So in the last few months, I started to run my mare. She is a finished horse and is solid and healthy. I ride her 5-6 times a week, she is very hot but controllable so I do a LOT of walk/long trotting/circles/side passing/half passing, archs, counter archs etc., basically stuff to keep her mind busy and to keep her relatively quiet because she is always ready to run. She is VERY sensitive, I don't wear spurs on her because she is super touchy on her sides. Put on a leg on her and she's moving.  She's also very light on her face, I run her in a little S no tie-down, and I can ride her brideless with no issue. 

My thing is that when I run a bigger pattern(Standard), she clocks top of the 3D with me with some room for improvement. However, when she is on a smaller pattern ( we have a 14-second pattern we go to for the winter) she's clocking top of the 4D and she is just cruising. I have tried to use a hand whip to speed her up but if I pop her once, she just goes.. Oh, time to run! and blows right past them (but eventually turns them)  I am not an aggressive rider, I am generally pretty quiet. 

My question is, how do I get her to go faster on the smaller patterns? 

Here is a video of our most recent run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djWs0suHnxA She also likes to cling to the second barrel on THIS pattern.. she's taken it down a few times so I'm been working with her on getting off it. On the bigger patterns, she doesn't come near them. 

Does she respond to kisses? As in kissey noises? That's much less aggressive yet lets them know you want them to move out. I growl at mine since kissey noises aren't easy for me. Small kicks work as well as big ones to the sensitive big running horses (my opinion) and between baby kicks and growls my hot mare moved right on out on any size pattern.

I have a mare named " Hot Sauce" for a reason, she is not mild sauce, she is HOT sauce. LOLOL . She is a FINISNED 1D/2D mare but like you said, as soon as your on, she wants to go go go and do anything you ask... FOr this reason, she is NOT a pleasure to just trail ride so I pony her off my other horses to keep her in shape and ride her probably 1-2 days a week. SHe knows her job and needs zero reminders, she gives her life ever trip. 

    Having said that, in your situation, I would teach your mare some VERBAL cues to run rather than spur or popping her with over and under etc. When your just riding her , maybe use a cluck or kiss sound and have her move a little faster as you do it. Won't take long for her to associate that noise with going faster. Then when you make your runs, use same noise. 

Is there an area at the arena before you run (like a flat, grassy or dirt surface you can safely do this away from other contestants), once she's warmed up, that you can breeze her/ really hustle her to get her to run? Or is she one that will get too hot if you do this close to time before a run?I had one that would NOT hustle between the barrels in a small pen and this seemed to work for me if I knew it was an arena that he had trouble really firing in. He was very level headed and never got hot though. Might be worth a shot if she knows YAY it's run time before you are actually in the arena since she will blow past them if you try to pop her with a whip between barrels.0

Also, at home (if you have the area) try to set up a small pattern or even just one barrel close-ish to the fence so she can get used to concentrating on turning the barrel next to a fence since she may not be used to that as well.

It does look like she is eyeing the fence in that run (her barrels are pretty though )

Not sure how long you've had her but I may ask the previous owner if they had this issue and how they handled it.

I feel like this may take you a few barrel races/ months of trial and error to learn what will work for her and what will not, which it kindof seems like you're already doing. Good luck! 

I feel like the circling is slowing her down.  With my horses, if I don't get the run to the first barrel, they don't run as hard the rest of the pattern.  Maybe try going straight to the pattern.  Most places don't allow circling anymore anyway.

Lonely and Flitastic,

When she is on the ground (like round pen or lunging) she really doesn’t respond to kissing or clucking, she is very chill on the ground. I do use the verbal cue of “trot on” when I want her to stretch those legs of hers to get her too long trot.. but that’s on the ground. I guess I have not thought of incorporating that when I’m on her, because as Flitastic stated, she wants to go, go, go when I’m on her. I just do a TON of slow work on her, and usually, the day after a barrel race or even I practice at one (once in a blue moon) she needs to be brought back down lol But I will take this into consideration and give it a try!

