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Expert
Posts: 1561
  
| if they ran a little slower and more controlled to the 1st barrel?
I swear 70% of the racers I watch run in wayyy hard and screw up their 1st, the best of the best can do it but it seems the average horse and jockey cant make it happen.
Am I wrong? |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
 
Location: North Dakota | I feel like if people worked on having more control and being more prepared there would be a lot less issues. Don't get me wrong, there are a LOT of fabulous riders out there barrel racing with well trained horses, but especially at the local level there are a lot of people that just GO and their horse doesn't know what's expected of them and they're just kicking and flapping and yanking and it's just very unpleasant. There are a lot of people and horses that just really need a better foundation and a bit more diversity in their riding and I think a lot of problems--including those first barrels--would not be as prevalent. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 133
Location: texas | Itsme - 2015-03-14 11:25 PM
if they ran a little slower and more controlled to the 1st barrel?
I swear 70% of the racers I watch run in wayyy hard and screw up their 1st, the best of the best can do it but it seems the average horse and jockey cant make it happen.
Am I wrong?
COMPLETELY AGREE!!!! I see that alllllll the time as well. that's why I come in not running but just fast enough where I can get him around the first barrel then I start kicking and smooching him to haul butt. I say keep the first barrel easy then haul butt |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
| First of all be prepared before you go to a barrel race. Also MANY horses are running with injuries or soreness and have a lot of heart so it does not show up but they just can't get around that one right turn. Some people really think those crappy turns are good and keep right on turning the same way. If you don't know your horse, you have no idea that he is hurting and no idea that the horse can actually work better. One last thing, a lot of people come in on the wrong lead and don't have a clue. That definitely has an effect on a turn. Like I said come prepared. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2270
Location: Shhh.. I'm hiding. | I'm curious to know how hard it is to fix one that has a bad first turn. |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310
Location: Jersey Girl | Elisa2007 - 2015-03-15 3:26 AM I'm curious to know how hard it is to fix one that has a bad first turn.
Guess that would depend on what the issue is. My gelding, that is a free runner, we had to work on getting him to rate down and collect for the first barrel. It took a while, but with consistent work that first barrel improved immensely along with my times. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| "Smooth is fast" is what we have always been taught. I am not a 1D rider so the favorite horse of mine to run is the one that is so effeicent is his runs, no extra seps anywhere that locally we can high lope a 2D/3D. My girls can send him hard and he will still give you the same run, does not run past a barrel. |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | How hard I come into first sets the tone for the whole run. If I come in slower, he's slower the whole run. If I let him come in harder, he runs faster. But he also runs a good first most of the time. |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| I will weigh in on this because I come in 3/4 speed to the first. My mare is 6 this year and not "finished" yet. I feel like we might speed up to the first eventually but right now we are solid 2D against tough compempetition that way. I go in that way because she can't turn her first as good at a RUN. I feel like it's a part of seasoning but I don't think I will ever coming in whipping and spurring. |
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Location: East of the Pecos | What I see a lot of is peer pressure too. Parents, friends, spouses, stand by the fence and holler "push". Usually it's the people who have not been properly instructed on how to get the most out of their horse and they think if they don't run as hard as possible, they aren't trying. Then there are the out of control horses, but that's normally how it starts anyway. All run, no control, no thinking makes the horse think that's what he's supposed to do, and some riders ride with a blank mind and are clueless about how horses think. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12704
| I have a mare that proves the opposite of this idea. The harder I push from the first stride the better and smoother she runs. Problem with her is that she is a free running rocket already and it is difficult for my brain and body to push her hard when she's already moving so much faster and harder than the other horses I ride or have ridden.
I do agree with the first barrel being the 'money' barrel. If you nail it you have a higher likelyhood of having a good run. The second barrel will be set up perfectly, and the third beyond it. |
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 Quarter Horse HIstorian
Posts: 2878
Location: Aubrey, Texas | What Lonely said; even more so on a cowy, turny kind of horse. Assuming that the horse is finished, you need that momentum to help them snap back without catching the barrel leaving. I can't speak for free-runners as I've never had one- |
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Rad Dork
Posts: 5218
Location: Oklahoma | Bug Is Alive - 2015-03-15 8:57 AM
What I see a lot of is peer pressure too. Parents, friends, spouses, stand by the fence and holler "push". Usually it's the people who have not been properly instructed on how to get the most out of their horse and they think if they don't run as hard as possible, they aren't trying. Then there are the out of control horses, but that's normally how it starts anyway. All run, no control, no thinking makes the horse think that's what he's supposed to do, and some riders ride with a blank mind and are clueless about how horses think.
