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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
  
| I've had a sad barrel racing career, and it's hard to stay positive. So here's my story..
I started running barrels really young, on ponies or roping horses, none that were patterned. I never did very good, but learned to really ride. By thirteen, I knew enough to actually pattern a horse, and worked with a roping horse until he loped through a decent pattern. At fourteen my parents bought me a solid 2d horse, that the seller just didn't click with. I worked and worked and worked with him, and by the fall was winning rodeos, and he was 1d, we clicked! I got that taste of winning, and being on top. It was about September when we clicked, and then had to take the winter off cause It's Iowa! I got him out in January, cause I couldn't wait another month, and we trudged through snowdrifts to the indoor arena and I rode him at least three times a week. I got him tuned up and running amazingly, by March, I was riding four miles down the road ever day and he was in insanely good shape. Our practice runs were smoking fast, I rode five days a week for three months! This was gonna be our year, everyone knew it! Three weeks before our very first rodeo, I found him in his pen, holding up one leg, and walking three legged. He cut his front tendon, and long story short, required 12 months off!! I got busy, and took out two roping horses, hay bellied, and wooly. I patterned the heck out of them, and rode like crazy. Our first couple of runs weren't pretty, but they both had tons of potential. Every time we run, the one horse blows way out on first, and doesn't have much rate. Now 10 runs since we started, and you can tell they're roping horses. My dream is to become a futurity trainer, and I know working with these roping horses will help me in the long run, it's just so hard to stay positive! They are both 3d, and I just don't know what to do from here. If you would like to watch some of my videos and critique my runs, please pm me and I'll send you them. Sorry for the long post!
Edited by IowaCanChaser 2015-06-21 11:21 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| Quit feeling sorry for yourself, plenty of people in the same if not worse position than you.
I would recommend finding a good trainer close by that will work with you, im not talking about leaving your horses there for months, but you pull your horses to the trainer and work together a few times a month. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1561
| Another thing, a futurity trainer rarely gets a chance to just sit on a finished automatic horse, they work with green horses year round...
Edited by Itsme 2015-06-21 11:21 AM
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | I agree with the other poster, get some lessons with your horses and a trainer. at the end of the day everyone has something to teach you!
pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and work with what ya got! I think a few people here would agree that competing with horses is an INCREDIBLY humbling experience. Out work everyone and you'll see results sooner or later girl!
and everyone gets in a slump but you wont find that inner grit until you hit em! | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| Crowned Image - 2015-06-21 11:38 AM
I agree with the other poster, get some lessons with your horses and a trainer. at the end of the day everyone has something to teach you!
pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and work with what ya got! I think a few people here would agree that competing with horses is an INCREDIBLY humbling experience. Out work everyone and you'll see results sooner or later girl!
and everyone gets in a slump but you wont find that inner grit until you hit em!
Thank You! I will have to go to some clinics and see if I can find a trainer to get some lessons from. I'm never gonna give up, and who knows, I may get these roping horses working better then my barrel horse, lol | |
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  Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Go to youtube.com do a search for barrel horse tips. You are doing fine. Just take a look at the conformation of your horse and ask your what are his plus sides and what are his negative sides. Then ask what can we work on to improve? You have to be flexable. | |
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 Peecans
| So your 16 or so? (Not that it really matters just guessing bythe time line)
Gosh you've got your whole life. Im older than you and really strugling. It always comes down to three choices. Give in, Give up, or Give it your all. This was supost be my "comeback summer" to say it nicely..... its not gone as planed. Its frustrating, but I have three choices.
Soak in thi year, I mean really soak it up, the knowledge and experience you will learn with the other horses, the hard work, the sweat, it will most diffently pay off, maybe not in 1D paycheck form, but in a way you cant put a value on.
Keep working hard, overcome always.
And prayers for a full and speedy recovery for your horse :-) | |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | If you're not having fun, try something else for a while.... Barrel racing ain't going anywhere.... | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | cow pie - 2015-06-21 1:45 PM Go to youtube.com do a search for barrel horse tips. You are doing fine. Just take a look at the conformation of your horse and ask your what are his plus sides and what are his negative sides. Then ask what can we work on to improve? You have to be flexable.
