Awesome shot! (:

How could this photo be apart of cruelty? i dont get it?

Gorgeous, powerful horse! I love barrel racing. I don't think the sport is cruel at all; there are only cruel owners who don't provide the proper nutrition and care for their horses. I've seen some that are extremely healthy and some that appeared too skinny to even trot. People can also abuse spurs and whips, but these aids are fine when used correctly and humanely. Lovely capture!

i support you on the whole this is not cruel idea!
my horse loves to barrel race and he gets so excited when i pull out my saddle.
i love rodeos, and people that know nothing about horses and rodeo but complain that it's cruel, severly piss me off! In all my years of riding horses and going to shows and rodeos, i have only seen ONE case of animal cruelty and it was by a person that knew nothing about horses. Ironically she was there to campaign against animal cruelty...

People that say barrel racing is cruel make me angry. There are some cruel barrel racing riders I've seen, but that does *not* make the sport cruel.
I don't think whips are cruel either, only if abused. Same thing with bits an anything else...jeesh.

Bah! haha, Sorry for my rant!

Lovely photo, love the capture you have gotten.
-Barrel racing, I dont think is cruel. I own a Barrel horse, did training on him...will one day compete him. When I worked him, he always had his head up, ears forward and bright eyes, he would even take off after the barrels to do it again without me asking. MY trainer had a horse that started to buck and even rear if you held him back or kept him from running around the barrels, honestly that horse loves barrels. Horses are very strong, agile, limber, and swift animals. It is in ALL horses to run at unbeleivable speeds, to stop on a dime, to turn 180 to 270 degree turns...they do it in the wild/nature. What some of these rodeo events and/or competitions do is compete horses who have had these abilities workd and perfected. I will be the first to say 'some rodeos have cruelty in them, some 'everythings' have cruelty in them and I am strongly against animal cruelty, but, There are rules. These high dollar rodeos and events that are associated with things like AQHA, APHA, ABHA, TWHA, and so on will bust your butt if cruelty or anything illegal is found or seen being done. Same with the animals rights. Bull riding, you are fined tons of money if the bull is harmed in anyway, and if a bull is sick, injured, or incapable of rodeo uses, they are not used. They are kept healthy. Bronco's are wild horses, its in the nature to go nuts when something is on their back...bucking in intensified when a padded underbelly rope is around the flank area=an area where influencing or coaxing a horse is used, not much difference, and when the person falls off riders race to get that rope off!
Now, I am against, 100% against Wild horse racing /fighting. That is the stupidest thing any one on this earth could do, I'm the kinda person that if you want something to fight to the death like they make horses do, well, why dont we just take the people who do it, put them in a pin, and make them do it...they wanted to see, well now they can, first hand. Animal cruelty is in no way acceptable or right, but there are some things like particular kinds or rodeos where animal safety and health is at utmost importance. But no matter what, and a lot of people forget this, no matter how strict the rules are, you can not always stop the bad people. Just like in sports for people, there is wrongness and cruelty and 'not fairs' in everything. Even after years of fighting cruelty, its sadly still here and I fell is inevitable because there are still bad people, and we cant change that.
PLease nobody think any less of me, everyone has there opinion and this one is mine.