I'm looking for drills that I can do with my horse to get him used to faster speeds on the pattern without actually having to run him through the pattern. I go out and run him in the pastures around our place and he's good with that, but I need something that works on speed in the arena and gets him used to keeping his speed up around the barrels. He's a ratey horse to begin with so I know I'm always going to have to work on keeping him moving, but he's not quite a seasoned horse yet and is still learning how to handle himself at higher rates of speed like that.
Thanks :)
What I have found to have helped on my ratey mare is to breeze her in the arena. She's the same way as yours, not quite finished, and can run great outside the pen. I have a local saddle club arena that that I can go to and we can do it when no one else is in there. It really helps when I keep her moving around the oblong ends of the arena. I have noticed that her speed and confidence has picked up.
albertacowgirl - 2014-05-21 2:45 PM Is Ian Francis' flower power drill the same one that Clinton Anderson does?
I would bet it is. Its the one where you make a circle and then cut across and on the opposite end, rate, shape, and "make a petal." You can really get them cruising and using themselves on that "petal" which would be consistent with what they need to do on a barrel. I use it on mine who needs to learn to handle his feet at higher rates of speed.
Adding Speed
