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boon
Posts: 2
| My barrel horse was bought off the track and trained. She has TONS of speed which I love. but we are having problems with her constantly slinging her head up as we run or simply warming up(which is hard to do).She sometimes even loses sight of the barrel. Tie downs are a no can do, because she goes nuts. Is this just the race horse in her? any suggestions?
I also have to warm her up by lunge line because she does not know how to slow lope. I've tried everything. She either wants to fast trot or take out sprinting. I do not like this. I've come to the point of wearing her down by lunge line prior to our barrel race. Any suggestions??? | |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
  
| It sounds like she is not broke well enough to be doing barrels.
She needs to be giving to the bit, by slinging her head she is fighting the bit. I would take her off the barrels and work on basics.
Collection, she needs to be able to slow lope, as well as slow trot, you need to be able to control your horse at all speeds.
She needs to be able to give to the bit.
I would suggest sending her to a trainer to work on these fundamentals, them have the trainer train you how to ride her | |
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Expert
Posts: 3514
 
| You need to get her really broke. A lot of slow loping and slow work. When she starts to want to run counter arc her. She will soon learn that she is causing herself more work. Ride in draw reins. | |
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boon
Posts: 2
| Once she gets to the first barrel, she is perfect! She is very trained on them. | |
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 Chasin my Dream
Posts: 13651
Location: Alberta | I agree with the other suggestions....mine is getting her checked for pain issues! Ulcers, body pain, hoof pain....
Edited by dream_chaser 2014-03-21 5:53 PM
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 Veteran
Posts: 193
Location: USA | You need to go back to basics. Your horse sounds a lot like mine and I got mine a month ago tomorrow. I haven't started riding her till last week. Only thing she really knew how to do is turn and run. She knew nothing about stopping, backing, and was all in my space. But she did lunge very nicely. And I will say the first time I lunged her and wanted her to canter she would bolt off every time and be running around like a maniac. But I find you don't need to work them to exhaustion (shouldn't do that anyways unless you have to) just enough where they are listening to you really well and paying attention. Like, walking and trotting although it took me forever for her to get that I wanted her to actually walk not run, LOL. I don't know how yours is, but mine was totally freaked out by my squeaky western roper saddle, LOL So I got a feed bag with bailing twine in it tied it and would start hitting her gently with it in random spots which would stop her jumpiness. After that I would throw on and off the saddle pad and then the fun part the saddle, lol After about week of that and flexing, desensitizing and sensitizing I put a bit in her mouth and did all the same stuff I usually did and then drove her from the back with my driving reins. She was really soft and stopped on a dime (After all that time I had to keep saying whoa when I was working her) Then I finally got on last week. I flexed her moved around in saddle a lot, coughed, just anything I could to make noise cause she would bolt when I put out my hand, LOL so unsuspected. And today she was just really quiet stopped easily, backed, turned and I did some basic barrel drills and she did them like she had been doing them for awhile now. So you may just need to step back, take your time, and be consistent with your horse, and everything will follow through. I also do the Clinton Anderson method and I'm sorry for the long post couldn't explain all this in a short one, lol | |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| I know i will get flamed for this, i would get some ace and give her a 1cc and teach her to go slow and to lope, to,stop and back up try this for 2 weeks and then go to 1/2 and the none. Whe you her themace tie her up for about 1/2 hour and let her chill. And it will be easier and try not to ride the dog do out of her. But do a lot of walk the stop and back up and when you trot when she speed up counter arc or stop her and back up. It is easy to teach a horse to stop trot in a circle and have a bucket or cone or block of wood, everytime you get to,that stop wait a second and ask for one step back up after 4 or 5 times shel will slow down st that spot, then move you spot. Then you ask for 2 steps back and then 3. them ask for the lope when she speeds up ya stop her and back up then let her go easy and go lope again dont let her lope over i circle before stopping until she starts to slow down. But for a month or more until she starts to get her rear under her dont let her lope fast. All that stopping and backing will get her rating and turning barrels better. I have started many horses just like that. | |
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 ...Dot Dot Dot...
Posts: 2064
Location: SW New Mexico | cheryl makofka - 2014-03-22 4:25 PM
It sounds like she is not broke well enough to be doing barrels.
She needs to be giving to the bit, by slinging her head she is fighting the bit. I would take her off the barrels and work on basics.
Collection, she needs to be able to slow lope, as well as slow trot, you need to be able to control your horse at all speeds.
She needs to be able to give to the bit.
I would suggest sending her to a trainer to work on these fundamentals, them have the trainer train you how to ride her
Agreed..
Brother Dave is into year #2, and is finally getting broke enough, I didn't even exhibition him, until I had control of all his body parts, and I am barely entering him .. he's had 8 competition runs.
He is Pretty Boy Perry/Runaway Winner/By Yawl bred ..9 starts .. 84SI.
I got him late May 2012, and he was racetrack broke as I call it...
I got him broke to everything, from draw reins, tiedowns, lungelines, curb bits, hacks, and gags...
and did Buck Brannaman ground work with him ..
He's had miles and miles of extreme trail riding , to help him know where his feet are, and I can ride him in a halter ,and he is a sweet puppy dog at home.
At a race, he's more business like, which will be to our advantage when we start adding speed.. :)
I have had to modify a few things, and we are now happy in a leather noseband, and Warner hack.
I am excited about his future!!
:)
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