Roll Past the Barrel! Barrel Racing is Turning Everything Around.

Linda Bonaiuto-O’Hara whirls round a barrel with Preacher.

By Sloan Brewster

When Linda Bonaiuto-O'Hara found a barrel racer named Preacher, not only did she discover a new discipline that helped her through the loss of her beloved show horse, she also took on an activity she could share with her daughter.

It's been only four years since Linda, age 55, started barrel racing – a rodeo event in which a horse and rider race through a triangular course whipping around three carefully placed barrels. She became involved in the sport to take her mind off of the numbing grief. Now she does it competitively.

In 2015, she and her daughter Brittany O'Hara lost three horses. The first to go was Brittany's horse, Tiara, whom she had to put down because of an injury a week after she gave birth to her son. Then, about five months later, the horse Linda had for 20 years – Camous Custom, or “Cammy”– died. Linda's heartache was so fierce she almost gave up riding. "I think my heart was broken; first of all, she was my best friend," Linda said. "Other than say, my husband, she knew everything."

For weeks, Linda would not get on a horse, and then a woman who boarded horses at her farm – Fortunato Farm – in Killingworth, told her to "snap out of it." Linda bucked up and took a ride on Sugar, a barrel racer the woman was boarding. At that time, Lady, Brittany's first horse and a barrel racer, was 31 years old and could no longer be ridden. Sugar had a comparable lineage to the elder horse, and Linda noticed the similarities right away. “As soon as she got back to the barn she said to me, ‘Oh my God, Brittany, you have to ride Sugar, it's just like riding Lady,'" Brittany said.

Brittany ultimately bought Sugar, and that summer, at the Goshen Stampede, she and the horse competed in their first barrel race. Several months later, Lady died. Brittany said she attributes the older horse's death, at least in part, to the fact that she had a new horse, and "I would be okay."

Meanwhile, Linda realized she was ready for another horse but knew she didn't want a show horse or one like Cammy. With a nudge from Brittany, she decided to try barrel racing and found Preacher, who was four at the time. Taking on the sport with her daughter helped Linda get through her anguish. Now they are members of the National Barrel Horse Association.

It was not the first time Linda pulled herself through a difficult time by working with a horse, though the last time the challenge she overcame was physical. "For all intents and purposes I shouldn't even have been riding since 1996," Linda said. That year she broke her back when she fell off a horse. To repair the damage, her doctor put in rods and performed fusion surgery. With the rods in place, horseback riding was impossible, so Linda made the doctor remove them. "I wouldn't be me if I weren't riding a horse," she said.

Brittany O’Hara and Sugar during practice.

Brittany O’Hara and Sugar during practice. Top right: Brittany and Spirit take a pose.

Despite being in tremendous pain, Linda never went to physical therapy. Instead, she went to her barn. With very deliberate motions, she brushed her horse bending down and standing up, not riding, but using her body nonetheless. Her doctor was amazed by her recovery and continues to be impressed 20 years after the surgery when an MRI showed she had no arthritis at the site of the old injury.

Brittany, who got Lady when she was six, now has two barrel racers, Sugar, who's getting older, and Spirit Teak, who is three. She had her first taste of the sport when she was seven and read ‘Barrel Racing,' by Sharon Camarillo, then taught herself. She enjoys the speed of barrel racing and said every second counts. "Even a tenth of a second matters," Brittany said.

To prepare for competitions, the women ride daily and perform drills, getting their horses to use different parts of their bodies; and while they have barrels set up, they don't usually make barrel runs in drills. “Barrel racers don't just get on their horses and make them race as fast as possible,” Brittany said. "It's about conditioning horses and doing different drills and making them use all parts of their body together. They have to be in shape and in condition. You can't expect a horse to go out and turn a barrel if they are not in shape."

Brittany whips round a barrel on Sugar.

Janice Crotta of Bethany, who has been training Brittany and Linda for three years, said riders in the sport have to be strong and possess good horsemanship, and horses have to be athletic with a good build. The animals have to be able to handle a lot of stress, so they have to have a good heart and a sound mind and can't be wired.

A challenging, and at times, frightening sport, barrel racing requires riders to work in concert with their horses. “For you and your horse to barrel race, when your horse is moving you cannot be behind your horse, you have to be with him,” Linda said. “He cannot do his job if you are not doing your job. You have to be together."

Linda, who boasts that she is the shortest and oldest racer in her circuit, said while she is grateful for everything she has, especially her family and grandson, she needs something that's about her. Barrel racing and riding in general fill that gap. "It's not about my husband. It's not about my daughter. It's not about anything," she said. "It's about me...when I get out there, it's about me and my horse."

It is also a means for her and her daughter to deepen their bond and help one another. "We're family, but we actually like each other. We work hard together, and we play hard together," Linda said. Like show riding, barrel racing meshes with Linda's penchant for taking on challenges and winning, one significant difference being that in barrel racing, instead of ribbons, the prize is cold hard cash. "95 percent of the time we're in the winnings," Linda said.

Brittany and Linda are not the only motherdaughter barrel racing team. Crotta, who said the sport is catching on, runs barrels with her daughters and granddaughters. Her daughter, Kacey Crotta Fortier enjoys the sport with her daughter, Mylie Milewski, who is 11, and according to her grandmother, has already surpassed many adults in the sport. Crotta's other daughter, Missy Santos, owns All in Farm in Woodbury, where barrel races are held from May through October. Crotta's nine year old granddaughter, Marla Crotta lives in Texas and comes to Connecticut for the summer. "We all run barrels, we all compete against each other, and it's amazing," Crotta said. "There are a lot of moms and daughters that run barrels."

Competitive barrel racing in Connecticut will start up again in May at All in Farm with the first event of the season on May 10th. Saddle View Farm in Bethany will hold its first barrel racing event of the season on May 4th, the arena will open at noon. There will also be barrel racing and other rodeo events at the Goshen Stampede in June.