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Member
Posts: 18
| Hey y'all! Has anyone ever picked up a cheap trail horse and started them on barrels and they surprised you with how good they are?? I'm debating on wether or not to get a cheap one just to play around with during my free time. And also what made you think your horse might be able to make a good barrel horse?
Please feel free to post your success stories or pictures! I look forward to hearing them! |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
  
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Pretty much any horse can make a nice barrel horse, just depends on what level you want to compete at. Only an elite few make the top rodeo horses.
My first barrel horse was an appy mare my dad packed elk on and my grandpa roped on. I won a lot of buckles and awards on her. If she were up against todays nice horses I think she would be in the 2D. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 477
Location: Lost in the swamps | My current horse was a cutting horse drop out and a roping spook, sold to me by my friend who got him sight unseen as a kids pony ride horse...... Which he is NOT!!i tried him for a week before buying. He's was Skittish and quick and scared of everything!!But boy did he have a handle on him!! Bought him from her for cheap and was gonna put a little more time on him and resell to make a quick buck.... But I ended up falling in love!! The best little barrel horse I've ever had(or trained)(not many) lol!! He has made me learn to like and respect the catty ones! Lil sucker tries his heart out!
Edited by imturnin3 2016-01-07 7:17 PM
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Member
Posts: 18
| imturnin3 - 2016-01-07 7:14 PM
My current horse was a cutting horse drop out and a roping spook, sold to me by my friend who got him sight unseen as a kids pony ride horse...... Which he is NOT!!i tried him for a week before buying. He's was Skittish and quick and scared of everything!!But boy did he have a handle on him!! Bought him from her for cheap and was gonna put a little more time on him and resell to make a quick buck.... But I ended up falling in love!! The best little barrel horse I've ever had(or trained)(not many) lol!! He has made me learn to like and respect the catty ones! Lil sucker tries his heart out!
That's what I'm hoping to find! Sounds like a nice little horse! |
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Member
Posts: 18
| wyoming barrel racer - 2016-01-07 7:13 PM
Pretty much any horse can make a nice barrel horse, just depends on what level you want to compete at. Only an elite few make the top rodeo horses.
My first barrel horse was an appy mare my dad packed elk on and my grandpa roped on. I won a lot of buckles and awards on her. If she were up against todays nice horses I think she would be in the 2D.
Yeah I would love to find something that has been used and has a good mind and a surprise burst of speed like your mare sounds like she has! |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | I used to run any horse I could get my hands on. Some are better than others but they are all fun IMO. |
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Member
Posts: 18
| equussynergy - 2016-01-07 7:32 PM
I used to run any horse I could get my hands on. Some are better than others but they are all fun IMO.
Haha yeah any horse that come to my house is gonna see a barrel at least once. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| My older finished horse was free, he's grade and had stop and go on him when I got ahold of him. Several years and a lot of trials and tribulations later he's a solid 3D horse when you hustle him. More importantly he's safe sane and sound - my boyfriends 8 yr old niece can hop on and make a run on him before I run after I run doesn't matter, he adjusts to her.
My younger horse is cutting bred and was at least started in the cutting pen based on how he's handled stock for us (he's sawwwweeeet to work cows on). I bartered a bit for him and he had an excellent handle on him but no pattern and aside from the handle hadn't done much to anyone's knowledge. He's picked up the pattern faster than anything I've had the pleasure of riding, he's super catty and quick. Every time I get the chance to cruise a pattern on him I just think it NEEDS to be spring and time to go go go! |
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Member
Posts: 18
| OhMax - 2016-01-07 9:30 PM
My older finished horse was free, he's grade and had stop and go on him when I got ahold of him. Several years and a lot of trials and tribulations later he's a solid 3D horse when you hustle him. More importantly he's safe sane and sound - my boyfriends 8 yr old niece can hop on and make a run on him before I run after I run doesn't matter, he adjusts to her.
My younger horse is cutting bred and was at least started in the cutting pen based on how he's handled stock for us (he's sawwwweeeet to work cows on). I bartered a bit for him and he had an excellent handle on him but no pattern and aside from the handle hadn't done much to anyone's knowledge. He's picked up the pattern faster than anything I've had the pleasure of riding, he's super catty and quick. Every time I get the chance to cruise a pattern on him I just think it NEEDS to be spring and time to go go go!
