattern is for speed. The time limit for a dressage pattern is eleven minutes, it takes three days for the olympics to get through all the riders, when for barrel racing a standard pattern time is sixteen to seventeen seconds and a large barrel race takes an average of two days to get through. The fact that barrel racing is so much shorter of a pattern and takes way less time, this could reduce the days of the olympics and could save the workers from doing more then they have to. This is why I believe it would only be fair if barrel racing was added into an olympic sport. Barrel racing is a very high money sport and brings in a lot of money toward the economy. Throughout the year there are around 800 sanctioned tour events with an annual payout of more than three million dollars. While on the other hand dressage will be costing more in supplies and on the horse you will be showing on then what you will be taking out of it. In barrel racing, weekend riders and professionals with payouts and awards surpass or collect around two hundred and fifty thousand dollars through IBRA, several thousands of people do this for a career because of the amount of money they bring home.
Even though in IBRA you are required to pay an initial fifty dollars and ten dollars after every additional horse compared to dressage where it will cost thousands. The barrel racing industry contributes around fifty billion in direct economy impact to the US and employs thousands. Through all theses events that are put on and the amount of money it can bring it shows that this event would succeed in the olympics.
