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Expert
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| I ride my mare in an o-ring snaffle. I can lope/ high lope the barrels in it and it's fine but once we get up to a run it's not enough whoa or lift so I use a jr cowhorse.
At a lope/ high lope my mare collects beautifully and makes wonderful turns. At a run she wants to get low and strung out instead of collecting and turning. It would be fine if she could do it fast but it causes us to lose a lot of time because she loses her momentum when she gets low on her front end. I know she's young and yada yada but is there anything I can do to help her?
I need to communicate at a run to collect when she rates and not sniff the ground like a hound dog. She puts her butt in the ground good and is broke- broke. Any ideas? Maybe "run" between the barrels and break to a lope to turn them until she can start collecting at a faster speed? She is gradually getting better at collecting and now is beautiful at a high lope. I'm sure it's a matter of practice. The way I got her this good is to lope/ high lope in the arena and ask her to collect and stretch out, and collect, and stretch out- then I would ask her to collect with my body and barely any hands and have her break into a smallish circle and stretchy back out after she loped a small collected, pretty circle. Do I have to do this at almost a run to get her to be able to on the pattern? That seems kind of hectic and scary lol |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| It just takes repitition. The more they do it, the better it will get. I would just stay at the high lope until she feels comfortable. The most important thing with a horse on barrels is to not ever push them when they are learning, they will speed up when they get ready. I have a horse that is similar to this situation and he keeps trying to run and isnt ready. So, iv just been working slow so he can get more comfortable with his feet the faster he goes. :) good luck! |
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 Veteran
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| I would recommend Molly Powell "The Rookie" line of bits by Reinsman. She has some nice step up bits for the younger horse with a variety of mouth pieces. |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
 
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | im tryin to picture this in my mind.but i dont think a horse can make a fast turn all bunched up and collected.sometimes they have to get low and dirty to turn............just hang on ........ and sometimes you have to stop training and just ride...........
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | mruggles - 2014-05-15 10:58 AM im tryin to picture this in my mind.but i dont think a horse can make a fast turn all bunched up and collected.sometimes they have to get low and dirty to turn............just hang on ........ and sometimes you have to stop training and just ride...........m
Edited by Three 4 Luck 2014-05-15 11:23 AM
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Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | Three 4 Luck - 2014-05-16 10:22 AM mruggles - 2014-05-15 10:58 AM im tryin to picture this in my mind.but i dont think a horse can make a fast turn all bunched up and collected.sometimes they have to get low and dirty to turn............just hang on ........ and sometimes you have to stop training and just ride...........
m
lol...yes i have figured that out over the years...........not really how it was supposed to come across.........
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| That is a good point. Some horses really do just turn low to the ground. My dad used to have a cutting bred horse that litterally felt like her shoulder dropped out from under her and she outran a many horses. |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| mruggles - 2014-05-15 10:58 AM
im tryin to picture this in my mind.but i dont think a horse can make a fast turn all bunched up and collected.sometimes they have to get low and dirty to turn............just hang on ........ and sometimes you have to stop training and just ride...........m
I have had a lot of people tell me I need to stop training and jockey her and let her "season" herself but its so hard!
she runs to the first barrel and is long and low before I speak to her to rate so she doesn't "collect" t turn 1 so she goes by the barrel. On 2 and 3 she collects a little better but I'm not 2 handing her as far as I need to so I'm causing her to lose her collection there. If I make her go in slower and we just cruise (high lope) to the first she collects to turn and makes a beautiful first barrel and 2 &3 for that matter but if we are going fast its almost like she ignores my cue to collect and turn 1 and just tries to turn on auto pilot but that is also in an oring. I'm putting a bit with just a touch more whoa tonight to see if maybe I can get some collection out of her. My cue for collection is to sit down with both hands on the reins which in turn lightly pulls on the bit and drop to 1 rein which says we are going to turn and then ask her to turn which is pull to my belly button (which I never end up doing because she turns really well I just move my hand an inch or so).
Its crazy because if you look at everyone warming up there is not a more broke horse out there than this mare. She is so broke to my body language its not even funny. I can do crazy things with her that she's never done because of how well she listens and how much she WANTS to do what I ask but put us on the barrels and I turn into an idiot and she goes kind of auto pilot past a high lope. I'm thinking of going back to a high lope and seeing if I can add speed much slower and try and inch my way to the "running" speed.
Oh well, going to Martha Josey clinic next month... it will do both of us some good. I know it will help my riding and that really the problem I think. |
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Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | RoaniePonie11 - 2014-05-16 2:08 PM mruggles - 2014-05-15 10:58 AM im tryin to picture this in my mind.but i dont think a horse can make a fast turn all bunched up and collected.sometimes they have to get low and dirty to turn............just hang on ........ and sometimes you have to stop training and just ride...........
m I have had a lot of people tell me I need to stop training and jockey her and let her "season" herself but its so hard! she runs to the first barrel and is long and low before I speak to her to rate so she doesn't "collect" t turn 1 so she goes by the barrel. On 2 and 3 she collects a little better but I'm not 2 handing her as far as I need to so I'm causing her to lose her collection there. If I make her go in slower and we just cruise (high lope ) to the first she collects to turn and makes a beautiful first barrel and 2 &3 for that matter but if we are going fast its almost like she ignores my cue to collect and turn 1 and just tries to turn on auto pilot but that is also in an oring. I'm putting a bit with just a touch more whoa tonight to see if maybe I can get some collection out of her. My cue for collection is to sit down with both hands on the reins which in turn lightly pulls on the bit and drop to 1 rein which says we are going to turn and then ask her to turn which is pull to my belly button (which I never end up doing because she turns really well I just move my hand an inch or so ). Its crazy because if you look at everyone warming up there is not a more broke horse out there than this mare. She is so broke to my body language its not even funny. I can do crazy things with her that she's never done because of how well she listens and how much she WANTS to do what I ask but put us on the barrels and I turn into an idiot and she goes kind of auto pilot past a high lope. I'm thinking of going back to a high lope and seeing if I can add speed much slower and try and inch my way to the "running" speed. Oh well, going to Martha Josey clinic next month... it will do both of us some good. I know it will help my riding and that really the problem I think.
ok...so i misunderstood what you were meaning by collect.........lol..sorry........ so now i understand what you are meaning.....when you ask with 2 hands do you feel a pause in her........and make sure you are asking with your hands and butt not just your voice........she may be one of those horses you need to be a bit more forward on......sounds like she wants to work for you........im not the best advice giver as i can never explain exactly what i mean.........i can picture it in my head but nobody wants in there...lol
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| Lol I hear ya. Yeah I ride her very forward. I don't kick as much as I ride her in almost that "jockey" body language. She tends to be very setty on 2 &3 like most horses. Only drops her shoulder when I ride like a monkey instead of a barrel racer. The issue is I don't feel her pause or respond at 1 when I bump her to collect, but on the other 2 she'll about sit down lol. I think she's just rolling harder and free-er to the first than to 2 & 3. She also had a lameness issue that did not allow her to finish the 1st barrel that I just had fixed April first so Tuesday was the first set of cans she has seen since March at least. I know I shouldn't call these uh-oh a a habit already but I could feel it coming on before and I have that feeling of if you don't get it corrected now it will be bad fast. |
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