Oh, so true. If it's an arena where I've never been in or haven't ran in a long time it does me a lot of benefit to not push hard. I usually like to haul alone to those places because I don't want to hear about how I didn't push going down the alley. Now, with that being said my gelding is pretty honest and even if I ride in like an idiot he still does his job. And if he doesn't have a good first barrel then I've come to learn that it's most likely stemming from some sort of pain issue. My new rule of thumb is "if he's not acting level headed behind the alley and I'm not any more nervous than usual then he probably doesn't need to be running." |
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Veteran
Posts: 133
Location: texas | Bug Is Alive - 2015-03-15 8:57 AM
What I see a lot of is peer pressure too. Parents, friends, spouses, stand by the fence and holler "push". Usually it's the people who have not been properly instructed on how to get the most out of their horse and they think if they don't run as hard as possible, they aren't trying. Then there are the out of control horses, but that's normally how it starts anyway. All run, no control, no thinking makes the horse think that's what he's supposed to do, and some riders ride with a blank mind and are clueless about how horses think.
I cant stand it when im coming in and people are yelling at me to do all these things bc then it distracts me and then I lose track of what im doing. one time I was running in and somebody was along the fence screaming and they were like throwing there hands up and jumping and it actually spooked my horse and we blew the first barrel |
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 Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
Location: Texas | I will share because I don't have to think about my 2nd or 3rd and I've spent 3 years perfecting the 1st barrel.
I do have one of those horses where you lope him to the first he goes in to cruise mode and he really has to be trying to run 1D.
This arena has been really tricky for me.. I can't find the countless videos of me hitting to wall here. Running 17.7's on a standard after you hit the wall on your first is quite fristrating... Right now I know exactly how to check for soreness and how to prevent it. I know how to work his 1st barrel at home and how to warm him up to help with it aswell.
I'm the person who is usually pulling in there horse the second I leave the alley. So after having countless slower runs with a perfect 1st and no pulling, I went in to this run KICKING... I was 50/50 on it was either gonna work or I was gonna look like an idiot. A 15.9 won and we were a 16.1
This arena isn't having races anymore of course right after I figured things out, I really want to run a standard there now but I doubt I'll get the chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_25Qal3Azxg |
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 Peecans
| I feel it depends on the horse, rider and areana set up. I dont think its wrong to RUN to first it is a race after all and if your horse is gona turn, give er to first and if you get to that barrel fastest and around that puts you ahead too.
Do what you and your horse need and dont worry what everbody else does.  |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | I had a horse in high school who always ran past first and had a pretty second and third. We slowed him down and cleaned up the first barrel and started winning.
I used a similar philosophy with my Appendix gelding until he got hurt, but he always screwed up the second barrel, lol. Didn't work there.
On my futurity filly, I'm not sure yet. I have a trainer though and I'm going to trust her judgment on how to run her. That's why I'm paying her. I have some experience but nothing like hers, so I'm going to enjoy the ride and learn all I can.
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6437
Location: Montana | Personally, I think there are a lot of variables. That said, I'm not a fast runner yet (3D/4D) and I like to cruise to the first barrel. But also my experience with my mare, who is solid on the pattern, if we are outside and I send her full speed to first, we usually don't have as great of a run, but we are gradually working up to that and figuring it out. If we are indoors, it seems like the harder I send her to first, the better we do if I do my part right. So that is just with me and my mare and where we are currently.
So, in conclusion, I think it depends on the horse, the rider, and the combination of the two, and how long the horse has been running barrels.
Edited by mtcanchazer 2015-03-15 9:39 PM
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 No Tune in a Bucket
Posts: 2935
Location: Texas | My horse that my granddaughter rides has a problem first barrel. She is still winning at the hs and ammy level, but needs a better first to move on to the next level. He slow works 1st like a dream but when you add speed he gets his head up on the back side and comes out wide (like half way to the timer) and still manages to get over for a kickass 2nd barrel. Getting that head up and her pulling him over loses so much time. Thinking about trying a loose tie down to practice in. This is not something new and it is getting old. |
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| I remember watching the standard pattern record broke by a girl that walked her horse almost all the way to the timer, kinda eye opening. |
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