Babbs, No there is not. There are only 2 pens that run during the winter and they don’t have a place to breeze her, not a safe place anyway. There is an arena about an hour from me that has a track, but they shut it down for the winter and won’t open again till spring.  I guess I have not tried because of how hot she is.. I want her walking in there and not getting stupid. To answer your question, I bought her in May. She had not been ridden in 8 months, and the owners were nice people but I just don’t think they had a ton of knowledge. They had a tie down on her (she would shake her head a lot trying to get away from it), the gag bit they had on her was upside down, and the girl was a bit heavy-handed. They were amazed what happened when I put a softer bit on her, took off the tie down and just was using leg cues and not leaning on her face.. she was like a whole different horse. They wanted to know what kind of bit I was using, because if I didn’t buy her they were going to try that bit. But I bought her.. ;) lol

Silly Filly, which was my first time circling her in that pen. I usually just start from the alley and let her go, but the last few times I did that in this pen we were knocking over barrels. Sooo.. I decided to go this way to get her attention and to give myself a few extra seconds to put it all together.

It sounds like you work a lot on slow work, but not much on fast work so she's kind of loses her head when you ask for speed. I would work on sending her in the arena and then rating down, sending her, rating down. I wasn't able to watch the video, but from what you've said, she needs to learn to add speed while staying level headed..

Is she a fairly large horse? Maybe she just doesn't like the small patterns? Personally I don't think my horse would do that well in a small rodeo like pattern but I've never really tried so I can't say for sure. Maybe with the small pattern she just knows she is going to have to turn after a few strides so she doesn't see the point in actually running. Is she so senstive you can't wear bumper spurs? You coudl just squeeze her sides and kiss instead of kicking. Maybe set up a small pattern at home so she can get a feel for it? Maybe for small patterns you will need to be more of an agressive rider but large patterns you don't?

I really like this! 

She seems like a really nice mare, the good ones typically do have their quirks though! 

i think its ok to run past them a few trips just to see if you can get her running in a smaller pen.  once she is then try to handle her a little more at the turns. 

Do you have an area that you can breeze her? If she seems to be shutting down this has always helped me. It will help her to learn that kissing (or whatever you want to use) means faster. Worth a try. 

So, can you elaborate on how do I help her “keep her head” when asking for speed? I don’t mind doing it.. it’s just the aftermath that I don’t want to deal with even though I can. I will hustle her on a larger pattern and she runs great, it’s just the smaller pattern I’m having problems with. And I have tried to breeze/rate her in our bigger arena but she gets soo hot.. and her lope is pretty bouncy, her gallop is super smooth. I don’t lope her as much because it hurts my back. She got her hocks done a couple of months ago and I was hoping it would help smooth her out, but it didn’t. I’ve tried to teach her to collect, but she has a pretty high headset and she does not like to get her head down (she has been vetted, chiro’d, pemf, acupuncture, teeth done, she is not sore) unless she has to. I KNOW she can lope collected.. because when she is at a race, it’s like she’s got a game face on, because in the warm-up she lopes slow and easy(go figure) until it’s time to run.. I just don’t know how to get her to do that at home.

SimplyTaylor, she is. She’s 16 hands, and a pretty stout mare. I have thought maybe she doesn’t like the smaller patterns.. but right now, unless I travel 2+ hours I only have this pen, and a larger pen to haul to and the smaller one is every week. The other not so much. I have not tried bumped spurs on her..I don’t know if they would work. Like I said, she is very touchy.

Babbs, she is a very good girl! Super sweet and tries really hard :)

So I like the hotter horses too and usually when I start them I do a lot of speed transitions. For example trot, break down to a walk for 10 -15 steps then back to trot/break down to a walk. Then lope/trot etc. Once they get it down I add speed to where you can breeze/break it down to a lope (or anything slower) and then breeze again. I think it’s easier to start them in big circles doing this, but once they get the hang of it you can do it heading out in a straight line/large pasture too. This also helps them learn to stay collected, and really reading your seat/body language. Make sure you’re getting her nose and she’s not bracing against the bit when you’re asking for the transitions. Keep yourself really soft and relaxed as well. 

Without having any other runs to compare it to and if you usually ride the same way as the video....trying to ride quiet, but still reserved and  holding her back. Of course you did lose time on her wide pocket on 3rd and then coming out wide, before she finally pushed off from 3rd.  But, then look at where you start  pulling her back to quit her run....way before the timer. That probably ate a good chunk of time.

Just by seeing that run, but hearing what you say about her being full of go and light.....In practice, I would work on rating more for the turn, but giving her her head in between the barrels, instead of the opposite (holding her up between, but giving her her head in the turn).  Do a lot of trotting to barrel and walking around, loping to the barrel, then trotting, etc.

