03/24/2026
Edited to clarify.... I love my peeps in all the states so it hurts that one feeling I have left when I see them argue about things. We're all in this because we chose horses over crystal m**h. Let's be kind.
NORTH V SOUTH
I’m going to do som**hing I rarely do, and that’s weigh in on and/or have an opinion on a matter related to the actual sport of barrel racing—not just the biomechanical portions that actually fall under my purview. I exhibitioned a horse once, so we’re going to play keyboard warrior ninja princess here for a second.
And this is gonna be long-winded AF. If you make it through, God bless and here’s a cookie.
We need to leave this “north vs south” thing to John Jakes’ great Civil War novel that was then made into a miniseries starring Patrick Swayze and some horses.
There’s all sorts of social media chatter about it. There’s all sorts of non-social media chatter about it. You may or may not be surprised by how often it comes up and how often I’m asked what I think about it, since I work so much in both regions.
Everyone wants to make it an argument about the caliber of horse and rider in each region. I think it has nada to do with caliber/quality/whatever, but there are some differences geographically, and I think when people go down this rabbit hole, that’s what they’re trying to say. I don’t think anyone truly believes there are crappier horses up north. That’s not anything I personally have heard anyone say. If someone does mean that, then I suppose bless their hearts and stuff.
Without further ado:
1. Northern horses and southern horses are different.
Nah, they’re sorta identical. Even when you factor in differences in regional stallions, are they really that dissimilar? Probably not. You have bloodlines that may be more popular in one area than another, but truly, if you look back ONE generation, they’re about the same.
2. Conditioning.
Try keeping a horse up north as fit as one down south ALL year. It’s harder, and it’s why you see a lot of trainers, competitors, and otherwise head south for the winter. There’s rarely a blizzard in Wickenburg. Your southern friends are rarely coming off of six months of forced layoff because it’s negative 88 freedom units. They’re already rolling by the time we’re shedding out. Does that mean the horses are better? No… just fitter sooner.
3. Arenas / access to races and expos
I’ll use last October in Texas as an example. I watched a friend of mine exhibition horses several times in one week, each time at a different arena, and we never drove more than an hour and a half from her home. Up north, we are SO spread out, have fewer private arenas, and have fewer good, safe public arenas per square mile. Draw your own conclusions from that. I’m neither a trainer nor a gingerbread man today.
** There are also differences in arena size, indoor v outdoor, # of races within driving distance without quitting your job and living in your stud stall.
5. Quantity of entries
The most recent social media kerfuffle was over someone saying they came to a Texas race and felt “humbled.” There are 5,414+43 entries at even a smaller race, and due to GEOGRAPHY you’re gonna have a higher percentage of some fancy pants horses show up—and a higher ratio of pro to ammy. I genuinely believe that’s what the person meant. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m wrong about a lot of things, and obviously wrong about a lot of people. Ask my therapist.
6. Vets
Popular opinion is “there are better vets in the south”… I’m going to disagree on this one and probably die on this hill wondering why Custer was a dingbat. They all went to the same schools. Do you think they magically lost brain cells when the zip code changed??
**It’s fair to say we have FEWER of them. I know plenty of people who have a four-hour drive to get to any clinic at all, much less one that specializes in performance horses. The few we have in my little area are booked out a month, and we’re probably lucky it’s only a month.
**It’s also fair to say that they see different things. Every vet I know collaborates with vets and other professionals in other areas—and that goes both directions. None of them stuck their brains in a jar and FoodSaver’d the air out.
**When I am south, I can work on a horse, make a plan with a client, and get a vet appointment for that horse within the week. Last place I was at, I just walked the horse over to see the vet and we had everything handled in 24 hours.
This is an accessibility issue, not a quality issue.
7. Stats….
** “that’s a 1d horses up north but that means… ###x in the south and so the price tag….”… comes up a lot. Someone is going to bring this up in comments on this thread or I’ll just get yelled at later. I can’t really speak to this point. I’m not in that part of the industry. I’m in any other either, so probably this whole post is stupid. I will say if you have a horse that is 1D out of 50 entries vs 1 that is 1D out of 500 entries may look different on paper? I leave that part up to yooz guyz.
There’s probably more… point of the whole thing is one is not better than the other. They’re different. Different does not equal worse.
Falling off the soap box now. Love you bye.
Edited to add.... we should be north AND south not V....
