Barrel Racing: i don't have time to teach my horse lead changes, but i am still going to compete?

Question

My horse can easily barrel race at a trot. I don't know if i should try to canter inbetween the barrels and then trot around the turn. My horse (right now) doesn't know flying lead changes, and the show is comming up in about 3 weeks is this enough time to teach him lead changes. HELP what should i do?

Answer 1

it would be quite difficult to teach your horse flying changes in 3 weeks.  Not impossible, but difficult.  I'm sure you could get him changing his leads sometimes, but I don't know if you could get him to where you're sure that he'll switch in between barrels.  You'll first want a large space and canter across the diagonal there...  focus on one direction only at first.  once he's good at that, switch and focus on the other side.  then make it harder by making the space smaller... give him less time to switch before you turn to the other direction.  I'm sure some horses would get the idea in 2 weeks, but others would not.  Just work with your horse and see how it goes.