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 Expert
Posts: 2128
  
| What qualities prompt you to categorize a horse as push style or free running.
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| I've got to KICK to get my push style past a barrel.
Free runner, not so much. |
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 It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
 
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | If you yell 'TOO HOT!' flying into the first barrel and right past it = Free Runner
If you have to run along side your horse to the first barrel = push style
lol |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 634
| SmokinGirlie - 2016-04-07 3:56 PM
If you yell 'TOO HOT!' flying into the first barrel and right past it = Free Runner
If you have to run along side your horse to the first barrel = push style
lol
LOL!!
Love this.  |
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 Georgia Peach
Posts: 8338
Location: Georgia | My two current barrel horses consist of a free runner mare and a push style mare.
The main difference is how hard im breathing after I run lol.
The free runner I dont kick or hustle her until after we turn that third barrel. There is nothing I can do to make her run faster than she is already running. Most of the time I wish she would take it down a notch and just relax and not worry about getting to each barrel faster than the speed of light. However, you have to appreciate a horse with TRY. That horse gives 100% every time.
The other mare would really prefer to be eating grass in the pasture. She is good at barrel racing and is the most consistent thing ive ever sat on. But she could take it or leave it. So I think we have less try which equals less hustle...which then leaves the hustling to me. Dont get me wrong, this mare is fast but isnt going to clock if you just sit there in between the barrels. Im not saying push style horses dont have try. They are just wired differently than free runners. |
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 Saint Stacey
| On a free runner, the entire run you are thinking...whoa, whoa, whoa!
On a push style, the entire run you are thinking...go, GO, GO!!!! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| Bling vs the horse Jana Bean ran at the NFR. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| SmokinGirlie - 2016-04-07 3:56 PM
If you yell 'TOO HOT!' flying into the first barrel and right past it = Free Runner
If you have to run along side your horse to the first barrel = push style
lol
Pretty Much!  LOL |
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8555
Location: sunny california | A push style will stop when you quit riding him. A free runner will run until you make him stop. even if he stops easily. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| my free runner was like run as hard as you can in a indoor pen especially smaller ones amd big pens you just had to rate her on first would not go by a barrel on other too. |
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| I disagree with some of these.. I feel a free runner you don't have to hustle, it'll go in there and you can just sit and it'll still clock.. A push style is one you have to hustle and get after to really clock. Anything that goes flying past a barrel, just- runs past a barrel. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | My push style gelding works better the harder you push him. He isn't a barrel hitter, and doesn't shoulder, but will only run about 90% if you just ride. And his turns won't be as snappy. I was having trouble getting with him and getting our timing together. Then I figured out his pattern gets prettier the faster he goes lol.
My free runner is all out whether I push or not. If he isn't running as fast as he can, he isn't feeling 100%. BUT, he will go slow if I ask him to. He isn't going to run off, but I have to rate at each barrel, otherwise he'll take a step or two deep.
To me, a free runner doesn't equal runaway, and a push style doesn't equal barrel slammer. :) |
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It's not my fault I'm perfect
Posts: 13739
Location: Where the long tails flow, ND | Barrelhorsehelp1 - 2016-04-07 8:06 PM
I disagree with some of these.. I feel a free runner you don't have to hustle, it'll go in there and you can just sit and it'll still clock.. A push style is one you have to hustle and get after to really clock. Anything that goes flying past a barrel, just- runs past a barrel.
Oh geeze, it was a figure of speech |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | I feel like there are too many sub-species of each to just generalize them as a "free runner" or push style" horse. I've had free runners that you couldn't make go by a barrel if you tried (that's called a finished barrel horse) and push style horses that would bounce off of the fence but not run a jump. A free runner is a horse that you should not have to push for speed. A push style horse, at it's truest definition is exactly that; a horse that you have to push, or hustle to get them to run at optimum speed. From there, you get into free runners who need you to rate them, setty horses that need you to shove them all the way to the backsides, free runners who are worky, etc... |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 878
Location: "...way down south in the Everglades..." | SKM - 2016-04-07 5:48 PM On a free runner, the entire run you are thinking...whoa, whoa, whoa! On a push style, the entire run you are thinking...go, GO, GO!!!!
THIS ^^^ Sums it up and covers the wide variety of them. And I do believe there are some that are a mix of both. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| Free Runner- You don't have to kick in order for them to run, fires on their own, and requires you to really sit and rate.
Push Style- Requires you to hustle them, or they will just lope/high lope, really hunt their barrels, and are ratey, you have to push them past their barrels.
There's always exceptions, and some horses are a mixture of both. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I ran a ratey push style horse for years. When I got my current horse I was at an Ed clinic and he yelled at me for not rating..I said "I quit kicking!!!" because on the ratey mare that was your "rate"..had to relearn how to ride all over again. Right now I have a free runner who also rates nicely when and where you ask, a free runner who you truly have to rate correctly every barrel, legs, body, seat, hands or you are on a trail ride around the turn, and a big ratey push style mare where you pretty much put your hand between her ears, try not to let your seat bones touch the seat of the saddle and keep the feet active scrubbing her sides, kick her and its shut down mode. |
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Main differences in push style and free runners