Can you call your horse?

Question

Can you call your horse a barrel racer, with abseloutly no training foundation?

A person at my barn can get her horse to run to the barrels, trot around them, and then run to the other and now she calls herself a barrel racer, and her horse she thinks is in the 2D. theres a 1d barrel horse at our ranch, who she thinks her horse is timing right behind. (hes fast!)

but will this eventually lead your horse to be ruined? im teaching my horse gymkhana right now, but i do the walk/rating/ trot etc thing. He can lope the barrels, hes not 100 percent on his second barrel but we are getting there.. slow. and slow is good. because i dont want to ruin him.

but rushing something like games/gymkhana where horses get extremely hot, will eventually ruin your horse wont it? i mean.. she has this horse in a jr cowhorse bit already and bumper spurs.. because she actually thinks she is a finished barrel horse! I mean... along with training my horse i take lessons!

Answer 1

Hello,

My input:

We have performance horses and my family rodeo's.  My two oldest girls both have 1D championships can chasing.

YES, pushing a horse too fast to do speed events ruins them most of the time.  They will get "blown up" and arena sour.  But, occasionally there will be the exception to the rule.  But, we would NEVER risk it to ruin a horse.

Finished speed event horses takes TIME and lots of it!  They need to be worked properly and slowly.  Once they have the patterns down, then they are only run on it once or twice a week at the most.  WE rarely asked for the speed unless it was a competition.  

I think for a horse to be finished in an event, it needs to have several seasons of competition too, not just training!  This is when you can really see the efforts and time that a properly trained horse.  

Our 1D horses are also our girls trail ridding horses.  THEY are all around horses and they are and safe!  BUT, they are hard to beat when it comes to running the patterns too.

Answer 2

You're doing right the way you're going.  Slow and easy makes the horse.

You can say your horse can do anything but proving it is another matter.

I knew a dressage trainer back in the early 90's who said she was a "trainer" but NEVER sat on a horse!  I'd been trainin' horses since I gave up my amature status in 1980 and always came down to the barn dressed in boots, jeans and bandana, my regular workin' clothes.  Our little dressage trainer sat in her tackroom appropriately attired in field boots, breeches and hair coffed.

One afternoon, I got off work, got down to the barn and saddled up my then mid 20's old AQHA gelding in a Wintec Sport, just to check it out.  I also put on my breeches and my then 20 yr old Dehner field boots and stepped aboard.  I wanted to see how that old "fake saddle" felt and took it for a test ride.

One thing I can say about it was that with my Dehners on, I could once again LOCK my legs onto a horse (Something I hadn't been able to do since I wrecked back in the late 70's.) and worked walk, sitting trot, posting trot and canter both directions.  Then I wanted to do something fun, so I asked the old man to pivot on his haunches and canter on the forehand (A slower version of a spin, with a bit more contact on his mouth.).  We did that both directions, then put him into a slow canter and did an every stride lead change.  Granted, I was just messin' around with the old horse, who'd been with me since he was 4 and had learned those moves from me.

What I didn't know, was I had an audience of the "Dressage Trainer's" kids!  They'd only seen me hack the old horse or sit on him and give lessons, until that day, they didn't have a clue.

The following day at the barn, my buddy, George Chavez (Chavez-Wortham Arabians) a trainer in his own right, asked me what I was doing the day before.  I told him I checked out that old Wintec I'd just traded for to see how it rode, 'cause I was curious.  It's then I was informed I had an audience and was the "talk of the barn"...LOL

Interesting after the fact was that after that when the "Dressage Trainer" wasn't around I was being asked a LOT of questions by her students...ROFLOL

Answer 3

I commend you for taking the time to train your horse correctly and safely and chastise you for trying to judge someone else for their methods.  Odds are in your favor that you will end up with a sound horse, both mind and body, while she will not, but...then again, she could..it is irrelevant unless she is out there running full tilt and interfering while you are trying to train yours in a responsible manner.  Unless you see someone actually abusing their horse, I would suggest that you reserve the time and energy that you might possibly waste on observing and discussing someone else's methods and apply it to your own horse. I didn't actually mean that to come out so blunt, but...it is what I meant to say, so I will leave it.  You seem to be well on your way to having a good solid horse, keep up the good work..keep us all up on his progress.

Answer 4

I don't know anything about barrel racing myself but if this girl is rushing her horse at these obstacles, with the wrong tack and equipment, and in the wrong position, she'll get her come-uppance soon!  Eventually the horse will get fed up and could refuse to cooperate, or end up decking her, and it'll serve her right!

Try and see if you can get someone experienced (like your instructor) to talk to her, for the sake of the horse.

Answer 5

Sounds like you are doing a perfect job of getting your gamer going, so he is a quiet, all-around horse, as well as a good gamer!! The chick you are describing sounds like she needs to get taken down a few notches...by her so called ''barrel horse'' she doesnt need a cow horse bit or spurs for her horse thats in training...sounds like a royal idiot to me! I feel bad for her horse...just ignore her & bask in the glory of knocking her prissy little know-it-all pants off if & when you ride against her in a competition!!

Keep doing what your doing, I wish I heard of more people training like you train!! Your hard work & patience will pay off, dont get anixous!!

Foundation, Turns, then Speed!

Good Luck!

Answer 6

She can "call" her horse a barrel horse but that doesn't make it one.  Puttting the proper foundation on any horse for any job is a must.  The basics are the building blocks for all disciplines.  But training a horse to run around barrels doesn't necessarily make it a barrel horse either.

The horse may just be your buddy and do the barrels because you ask.   Barrel horses take good breeding, foundation training, and running competitively with other good barrel horses in various venues or surroundings before you can call them a "barrel horse".  I could call my QH a jumper because he likes to jump small fences, logs, and streams, but that doesn't make him "trained" in the discipline.  Training, and consistency make the horse usable in their field.  And there are many in fields they don't belong in!

Answer 7

I wouldn't worry about her..just do what you know is right and worry about your own horses training. She could ruin her horse and maybe not..depends on how tolerant the horse is. Just work on your skills and maybe she'll see your success and follow your lead!  

Answer 8

she doesnt sound like a barrel rider yet to me, sounds like she is just anxious to get finished and wants to show off, if she wont listen to any one when they tell her to take it slower, then she will find out the hard way....

running a horse too fast when it is in training will ruin them..take it easy, walk and trotting them, pocket the turns, and lean the barrels