Gotta love those safe and sane horses!! How is your younger horse bred? I'm going to look at a horse that is all cow bred next week. I've never ran a cow bred barrel horse. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | I train barrel horses for a living, but my biggest owner is a bit of a bleeding heart, so we get all sorts of horses in from time to time. One in particular was a 3 month old, halter bred filly that was her dam's first foal, on the smaller side and very non-descript. Just a plain, little red thing. The breeder weaned her early and was going to run her through a local sale. We ended up with her. She ended up being one of the easiest horses I have ever started under saddle and on the pattern. She was a very nice local 2D horse. Certainly wasn't anything special about her and honestly, 30 days in on her, I was thinking that I would end up just getting a few buttons on her and selling her off as some kid's 4H project. She made good though. |
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| My dad bought a 5 year old grade gelding for $800 a few years ago. He was quiet so he bought him for the grand kids to ride and play around with. I started riding him and started him on the barrels and he turned out pretty nice. We've won 2 saddles and he's picked up checks at a few pro rodeos which is a lot more than we ever expected! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 629
| My first homemade barrel horse was a mutt. Unregistered Appaloosa/Arabian cross. He was my boyfriend at the time's trail horse, and the other horse I was riding for a friend was no longer available, so I wanted to run something, so he learned! Like someone else said, it just depends on how competitive you want to be. At the time I was just starting out myself and was just running at a little local open association and hitting nbha shows for a change of scenery maybe once or twice/year. We run several year end championships together and had a lot of fun. To this day, he's my favorite horse to ride even though I know my others are much faster and better suited for barrels. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| I turned my mom's old pleasure horse into a barrel horse at the age of 16. She was a 4D/5D horse with the occasional squeak into the 3D with me riding her. She was Impressive bred.
I got a free horse from a friend who was bred out the wazzoo who was a jack of all trades and absolute master of NONE. They trail rode him, took him around the barrels at home, poles at home, roped a little bit, and he stood around more than he was ridden in his 10 years. His idea of going into first barrel was just that! Run right towards that sucker! He's now coming on after a long, slow retraining period and attitude adjustment. He can be in the 2D easy, but is running 3D/4D with my mom and he takes excellent care of her.
You can turn anything into a barrel horse, you just have to have the time and patience to work with them. Conformation helps, but just about any horse can at least be in the 5D with a little work.
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| Any horse can run barrels.... but finding a diamond in the ruff is very rare now days!
I grew up on a working ranch and my parents just gave me ranch horses to run, I had fun, did well junior and high school rodeo's. Now days, i'm not so sure those horses would be able to hang. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2128
| My husband traded my father in law out of a really young gelding that he had given 125 bucks for at a sale. Horse was cutting bred top and bottom. He ended up earning his grain when it was time to work cows/go to the pasture. I was bored and didn't have a barrel horse. My husband suggested I start this gelding, and even if he didn't make anything great it would increase his value and we would make money selling him. He now has PRCA wins and places team roping (heeling), wins at high number jackpots heading, and is making a pretty good barrel horse. We seasoned at the amateur rodeos last year and was just out of the money at many. He places and wins at the jackpots in the 1D. I am super excited about the year ahead :) Lesson learned..don't count one out just because they aren't fancy bred/bred to run/were cheap.
Edited by scwebster 2016-01-08 11:24 AM
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Regular
Posts: 51
Location: CA | My horse is actually an ottb polo pony I got for free. My dad had been playing on her for a while for a friend and one day he let me ride her. Thankfully my dad's friend didn't want her, cause after that one ride I became obsessed with that horse. Now I do gymkhana on her, and she's running better times than the barrel bred quarter horses.
