By removing the barrel you've destroyed the context. Both photographs were barrel racing. In the first photo you can hardly make out the barrel as she cuts it.
The object in this type racing is fastest time through the course. Time is highly dependent on style. Cutting(rounding) the barrels as close as you can without loosing time, the tighter you cut the barrel the more speed you'll likely lose but it makes the path shorter so you come out ahead on time... maybe... sometimes... if you do it right.
Anyway, the barrel is important to the context and the ability of spectators to decide whether to thumbs up or feed her to the lions.