page_title: Barrel racing
section_title: Associations and sanctioning bodies
hierarchical_section_title: Barrel racing / Associations and sanctioning bodies
caption_attribution_description: A Buttermilk Buckskin Horse. Photo by Ron Miller, Horse owned by Mary Miller
context_page_description: Barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to run a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. Though both sexes compete at amateur and youth levels, in collegiate and professional ranks, it is usually a rodeo event for women. It combines the horse's athletic ability and the horsemanship skills of a rider in order to safely and successfully maneuver the horse around three barrels placed in a triangle pattern within a large arena.
context_section_description: Since its beginnings, the sport has developed over the years into a highly organized, exciting, and well-governed sport. The main sanctioning body of professional female rodeo athletes is the Women's Professional Rodeo Association.  Today, the WPRA boasts a total of over eight hundred sanctioned tour events with an annual payout of more than three million dollars. The WPRA is divided into twelve divisional circuits. Average and overall winners from their circuit compete at the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo. In the United States, two national organizations promote events for barrel racing alone: the National Barrel Horse Association and Better Barrel Races. The WPRA is co-sanctioned with the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) to allow women to compete in PRCA-endorsed rodeos. Without the co-sanction, barrel racing would be removed from PRCA rodeos and the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
caption: Training the pattern
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