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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1032
 
Location: IL | I'm just curious on everybody's opinion or way of doing things. I've seen some trainers say to sit back to rate the horse coming into the barrel but others tell you to wait to sit until your leg is just past the barrel.
My very ratey Paint mare, I have to stay forward and keep pushing her until my leg is even with the barrel. Then I sit to ask her to turn. If I sit to soon she completely loses momentum because she starts rating way too soon.
Thoughts? Opinions?
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1035
Location: TN | I think it depends on your horse. My boy is more of a free runner but he sometimes rates too soon at the second. I have to sit and rate before I get to the first, keep pushing on the second til my leg is past the barrel, and sit just before my leg is even with the third. If your mare is ratey I'd push her til your leg is even with or past the barrel. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1032
Location: IL | KatieMac88 - 2014-01-05 1:42 PM I think it depends on your horse. My boy is more of a free runner but he sometimes rates too soon at the second. I have to sit and rate before I get to the first, keep pushing on the second til my leg is past the barrel, and sit just before my leg is even with the third. If your mare is ratey I'd push her til your leg is even with or past the barrel.
Oh yeah, I have to push her til my leg is even with the barrel, just a hair past on the second, and then even with the third as well. She just loses too much momentum if I sit too early, which of course makes her take extra steps around the barrel because her momentum is gone.
My TB mare I'm training is incredibly ratey on all three barrels. We haven't been doing much barrel work lately due to weather. Earlier this summer I slow loped her through just to see where we were at but we've mainly just been trotting and walking. Do you suggest I train her the same way? Sit when my leg is even with the barrel? Or during training should I pick a rate point so many feet before the barrel, throttle her down, but wait to sit when my leg is even with the barrel? |
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 Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: EDGE OF INSANITY | i agree that it depends on the horse. i have one who will rate down if i even think about relaxing lol. my old mare, you better sit down to turn or you'd be left at the barrel. i have to really pay attention to the ground too with my ratey one. the deeper the ground, the further i have to push before i ask for a turn |
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 Forever Young
Posts: 6768
 
Location: relocated to Texas | You are sitting to rate. On a push style horse (sounds like yours is a push style) you sit further up into the turn than you do on one that is more of a free runner. But, the act of sitting down is always a cue to the horse to collect (rate). The fact that you do it at different spots depending upon the horse you are riding does not change the fact that the sit down is a cue to rate. |
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Impressive!!
Posts: 1954
Location: Idaho | When I ride and train my horses... when I "melt" into my saddle it means slow down and "crawl". SO when I am trotting up to the barrel and I go to melt my hips into my saddle, my horses sit down and crawl to the barrel. It doesn't matter if they are ratey or free runners (it matters where I sit though)... I colt start my own colts and pattern them, so when I sit, they know its time to shut down. I do not lean back. I just melt my hips. If free runners I might melt farther from the barrel, if ratey, I might not until my leg reaches the barrel. But me sitting, means you get your butt in the ground and slow down. |
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Sit to rate OR Sit to turn?