This probably wasn't that helpful, but I thought I'd share my little success story... and this quote about polo ponies that reminds me of barrel horses :)
"they must have the speed of a racehorse, the handiness of a cowhorse, the balance of a dressage horse and the braveness of a jumper...all rolled in one"
Edited by CHLOE21 2016-01-08 7:24 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| The mare in my profile picture was turned out on the back 40 of a Missouri farm after she was blown up as an extreme trail horse. We traded them a dud pleasure horse and got her and a grade quarter pony. She was in training to be a ranch pleasure horse but she was too go go go all the time from her old extreme trail days (as a 2yo). So I put her on the pattern and she ended up being a 2D/3D barrel horse, won me a top 10 award in IBRA youth, not to mention ended up being a rocking all around horse that won me a bunch in 4H. haha |
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Expert
Posts: 1446
Location: California | If you have a good eye for good confirmation and athleticism, you can make any horse a nice horse. I remember Jackie Jatzlau saying she doesn't know why people say "that horse will only be a 3D barrel horse" when every single horse she has ever trained as gone on to be a 1D horse. Over 50 horses. I can't imagine what number she's up to now. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| hotshot was not bred to be a barrel horse and was small too. size does not matter either. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 464
| Any horse with agility and speed has potential. We have 5 grade horses, that we run. 2 are consitantly 2d, and can squeek in a 1 d every now and then. The rest are 2-4 depending on the day. Personally, I prefer a horse that came from no where. Our 6th horse is just a big ole gray. Looks like Qh Tbred. He's about as promising as I've ever seen. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1392
Location: Central Texas | CHLOE21 - 2016-01-08 3:06 PM My horse is actually an ottb polo pony I got for free. My dad had been playing on her for a while for a friend and one day he let me ride her. Thankfully my dad's friend didn't want her, cause after that one ride I became obsessed with that horse. Now I do gymkhana on her, and she's running better times than the barrel bred quarter horses. This probably wasn't that helpful, but I thought I'd share my little success story... and this quote about polo ponies that reminds me of barrel horses :) "they must have the speed of a racehorse, the handiness of a cowhorse, the balance of a dressage horse and the braveness of a jumper...all rolled in one"
<====The one in my avatar is also a OTTB polo pony that I got from a great friend for free. I love him. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 324
| Paid $800 for a trail horse who barely had a handle and a set of papers that aren't worth mentioning. I trained her and now we are winning the 1D everywhere locally. |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | Heck yes. I think there are more of them out there than people post about. We had one that was $750 that ran 2d in the Big rodeo's and one that was $3000 that won almost $80K in money, saddles, buckles and other prizes. |
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 Owner of a ratting catting machine
Posts: 2258
| *almost there* - 2016-01-11 1:46 AM
If you have a good eye for good confirmation and athleticism, you can make any horse a nice horse. I remember Jackie Jatzlau saying she doesn't know why people say "that horse will only be a 3D barrel horse" when every single horse she has ever trained as gone on to be a 1D horse. Over 50 horses. I can't imagine what number she's up to now.
I have one of those, got her as sort of a side deal. Somebody once said about her, "She's nice if you like 3D horses." Ha. Ha ha. That person has been outrun by that mare a lot to date, and I can't price the little red mess. :) |
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 Straight Shooter
Posts: 5725
Location: SW North Dakota | I bought a mare out of the loose horse sale for $450. Phenotypically, she was the perfect barrel horse. She was half a bronc and I poured hundreds of hours into her. I got her spayed and we finally came to an understanding. She turned out to be a good barrel horse- won some local 50 head jackpots. I turned down $17K for her, because she was so difficult to be around. I was worried someone would misunderstand her and she'd get passed around. She taught me a lot. Although she turned out to be a very nice and competative barrel horse, I don't know if I would have the grapes to do it all over again! I did call the seller, who sent me her papers... http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/beduinos+cash+jet
Lately, I've been buying horses who are either finished and good at their jobs (two were grade, but not cheap) or well bred prospects to make life a little more certain! LOL!
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Member
Posts: 18
| I love everyone's success stories! I've been keeping my eyes on the ones that are built nice. It's so nice to know that there are some good ones that don't have a $50,000 price tag on! I would never spend that on one anyway! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1261
| Every horse I have ever had has been a homemade barrel horse lol. I run what I had and I have been lucky enough to be given 3 horses and pretty much given another as I paid only $100 for him and he was really a looker out of a hot shot stallion and a own daughter of another hot stud. The gelding I paid the $100 for was by far the fanciest bred of the bunch though all had papers, and he was also the worst tempered most unreliable lol.
