How can i speed up my gaming horse?

Question

I have a quarter horse mare that is 14.3hh and is around 11 years old. She is extremely athletic and fit, all of my tack fits her well, and she is in good health. She also LOVES to run. I take her out on the trail and let her run as fast as she can, and she is FAST.

Last year, my normal barrel racing time was 16.00 seconds.. but this year, the fastest we've gotten is around 17.00 seconds. The same goes for pole bending... Last year we got around 21.00 seconds, and this year we've been getting as slow as 25.00 seconds!

I have asked the vet about my horse going so much slower, and she said that there is nothing wrong with my horse physically.

And my horse has some of the best turns i've seen... she cuts it all perfectly... the only problem is that she isn't running as fast as she can, and like i said before... she loves to run! i can get her to go REALLY fast on the trail and when just running around in the arena... but when i am doing the pattern, she wants to slow down, i don't understand why she would suddenly do this!

So does anyone have any exercise tips that i could try, that may speed my horse up?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

 Hi,

I have a Thoroughbred mare that does the same. This mare can run and run and run! She's off the track with great times and will run in the field or just around the arena perfectly, but we go to the barrel pattern she slows down. 

I started to just let her trot around a lot more do trotting on the trails no running and when we practice the pattern once a week we dont go faster than one run at a slow lope. This is huge for conditioning and I've actually found her to let herself run a bit better n her turns have so much more power in them coming out!