Here is a couple more videos, I dont have many as I usually need to find someone to video. 

This is our first exhibition together about 2 months ago..

https://youtu.be/FYxxdx-n_QQ

Then like our 4th exhibition together

https://youtu.be/w3jtwR2ukxU

 We were having a saddle fit issue, got that taken care of. These were before we got her hocks done, she would get sore the day after running. She is good now. 

I did not read all of the responses but my guess she is shutting down just because she is inside and the fence is right there. I have had th same issue with my mare (also sensitive). I just did a clinic with Wrapnsnap (Andy) and we worked on pushing her to the wall during drills so she would be more comfortable with the wall. It did help and we had a nice run at the end of the clinic. It actually helped me tremendously too because I gave me confidence to just kick her thru the turn so she didn't shut down.

Thank you for the feedback! When I get back from vacation I will give that a try, I sure hope it works for her.  I've also noticed the less on her face the calmer she is. If I am working her 5-6 times a week, I can ride her walk/trotting bridleless and she gets super calm. It's really weird, I don't know why.. she get's very anxious when you have a bit on her, she has gotten a little better but she can really lean into it when loping circles.. then I have to stop, flex, correct and go forward till she chills out. Not sure what happened to her there for her to do that. I run her in a Little S. 

Fulltiltfilly, I actually did that in our exhibitions before out last run (the first video). Except I did it at a trot and drove her to the fence, but it was more to get her off the barrels than to pick up speed.. BUT.. I do like the idea and will give that a try. 

Thank you everyone for your feedback, I'm so appreciate of it! 

On the indoor run you posted, overall NICE JOB. However, I see areas where you are probably eating up the clock. On a big pattern you have "time" to make up for your mistakes on the running straightaways. On a small indoor, you do not.

Also, pay attention to your body posture. You got "left behind" when she left the first barrel. To me, it looks like she slowed up to wait for you. (seems like a good horse to do that)  So make sure that you are in running position and staying with her. You also had your hand on the horn and your inside hand in the turning position when you were only halfway between barrel 1 and 2. That's also going to cue her to start thinking about "turn" when you still need her to be thinking "go" at that point. So stay two handed longer. I watched your outdoor videos too, and seems that you do that outdoors as well. Might be okay for outdoors, but most horses really get extra extra ratey on small patterns (or at least all mine always have). So even though you might do okay with going to the horn on an outdoor pattern, you may need to change how you ride on a small indoor pattern because she runs differently there.

Also, I think her hind end might still be bothering her. I know you said you had her injected but she crossfires on the backside of the second barrel on your indoor video and comes off wide. I can't entiredly see for the 3rd barrel but looks like she might have crossfired on the backside too. And she seems to "hop" as you are coming to a stop. Sometimes injections don't 100% resolve all the pain. If it were my horse, I'd take her back for a recheck, looking at that right hind. IMO. Something just doesn't quite look right.

Also, you went in wide and came out a bit wide on the 3rd barrel. Not bad, but it could be cleaned up and tightened up. Again, the more real estate you cover on a small pattern, the more time it costs. Really important to have a perfect pattern on a small pattern, especially if you are looking for ways to shave off 1/2 sec

Just wanted to give you all a small update. 

So I ran her a couple weeks ago and I took what you guys said into account.  I got off her face coming into the first and the second, we came off the first a little wide but she went straight into the second (it almost felt like she was going to duck because she came so close before setting up to turn) but I picked her up last minute and she didnt even come close to hitting the barrel but still wrapped it tight,but we knocked a whole half second off our time just by me letting her work. It was our personal best in that pen. I've also started treating her for ulcers as she has been a bit chargey and anxious lately, and super touchy (more so than usual).. night and day difference in her personality since starting treatment.  

Im running her again today so I'm hoping it all goes well! Thanks again everyone! 

Update! 

Ran today in the small pen again, and we clocked a 15.629 (when I originally posted this, my last run was a 16.6) So I have done 2 runs since this thread in this small pen, and we have knocked off a whole second off our time AND we placed 3rd in the 3D today and we picked up our first check!! Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions, they have helped so much!! I am super excited!! 

Woo hoo, go girls!!!!

Congratulations! I love it when people post their breakthroughs and have such awesome results!