What kind of stuff should i train for? (barrel racing, western pleasure.. etc.) which one? help please :)?

Question

Ive been riding for about 2 years now. I had a horse but she was recently sold. I always wanted to train her for barrel racing but she just wasnt the right horse.. so i started training her for western pleasure. Now.. my horse reared and took off... so i lost a lot of confidence and balance. I am scared to barrel race because of all that could go wrong. But I kind of wanna do western pleasure because it is calm. I know this is confusing... but i like to go like a medium speed canter.... but i dont want to turn a lot... and i prefer something in a western saddle :) i was thinking about pole bending... but anybody have any suggestions about what you think i would have fun doing?

Answer 1

first if you want to do a med. slow canter with not a lot of turns, then barrel racing as well as pole bending is out. both require speed/turning/and lots a balance/ hand cordination etc. i used to do western pleasure and i got extremely bored with it, so i started barrel racing, ive been barrel racing and pole bending for about 12 years now. and absolutely love it. i think overall before you pick what kind of event you want to do, you need to work on getting your confindence and balance back. that is key. of course im going to recommend barrel racing and pole bending just because i love it and its my sport, and i also believe that if you get any person to do barrels and poles that has never done it before i firmly believe they would love it.  if you're scared at what could go wrong with barrel racing dont be, because if you sit and ponder on what could go wrong in any circumstance that is not going to help get your confindence back at all. you need to get a horse that you can trust, that you are able to gain a bond with,and start out slow, starting with slow normal arena exercises, gaining trust back with cantering and speeding up, dont start on barrels going full out, start by learning w/ walking and trotting, then when you feel like your balance is returning, then canter towards the barrel, then slow back down to a trot around, the continue that thru the whole pattern, then start and try to lope the whole pattern, i promise you with slow work and determination you will get your confindence and balance back.  just keep in mind, that if you continue riding horses with that fear and never want to try to rid yourself of that fear, then horse riding is not for you.  horseriding whether for fun or if you compete, your worst enemy is fear.  follow your heart, if your head is saying western please because its slow and calm, and easy and you want that because of fear and lack of confindence, and your heart is saying barrel racing, then maybe you should listen to your heart, try it out, you will never know unless you try.  but like i keep saying, you have to tackle the fear and gain that confidence back in yourself and in your horse. your horse will sense that and make it just the harder. hope everything works great for you!

-to add, if you are serious about learning to barrel race, they have some awesome barrel racing clinics that are for beginners and experts, i have gone to several in my life and they are amazing, go to this website, they do travel from state to state, so maybe they will be in your area, but even if not, they are deff. worth traveling to.  i would recommend this to anybody learning to race.  www.barrelracers.com