Welcome to the NEW AmateurBarrelRacer.com! Our goal is to create a community FOR Barrel Racing enthusiasts, created and administrated BY Barrel Racing enthusiasts. Not only will we offer discussion forums and articles by recognized authorities, we also want YOU to publish articles and editorial comment! ANYONE with an interest in the sport may publish articles on any facet of Barrel Racing, such as riding technique, training for competition, tack and equipment choices, or caring for the other half of your team- your race horse!

Registered Members can also:

* Contribute news, editorial, opinion, technical, and how-to articles
* Participate in our discussion forums
* Join in our "Barrel Chat" chat room
* Place FREE classified ads in our "For Sale" forum
* Submit links to other quality sites of interest to the Barrel Racing community
* Suggest and participate in community "Gallop Polls"
* Send private messages to other Barrel Racers
* Upload photos from your most recent competition.

Once our community starts growing, we will look to YOU to administrate and moderate the forums and keep our community a thriving, growing, and friendly place for everyone that loves this truly American sport.

This is YOUR community... it will become what YOU make it. So sign up, post in the forums, reply when a question is asked, submit some news, write an article or editorial and post it in the "Opinions" section, and tell all your can-chasing friends to come join us!

What makes AmateurBarrelRacer different from all the other barrel racing sites out there...? Well, one of the big things is that this website is built by Barrel Racers. Any member of AmateurBarrelRacer can contribute news and editorial opinon articles, and DustBunny was the first, submitting a press release about a potentially dangerous livestock product. Check it out in our News and Opinion area.

I can tell from my brief association with racers that they are an opinionated lot... so here's your soapbox to speak to the world of Barrel Racing! What other website for Barrel Racers lets YOU write the articles?

Whether you are an amateur racer, a pro racer, a trainer, an event promoter, a breeder... you can write articles and opinion pieces speaking to the concerns and interests of Barrel Racers. Click on "Submit News" and speak your mind!

Or, you can help us build the "Sections" area... we envision this being an area for recognized authorities to publish "How-to" and other types of informative articles here. Theresa jumped in with FOUR excellent articles about the basics of breeding your horse, with a promise of more to come- check out her articles in our new "Breeder's Barn" Section. We also just added an excellent primer on how to size up a Barrel Horse, courtesy of RodeoWild.com.au, a very high quality Australian Rodeo site. Be sure to check out RodeoWild.com.au, and be sure to check out Jo Cole's article in our "Trainer's Ring" Section.

We want more of these sorts of expert articles; perhaps an insurance expert writing on the intricasies of insuring a competitive horse... a vet detailing health issues for newborn colts... a professional horse transporter spelling out the 10 golden rules of moving your horse cross-country... you get the idea. We want Amateur Barrel Racer to not only be a fun community, we also want it to be the most informative Barrel Racing site on the web.

If you would like to contribute to our community, click on "Submit News" or email the webmaster.

Registered Members can suggest and participate in our "Gallop Polls" where you can get the pulse of other racers and what they think about a given topic. if you have a suggestion for a new poll, email the webmaster or post it in the forums!

Also, we were running a Gallop Poll on adding a chat room to the community... the response was 100% positive, so we decided not to wait till the Poll ended, and Barrel Chat is now online for Registered Members! I don't think there are many Barrel Racing sites out there with a Chat Room, so take advantage of this opportunity to get to know other racers! We are growing fast, so hopefully the chat room will get busy quickly. I can create multiple rooms, but we need to get the main room cranking first. So go round up some friends and let's see if we can't get this Chat Room humming...

Our "Upcoming Events" calendar is now online! Now you can add your upcoming races and events to our calendar FOR FREE. Ads in the racing magazines are very expensive, and many times, its difficult to get local Barrel Racing organizations to update their websites and add your event, and even if they do, most small Barrel Racing websites don't have very high traffic. We have eliminated some of the hassle and expense of promoting your events by setting up our calendar so that YOU add your event to our website yourself. List your prizes, your sponsors, your itinerary, even add photos and sponsor logos if you like!

Also, if you are a trainer or clinician, your clinic or seminar can be listed as well! We also have a category for "Clinics" so seminars and training clinics can also be added, FREE OF CHARGE.

Members, feel free to list your local events, too. This calendar is a very cool feature that nobody else offers, so please take advantage of it and and add your local events. Help promote the sport that you love!

And if you know an event promoter or instructor, be sure to let them know they can always advertise their event at AmateurBarrelRacer FOR FREE.

I've had two or three people email me to tell me they were unable to create an account or log-in, and the common denominator seems to be a Norton Firewall running on Windows 2000 and XP. If you use this software, you must adjust your default settings in order to access our community. Its a cinch to do, completely safe, and will give you access to what is already turning into the coolest site for Barrel Racers on the web...

Step by step instructions on how to adjust your settings can be found HERE