The first thing Lee Jackson said to me when I cold-called him to ask if I could try riding one of his barrel horses was “How good a rider are you?” Lee, the National Barrel Horse Association Ontario director, warned me his horses were too hot and fast for the tastes of most riders. It’s true that in riding my preference runs towards mellow, but since he’d thrown down the challenge I knew I needed to step up and prove I had the skills to whip around some barrels at high speed. After all, I conquered the Mongol Derby barely a year ago! So, on a chilly but sunny day in early May, I headed out to his farm in St. Anns, Ontario to try my hand at barrel racing.
When I got there, Lee introduced me to Spook, a grey Quarter Horse mare ridden and raced by his 27-year-old daughter. The mare was about 15 hands, short-backed and well-muscled. I haven’t spent much time with Quarter Horses, let alone barrel racing ones, so I was shocked at how solid and powerful she appeared to be, and for the first time, I took Lee’s warnings to heart and wondered if I was really up to the challenge.
Wearing riding breeches and an English helmet, I climbed aboard Spook in Lee’s wide sand ring. Cautiously, I walked her around in both directions and then asked her for a nice steady trot. “Don’t worry, most barrel racers rise the trot,” he shouted as I tried to sit into the western saddle, worried my posting would look odd. Phew. So far, so good.