Anyway I was also given a 9 year old foundation type QH mare that had just been a trail horse. She was a nice horse gave her all and ran the same pattern every time was consistent as you can get and a solid 3D occasional 2D horse. Easiest pole horse you could ever ride too.
The horse I have now is a half Arabian Reiner that never got to compete due to owners personal issues. She learned so so fast and it's just easy for her. She's little at 14.2 but she is so fun to ride! She's a consistent 3D horse as well sometime might squeak into the 2D. She's also a wicked pole horse she's run 20 second poles. She's just a blast I will probably never sell her, even though I want to have a more competitive horse, she's just really something special.
I don't know I see adds out there all the time for horses with awesome pedigrees that on paper look like they should be 1/2D material and there are tons of them that are 3D horses. Or I see horses I know are very well bred and were very high dollar horses and my little half Arab consistently is faster. Sure some of them probably do have potential to move up but certainly not all. You never can really know what your getting unless they are already going. Could be a free horse that is a 1D runner and no one has a clue what his bloodlines are or could be a bred to fly $$ that is 4D. The chances of the first thing are probably not as high as a nicely bred horse has of being a 1D horse but it seems there are never any gaurentees! |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | I have a homemade one that I'm especially proud of even though he has never been a top 1D horse. Joker was purchased for $300 at a sale barn in the fall of his 2 year old year, and I did all his training. He's 23 now and has a record of 2D & 3D wins a mile long, plus he's hit a handful of rodeo checks as he specialized in crap ground and mud. He's slowed down enough lately that I don't run him at rodeos anymore, but I can always trust him to take care of us and get around safely.
A couple videos, just because I love that grumpy old guy and am proud of him: https://youtu.be/tT42vJG_VUQ?t=13s https://youtu.be/A4O7uWhljK0 and https://youtu.be/Z85Tg985liE. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
| my first 4-H horse as a kid had a lot too much spunk for horsemanship, trail, etc... he is 1/2 arab. Nothing special, really.
Well, IDK HOW because I was certainly not a trainer but I put him on barrels and poles (as a kid) and dang it if that horse didn't run 2 and 3 D barrels against some tough competition and SOLID 1D poles until 23 years old.
He is a fun one. Really fun. Will be in my barn forever.
Edited by star1218 2016-01-21 1:28 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 169
| My mare, that passed, was one we raised. I raced her before all the 1d, 2d, and so on, you had to be the top to win. I always placed from the first time I took her out! |
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 Regular
Posts: 56
Location: Savannah, Tennessee | My main barrel horse in my profile pic was purchased by my husband as a youngster...Actually, he purchased his mama and the people said if you buy her, the knot head goes with her, we don't want him. He is cutting bred but a little bit difficult. Hubby sold mama for more than he paid for the 2 of them, so technically he was free.
He is terrified of cows, and became a trail horse for 9 years. I retired my hunter/jumper and wanted to learn barrels...we sent him to a trainer for 90 days while I also took lessons. Now 3 years later he runs top of the 2D and sometimes bottom of the 1D... 2D/3D at super shows. I don't know how I'll ever replace him, he is a dream to run.
Next I picked up an OTTB to do the retired racehorse project for $350, he is such an athlete and smart. He was loping the pattern so well that I thought he would come on to be better than my QH gelding. Unfortunately he had a freak accident on turn out and slab fractured his radius and needed to have pins and wire to fix it. We aren't sure if he will come back or not...but I have no doubt he would have been at least a local 2D horse, maybe more.
<3 my cheap homemade barrel horses. Good Post.
Edited by Poohb10454 2016-01-22 7:08 AM
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| I turned both of my dad's 12-13 yo roping horses into barrel horses. They both consistently run 2D, and have potential to be even faster. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 911
Location: Northern Ontario | I love this thread! I have a ranch/ roping bred apha and she is wicked fast when we run on the trail and I havent opened her up yet either. She is just starting to learn the barrel pattern and is starting to run in dash. She also has an amazing mind. There might be potential in my little mare after all! |
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Homemade barrel horses?