I think that barrel racing has become such a large event that you will never please everyone. Heck - even when it was a small sport and the 4D was invented, it was in an attempt to please more people....right???
Of course, the same people griping about getting beat by the youth probably never even considered barrel racing prior to the invent of the 4D. That the whole point of the D's. To handicap the slower people, whethere it be a youth or an adult.
Suck it up and get over it if you get beat by a kid. Chances are that kid may have been riding and working longer at this anyhow.
Guess I am just against people who try to "narrow" the competition. I would rather run against 1000 people and take a chance of getting beat by a kid than to run against 10, win and only take home $50.
Personally, I work very hard to have very nice horses and I think I do an alright job with my training. I miss some of the old "straight" races that still paid good. I remember hauling my old horse "back in the day" and the open was a straight race, $40 fees, winners took it all. You may only have 30 or so in the class, but that still paid better than winning the 1D at a race with the same fees against twice as many people.
I also don't remember the adults whining then when I would beat them (at the time I was about 15). In fact, most encouraged me to do even better and haul even harder.
People are doing everything thing they can anymore to try to "even" the playing field, when in all reality, its just a way to knock out more of the competition. There's even a futurity coming up out in the east that will be adding weights to the jockeys to make them a minimum of 175#. I can tell you that if I had a futurity colt this year, we would sure knock that one off our list. That's just ridiculous.
