We have a 4 year old grand daughter of Dash ta Fame by a daughter of First Down Dash. She is bred for speed. Out in the pasture she can out run all the other horses. But when I ride her she has no motivation or drive to go fast. She is very lazy and walks like a snail if I let her. She is only 4 and was on the smaller side so she is behind. She has about 120 days on her right now. I have slowly started introducing the pattern but getting her just to lope a circle around 1 barrel takes all the kicking, smooching, etc, that I can give. I never want to force a horse to do something they don't want to. But I also don't want to give up on her too soon. When we broke this filly she also had a HUGE bucking problems, especially when asked to lope or give any forward motion. She would lock up. We have since gotten over that, but I always trot her around a couple times before just stepping on. A tiny part of me also wonders if there is a pain issue. I have had her adjusted by a chiro and had her teeth floated. Any advice or help is much appreciated!! Thanks! 

Could be a pain issue sure, but be prepared for her to simply not do what you want her to. I had a DTF/Mr. Jess Perry gelding with every potential in the world who decided nope, I don't want to be a barrel horse. He is a super happy , sweet , trail horse now with his new owner. I took a great loss on him, but ruled out pain and retrained, just was not his cup of tea. 

I had a horse that was very lazy and had been ridden by a little girl that didn't make him go faster than a slow trot.  My husband team roped on him for a while and that helped him.

Does your saddle fit? Have you tried changing pads? Have you had a lameness exam or had the vet check her back for problems? Have you had her mouth checked? TMJ? Chiropractor, acupuncture/acupressure , massage person? X-ray her hooves? So dang many things could cause this. And then she may just flat not feel comfortable or balanced going faster with a rider on board yet. Good luck. I hope you get her figured out. 

If part of your wonders if she has a pain issue, then that should be the first thing you rule out. You mentioned chiro and teeth but has a vet done a lameness exam?

If your gut tells you there might be a problem, check it out.

If you can rule out pain, then address the training. Of course, loping around a barrel right now isn't going to kill 'em but if you had huge bucking problems with this horse and she's only had 120 days under saddle, don't bring a barrel or the pattern into the mix right now. She's lazy and that's carrying over to the pattern. So FIRST you have to TRAIN her not to be lazy.

Lazy is trained.

Laid back is a personality trait.

There are differences. You can train a laid back horse to be soft and responsive. But you need to be 100% consistent. So for example, if you are at a standstill and you gently squeeze your calves to ask the horse to walk, if they do not immediately respond to your cue and go right into that walk, you have a problem. (This is, assuming, your horse is far enough along in training that they know what you want when you ask them to walk.) While this does not work for every horse and every situation, I have found that immediately giving them a good hard SMACK with a whip or the end of the rein gets my point across. I will let them jump into whatever gait they reacted to, pull them up, and then ask for that stop-to-walk transition again. When this is done correctly, you should only have to hit them once or twice, so you need to mean it. And you never, never allow them to walk on from the smack. Allowing them to walk on is a reward and you should only allow them to walk on when they correctly gave you a nice brisk reaction to your soft leg cue. Every. Time. This is where you as the rider need to be 100% consistent. If you let them be lazy one, and then smack them the next time, that is not at all fair to the horse, and completely confusing. So this needs to be done correctly.

Same could be repeated when working from a walk-to-trot transition and a trot-to-lope transition. Again, assuming the horse has already been trained well enough to know what to do with those transitions. You need to teach that first, before working on the crisp cues.

If she doesn't have interest in loping around barrels right now, that's okay. Work on getting her more broke, and more responsive to your cues. You don't need barrels to do that.

That fact that you have to kick her all the way around the barrel, means that you have allowed her to be lazy. After transitions are mastered, then when you ask a horse (for example) to lope, they are to continue loping until you ask them to do something differently. I hate a horse that I have to nag the whole time. This is supposed to be a workout for the horse; not for me. If my legs are tired from nagging on the horse after a ride, then something is wrong.

