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 Go Your Own Way
Posts: 4947
   
Location: SE KS | SKM and Della - I agree ! We do the same.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1087
Location: Midland, MI | I work my horses and make practice runs on worked up loose dirt, mud, hard clay, grass, deep ground etc. anything and everything! My mares will run on everything and do their best. If I leave the barrels up and my horses' shoulder isn't out, we place at every rodeo we enter, any weather conditions and any ground type. And when they stumble at home I keep them going, I don't stop and baby them. And when we make a run at a show and they stumble we barely lose any time. They just work through it and keep going. It's beneficial to you and your horse, as well as your entry fee to practice on anything and everything. It's part of training a barrel horse. |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | SKM - 2014-10-29 9:33 AM I don't think you need to practice on grass. I think where people screw up is that they only train and practice on ideal ground. Thus allows for a lot of bad habits to develop. Mainly in that it allows a horse to lean in the turn instead of standing upright and driving up underneath themselves. They then start clocking at jackpots where the ground us ideal so their riders think it's time to rodeo. At that point it falls apart because rodeo ground is unforgiving when it comes to a horse that doesn't stand upright in the turn. Our ground tends to get hard at home. While we don't run on it, we do train on it and make sure all of them stay upright no matter what speed they go.
Big ditto to this. Joker started his career running at county fairs and horse shows where the ground was often hard and packed by the time timed events started, and that dude can stand up on ANYTHING. He has always stood up and stayed square while turning. When Clifford was starting out, I loped through on some really bad ground and it turns out, he works really well on slick nasty hardpan ground. Of course he just may not know well enough to slow down LOL. |
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 Go For It!
Location: Texas |
I'm too old to risk an injury to me or to them, lol. I won't run if the ground is crappy at a barrel race either. I'll safety up. These suckers are already expensive enough without an injury... And since these 2 horses will probably have to last me forever - I'll keep them, and me, on good ground. :)
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 669
Location: Central Texas | I'm sorry. I will go with ground that is a little bit trashy but I am just not going to put my horses or myself in a position to be crippled on ground that I feel is unsafe while practicing/training on the pattern. I have paid out to much money through the years because someone did not take proper care of the horses legs/feet and what they were running on and I unknowingly purchased the problem. I don't rodeo so nice great ground is my choice. It's great that we have a choice and great that everyone can make that choice. |
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