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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 368
 
| What do you do when you know you will be running on hard ground that you know your horse will have a hard time getting into/running in...besides simply not running of course!! |
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  More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
  
Location: Riding Crackhead. | How hard are you talking? I ran in too hard of ground once. When I woke up I was hung up in my stirrup with my horse thankfully standing there still as a statue. That was 3 years ago and I'm hoping my horse will be well enough to run this year. I have to say there are very few runs I make to this day that I don't think about that wreck. |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | I make sure I get my horse in the pen to trot & lope circles, do a couple rollbacks, stop, etc., basically just feel it out really well before the show. Since I usually haul 2 or 3 horses to rodeos, I can pick the one who is going to handle it best and run him. In the event that I only have one horse in the trailer, I make a concentrated effort to ride in the pen before the show and figure out if he can handle it. Usually mine will figure out how to stand up as long as the ground is dry, especially if I avoid handling them much during the run. My goal on hard or slick ground is to just sit there and let them work without getting in their way and pulling them off balance. |
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 Off the Wall Wacky
Posts: 2981
Location: Louisiana | rodeowithjoker - 2014-01-06 12:03 PM I make sure I get my horse in the pen to trot & lope circles, do a couple rollbacks, stop, etc., basically just feel it out really well before the show. Since I usually haul 2 or 3 horses to rodeos, I can pick the one who is going to handle it best and run him. In the event that I only have one horse in the trailer, I make a concentrated effort to ride in the pen before the show and figure out if he can handle it. Usually mine will figure out how to stand up as long as the ground is dry, especially if I avoid handling them much during the run. My goal on hard or slick ground is to just sit there and let them work without getting in their way and pulling them off balance.
Exactly. If it looks bad, or people are talking about it (ugh), I make sure I ride him in the grand entry to get a feel for it. Normally he'll stand up and take it easy in the turns. I have only not run him once, and that was after I saw veteran rodeo horses slipping and falling. I ate my fees and ran my BF's calf horse for fun, he pretty much high loped since he had no clue what the heck was going on LOL. I try not to listen to girls talking about the ground, because each horse is different. I watch and decide for myself. |
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Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | dashnlotti - 2014-01-06 12:41 PM rodeowithjoker - 2014-01-06 12:03 PM I make sure I get my horse in the pen to trot & lope circles, do a couple rollbacks, stop, etc., basically just feel it out really well before the show. Since I usually haul 2 or 3 horses to rodeos, I can pick the one who is going to handle it best and run him. In the event that I only have one horse in the trailer, I make a concentrated effort to ride in the pen before the show and figure out if he can handle it. Usually mine will figure out how to stand up as long as the ground is dry, especially if I avoid handling them much during the run. My goal on hard or slick ground is to just sit there and let them work without getting in their way and pulling them off balance. Exactly. If it looks bad, or people are talking about it (ugh), I make sure I ride him in the grand entry to get a feel for it. Normally he'll stand up and take it easy in the turns. I have only not run him once, and that was after I saw veteran rodeo horses slipping and falling. I ate my fees and ran my BF's calf horse for fun, he pretty much high loped since he had no clue what the heck was going on LOL. I try not to listen to girls talking about the ground, because each horse is different. I watch and decide for myself.
The grand entry gives you a little feel for the ground but I really like to lope some circles and do some rollbacks so they get a better idea of what its going to do when they try to turn. I am lucky that my 21 year old stands up on anything so I can always safety up and run him so I've never had to turn out. My good rodeo horse has fallen a couple times and therefore I refuse to run him on slick mud ever again. Actually my new policy is not to run on mud if one group of girls ran on dry the night before. It's just not worth it for $50 in day money.
If the ground is dry but hard, I'm not scared. Any of mine can run well on hardpan or shallow ground. It's when you add moisture that things get scary. I have learned in several years of rodeoing that you can't believe what others say about the ground. It is all in what your horse handles and figuring out how to ride accordingly (rate earlier on shallow ground, rate later in deep or heavy ground that really holds them, close your eyes and pray when its shifty LOL). |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | im the odd ball out....lol.......i wont run knowing my horse wont be able to handle the ground........now i also have a few horses running and typically one of them can handle the ground type but i definantly wont run on dangerous ground......its to costly imo..........
m |
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More bootie than waist!
Posts: 18425
Location: Riding Crackhead. | mruggles - 2014-01-06 1:40 PM im the odd ball out....lol.......i wont run knowing my horse wont be able to handle the ground........now i also have a few horses running and typically one of them can handle the ground type but i definantly wont run on dangerous ground......its to costly imo..........
m
Exactly. The horse I was running was an old pro that could handle any kind of ground. This stuff was just plain dangerous and I was stupid. Won't happen again. |
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