Is a horse who has only had 120 days of riding ready for ^this^ level of riding? Most likely not. So work on something other than barrels, if she's not motivated for it right now. Set her up for success on doing things she can currently do well. If she's more open going on the trails, then hit the trails. You can work on just about anything on the trails too, that you can in the arena.

And sometimes the laid back ones just take longer. Granted, my Shotgun had two years off, but he was 8-years-old last year when he all of a sudden started danged near winning barrel races with 70+ entries. This is a horse who's favorite speed is stop, haha. Guess he figured out he really did like barrels. And no whipping, except for once or twice right before the time line if he starts to short me. He was slower to come on, but that's okay. They will come on when they are ready.

My young horse was super lazy. It was a pain to keep her loping and small circles were not her thing. However, I kept at it. I don't futurity or do any big barrel races, so I wasn't in a hurry. She is going to be 7 this year. Man has she bloomed! She has gotten so buttery soft, lopes beautiful collected small circles, and finally found the gas pedal! We did some exhibitions last year. This year we will run. She won't be a 1D horse, but man she has become handy, athletic little mare! 

Sometimes they are late bloomers :) Could  be pain like some have said. Throughly vet him, if everything looks good just keep at it! 

First thing that comes to my mind is possible pain. Make sure the saddle you ride in her fits- gullet size is correct for her withers, bar spread is not too narrow nor wide. Saddles can inhibit motion more than people think, especially when positioned too far up on the withers where it counteracts with the shoulder bone motion. And no saddle pad will magically make a saddle fit better, so don't worry about the correct saddle pad (although wither clearance can be helpful)

I just talked about this with someone else on the forum, but even the kind of bit and placement of said bit in the mouth can do a lot. I often see bits set too far up in the mouth due to the darn "2-3 wrinkle rule"- which doesn't conform to every single horse. And that's where you should also check teeth.

Also rule out any soreness along her back. Does she flinch, shuffle uncomfortably or make any kind of disgrunted face when you press your hand down on her spine and run it all the way along, down to her tail? 

I see a lot of horses started on the pattern that are straight up just not fit enough or have the muscling to feel comfortable and balanced enough. Once a horse has the muscling, stamina, suppleness, straightness, and proper response education, I find putting them on the pattern a little bit later can help a ton. It sucks waiting, but a solid foundation is key.

Some horses just don't like to work- and enjoy mental stimulation on the ground better. Some horses don't have a firm grasp on mutual respect with all who handle her. Some obey tasks out of fear, which can turn into fear aggression and anxious behavior down the road. You have a couple things to consider, but saddle and back pain are always the first items of business I like to consider.

Thank you all for the great advice. I really appreciate it. I have an appointment to have her vetted to rule out any pain issues. IN the meantime, I am going to keep working on the lazy issue. Maybe some of it is me, I'm always open to new approaches. I am also willing to wait and give her time. Hoepfully I can figure something out! 

Bump for the Lazy 5 Year Old :) 

My 5 year old Dash Ta Fame mare was like that last year (her 4 year old year). Now it seems like she's growing into herself and that running breeding. My dad has a Dash Ta Fame filly as well, she's 4 now and she's even more lazy than mine but I am confident she'll grow into herself as well. 

The obvious pain issues but my mare is lazyyyyyyyy.... when I started her i was told "be prepared for her not to have a ton of grit, she may not have the fire." And she is 6 this year and I am so pleased with her. Clocking bottom of the 1d, top of 2d this year but she is still so lazy lol. Slowwwwwww. She actually stopped every few steps last night while riding. She hates to collect and hates to ride but she loves the patterns. She was very willing so i have that going for me, but i wore spurs and carried a crop to just get her to move at any decent pace when she was getting broke ( just had to tap her). I still probably should use spurs for conditioning as it would be easier on me lol but she doesnt need it in the pattern. I think she just thinks exercise is like beneath her lol