What to Focus on a Beggining Barrel Raceing Horse?

Question

Hey,

I am going to try to train my horse to barrel race. I have been walking him around the barrels. While I am working him at this beggining level what do I as the rider need to work on to help improve my horse.

Also, any tips would be helpful.

Thanks

Answer 1

If you're wanting to compete on him and unsure, then I would suggest sending him off to be trained. If you get it wrong in the beginning it's very hard to retrain the correct way back into them. I suggest you find a trainer that will let you sit and watch some of the training and then perhaps later on down the road after gaining more skill, take a wack at training yourself.

You also need to make sure your horse is sound and has the conformation to do what you are asking of him. I'd hate for you to spend the time and money on either training him or sending him off to be trained, if he's not sound enough or has the conformation to do what is being asked.

Answer 2

Set up cones in a 3x3; equal spaced.

--------o o o

--------o o o

--------o o o

Go in straight turn left around the cone; which should bring you back facing a cone across the square.

Then straigh to the cone straight in front and turn right

In the end you will turn left around the middle cone & right around the end cones.

This helps to control the shoulder.

- ll

- V > v

O v O ^ O v

v < v < <

v O v O ^ O

> > > > v

O v O ^ O v

__> > ^ ^ < <

Also do bending. Start on ground. with lead rope and halter. take lead rope are start near the head and run hand up lead rope up to withers. Make sure the line is tight. Hold is untl the horse turns his head in and holds it there for seconds. Release and praise. Do it on the other side.

Do it riding too. Start near the bit and slowly/ lightly pull back to your jean seam.

To help the horse learn the pattern. Walk the pattern. AGAIN and AGAIN. Make sure you go VERY wide and come in close but not hitting the barrel.

Then trot around a barrel but turn the going around into a circlish turn. Then head to the next one. Do that for all.

_ _ _

-- / o )

-- /

Then do the same same thing at a canter.

Slowly make the circles smaller around the turns.

Also train the horse to gallop at a certain noise. So the the horse will learn to GO when you make that noise.

Answer 3

there is a really good book you can get at TSC called "barrel racing 101" ...it has ALOT of good info in it.. but i dont like how she runs her patterns.. dont start in the middle of the arena.. start about 6-10 feet away from your barrel at the end of the arena.. if that makes sense.

Answer 4

just take it slow and easily work your way up to being faster. good luck

Answer 5

I would start trotting him through it. Also make sure that you leave nice big pockets at the walk and trot because if you don't, your horse will crash into the barrels at the canter and run.

Answer 6

I have trained over 6 barrel hroses and in my experience this has worked excellent. Start off walking through the pattern make sure to exaggerate your pockets so when you go faster your hrose wont anticipate the turn. Then when he is confident about walking around them, then trot through the pattern, when he is confident with trotting then lope them. Remeber when you are training a barrel horse it is about gaining his confidence through consistent work. When he is confident you really have a good horse under you! Hope this helps!

Answer 7

get the book "Martha Josey, running to win at barrel racing" my parents got it for me for christmas cause i was starting to train my horse to do barrels and it really helps

Answer 8

Keep reading those books!  They can be very helpful when it comes to training your horse.  

There are many exercises that will improve your horse greatly.  You should have control of all parts of his body, which includes bending at the poll, sidepassing, leg yielding, and disengaging his hind quarters.  Some important exercises your barrel horse should be able to perform are serpentines, rollbacks, figure eights, etc.  I personally love rollbacks and try do lots of them.  They build up the muscles your horse needs to get around that turn.  They also perfect his stop, which is very important at the barrel.

I'm assuming your horse will stop immediately when you say "Whoa" at any gait.  He should also give to the bit (You can test this by asking him to back up.  If he lowers his head and backs nicely, he gives to the bit.) Another good exercise to do is setting up cones in a row.  Walk, jog, and lope your horse through them, treating the last cone as a barrel.  Like pole bending.  This will perfect your horse's leg yielding, and he will even get some practice with his barrel turn in.  

You're correct in starting out at a slow gait.  Make sure to teach him how to rate, though.  As you approach each barrel, I would stop about five feet away from it.  Wait five seconds, then walk up to the barrel, making your pocket.  Ask for another "whoa", and wait five seconds before turning the barrel.  Your body position is important.  Lean into your outside stirrups, look to your next barrel, and sit deep in your saddle.  Keep your inside leg on him if he cuts the barrel too close, or if he wants to drop his shoulder.  Outside leg if he's making the turn too wide.  Remember to close your barrels by using your outside leg to move him over. (Ah!  Here's where leg yielding comes in.)

This first stage is going to take the most practice and training.  You can jog the barrels too, but remember to stop at each pocket.  After working on this for awhile, your horse should start to prepare himself for a stop at each barrel.  This is what you want.  This is called rating.  Practice jogging through the whole thing without stopping for five seconds, just say 'whoa' at your pocket to slow him down and turn.  Remember - your body posture is everything.  You need to help keep him balanced.

There's a million and one different little quirks you can run into along the way.  For example, your horse is lazy with turning the barrel, he makes his turns too wide, or he likes to drop his shoulder around it.  I'd ask a professional if you run into a problem like this if you don't know how to help your horse through it.  Another good exercise I forgot to mention is loping in circles.  Start out loping in a big circle, then gradually make it smaller and smaller.  You could even do this around a barrel.  Then make your circles bigger and bigger once you think you've made the tightest circle you can get.  This will really help out your horse's barrel turn.

Once you've perfected the pattern at a jog, go on to a lope.  Increase speed as you feel is necessary, but just don't push your horse.  Keep in mind, it takes a good 2-3 years to train a good barrel horse.  If you're just interested in local shows, you could trot him in the novice classes (if you were like me and couldn't wait that long) and eventually run him in some fun shows.  Also, remember to mix things up.  Your horse can get real bored of barrels if that's all you do.  I would train him on the barrel pattern  no more than once or twice a week.  The rest of the time, go on a trail ride or work on the exercises I told you about.  If yo overdo him on barrels, he'll turn into an arena sour horse.  

I hope this helped, good luck!