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Horse with Locked Shoulders Going Around a Barrel Moderators: luluwhit, gotothewhip, cindyt, crossspur, ForumAdmin Jump to page :	Last activity 2014-12-06 11:42 AM 3 replies, 3020 views View previous thread :: View next thread
General Discussion -> Barrel Talk


barrelracer4sure Reg. Oct 2003	Posted 2014-12-05 2:48 PM Subject: Horse with Locked Shoulders Going Around a Barrel
Lickable I mean Likeable Posts: 3965 Location: De Berry, Tx	I just bought a lightly hauled 6 yr old. She was started by a calf roper/ cutting horse trainer. She has a good handle except she doesn't give at the shoulders. She is stiff there. Not that she won't or can't, she wasn't trained to. Anyway going around a barrel she will pivot her body but won't keep the momentum up to carry around a barrel. The girl I got her from is a good friend and said she couldn't get her around the barrel. She started her and has hauled her a little. I have been working her to get her to free up around the barrel and it is working for the most part. My issue is I am a two handed rider to the barrel and drop to turn. This horse will do well if I never drop or if I stay one handed which I very foreign and odd feeling. If I lope her across the pen to the second the minute I drop my hand she will turn so hard she will almost turn right beside the barrel. I need some advice. Exercises, bits how to ride whatever I need it. She is a nice mare and I hate to say she is ruined. I don't think so. I have had her a week and I can trot her freely around a barrel and I am working on a lope but this is all two handed around the barrel. I know when it comes time to run and I drop I am right at square one. Any one have a horse like this? I did lope her through yesterday slowly with one hand on the rein and she went where I told her to but I know the minute I add speed it may all fall apart. Any help I greatly appreciated.
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Lucy's Mom Reg. Aug 2006	Posted 2014-12-05 5:03 PM Subject: RE: Horse with Locked Shoulders Going Around a Barrel
Elite Veteran Posts: 805 Location: Montana	I'm going through this now. My gelding was really stiff both directions I have gotten him free'd up for the most part to the left but we are still working on the right. I trot lots of circles all sizes. While trotting the circle I will once in a while ask him to go into a spin without stopping first and then continue out in the same tracks. I just sit and ask. A cutting trainer friend showed me this drill. He always wants his horses to have a slight bend when turning a cow. He says when they have a slight bend they stay rocked back on their hips and drive through a turn instead of pulling. He also had me do a lot of loping counter arcs. It has helped both my horses tremendously it really gets them reaching up underneath themselves with that slight bend in their body so when you do ask them to turn a circle in the direction of the lead they are still bent and reaching.
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barrelracer4sure Reg. Oct 2003	Posted 2014-12-05 6:31 PM Subject: RE: Horse with Locked Shoulders Going Around a Barrel
Lickable I mean Likeable Posts: 3965 Location: De Berry, Tx	Thank you!
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jbsell Reg. Nov 2014	Posted 2014-12-06 11:42 AM Subject: RE: Horse with Locked Shoulders Going Around a Barrel
Member Posts: 6 Location: Out Wickenburg Way	I'm not quite clear from reading your post, is she trying to stop and turn on her hindquarters, or just dropping in and letting her hip fly out? If she's making a rollback style of turn, I'd take advantage of it by driving her up there farther (almost past the barrel) before you sit and go to the horn to turn. You may have to stay with two hands and hold off the speed for a while until that feels good to both of you. To free one up around the barrel, I like to spiral in until I'm as tight as I want to be and either spiral back out or drive out on a straight line and go rest somewhere. Give her a barrel and then give her somewhere else to go. If you're having trouble moving the shoulder, counter arcs are good. Another exercise I use is to bend one pretty tight and start pushing the hip to the outside, and just keep that hip moving until that horse finally steps up underneath itself with its inside hind and takes a step with the inside front. It can take a few minutes before it happens at first. Then just walk out of it and repeat. It's kind of counter-intuitive, but it gets them to bending through their ribs and following their nose better, and that front end will feel like it's connected to your inside rein. Hope that was on the right track for what you're working on.
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