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Veteran
Posts: 184
 
| Okay guys.....I went down the TX and brought home a nice little off the track quarter horse that has been a dream to retrain. Have used him to help me move cattle etc and he handles it all in stride. Well, I've been teaching him the barrels very slowly over the past year. The first time I hauled him just to lope the pattern, he ducked on the first and third barrel which he has NEVER done before!?!?!!? So I took a little time off so the last one I took him to, I had to spent 30min in the warm up pen because he was trying to pull through my hands. He barely loped a 18.9 sec NBHA pattern.....and nearly stopped going past the first barrel. At home, everything is beautiful. I breeze him on a track so he knows when I'm asking for speed but can't seem to understand me at the shows. What can I do to help us get better??? |
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 Expert
Posts: 1218
Location: Great NW | Tons of Time Only's trotting and loping |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| Ditto.
It sounds like maybe the connection hasn't been made between speed and turning. Keep patterning slowly. I think it was barrelracingtips.com that had a good video a while back about getting to a point where the horse needs to start taking responsibility for the pattern, there's only so much a rider can do in less than 20 seconds. At slower speeds you should be able to essentially sit there with very little adjustment and move through the pattern - at least moving around the barrels, which shows that the horse has an understanding of what's expected of them. Then start to ask for it at he next gear up |
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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
 
| Is he looking at something past the barrels (fence, banners, bleachers, etc) that is spooking him and making him not want to go past the barrel?
I would guess that if he's doing wonderful at home it's just going to take time at the new arenas. Like was mentioned, lots of exhibitions and going slow to help him gain confidence. The joys of seasoning a young horse! |
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 BHW Resident Surgeon
Posts: 25351
Location: Bastrop, Texas | I think a lot of horses off the track have learned to run into the bit. Often times they are run into a snaffle and that habit hinders them until it is un-learned. It's hard to address your specific problem, but I agree with others that you certainly can't go wrong with more slow work and building confidence and teaching them to relax. I think all horses really need to be taught how to collect and really work off their ass. They don't really get that important fundamental real well with simply walking and trotting. There has to be work with developing their ability to listen to your body language every bit as much as your hands. Getting them down on their ass, collected and working to learn to run through that stop at the rate point takes a lot of time and work with any horses.....even moreso with a track horse because they really aren't broke completely, IMO. Some good ones will be pretty good at compensating for a deficiency in this skill and make up for it with speed and developing "rate" on their front end. The secret is getting them on their ass through that turn. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | ktbeasleyze - 2014-01-31 10:55 AM Okay guys.....I went down the TX and brought home a nice little off the track quarter horse that has been a dream to retrain. Have used him to help me move cattle etc and he handles it all in stride. Well, I've been teaching him the barrels very slowly over the past year. The first time I hauled him just to lope the pattern, he ducked on the first and third barrel which he has NEVER done before!?!?!!? So I took a little time off so the last one I took him to, I had to spent 30min in the warm up pen because he was trying to pull through my hands. He barely loped a 18.9 sec NBHA pattern.....and nearly stopped going past the first barrel. At home, everything is beautiful. I breeze him on a track so he knows when I'm asking for speed but can't seem to understand me at the shows. What can I do to help us get better???
I would stop breezing him for now. Slow things down, get him super super soft and responsive, lots of slow work, at home and at time onlys. Once that is nice and completely under control, then add a little speed. |
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