This^^^
Learn how to "work with what you have" and make the best of it. Conformation and temperament dictates how you will train and work with each horse. Trainers with a "cookie cutter" approach will not last long. Every horse will teach you something new if you pay attention.
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| If you seriously want to train futurity horses, you need to start attending futurities so that you can see who is running, who is winning and what the competition is like. You need to remember that these are very young horses and they can beat the best finished 1D horses. One friend had the fastest time out of about 880 runs on a 4 year old futurity horse. These were the top barrel horses in the US.
My suggestions on the roping horse is go back to basics and make sure that you have control of both the front and hind quartes. Get the horse working slow and do not go any faster than you have control of the horse. When the horse is working the way you want, speed up a little. | |
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | You don't even know how many horses I have had that started out great and something happened and they either died or got hurt.
Casual Dust aka "Pistol" was my first nice barrel horse. we paid 15k for him. I was doing pretty well on him locally but in hindsight, my riding was nowhere near where it is now. I was a junior in high school with intentions of college rodeo. He colicked, we paid $7500 in vet bills and two colic surgeries on him to end up putting him down. He wasn't insured and the money we spent on saving him was the money i would have had to buy another one. so I got a colt and rode a backup that was not as good.
Then I got this mare Cricket for pretty cheap. She was a nice mare with talent but inconsistent. Finally switched trainers and the new trainer really got her figured out and we were clocking at the top of the 1D. again- my riding wasn't as good as it is now. we caught a lot of barrels but we were clocking. I bought my permit after I had ran at several co approved jackpots and would have had money go on it had I already had it. She ended up falling at a 5D jackpot, in an arena she's ran in for years. Tore a ligament in her pastern (a sesamoiden lig) that took 11 months to diagnose. By then, it had calcified. She never clocked the same even with maintenance.
Then there was Shiner. a gray gelding we bought as a green broke 5YO. I patterned him myself and by May of his first year running he was in the 1D. And he jumped form the 3D to the 1D.. and then the top of the 1D. He started ducking off- just one weekend he ducked off and we took him to the vet. Found he tore his check ligament. Said he would recover with surgery and be good as new, but mentally he never came back. Never quit ducking.
Then there was Lucy. Lucy we paid a lot for and she is the one who filled my Permit and has won all the WPRA money on my record (which isn't a ton but theres some LOL). She won the 2011 Waller Co. PRCA rodeo, three way tie with Reagan Dillard and Shelley Morgan. I faxed my membership and got my rookie card for 2012. A week after I did that, she get cast in her stall and hung her leg up, straining her suspensory. We missed 5 months of WPRA competition so there went my rookie year- I had no back up. She came back mid 2012 to do OK but wasn't right. Late 2012 she was diagnosed with EPM. Treated her fall of 2012 and then in 2013 she relapsed. Treated her again and gave her a year off to breed. Finally in late 2014 she has come back, and 2015 has been a great year for her.
Then there was Zoom. Zoom I traded for as a track broke 3YO. I trained her myself and she was doing great as a 4 YO. Ran a 17.8 at ANHA her first big show, almost won the 3D. Was running 1D locally by late summer of her 4YO year and I started running her in April. Her 5YO was OK, placed in the 2D at a wrapn3 and won a derby side pot. But she started falling apart. By winter of her 5YO year I had my vet look at her again and we found a chip in her stifle. Did there arthroscopy on her but she still didnt come back like they said she would. So I sold her to a BB who bred her to Tres Seis and now RockinAS has a beautiful colt out of her.
So I am now, finally, having the best season I have ever had in my life. I have two mares who I click with great and who run their heart out for me. But it didnt come easy and it didnt come quick. And it can be gone tomorrow. Thats just how it goes. | |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | IowaCanChaser - 2015-06-21 10:45 AM
I've had a sad barrel racing career, and it's hard to stay positive. So here's my story..
I started running barrels really young, on ponies or roping horses, none that were patterned. I never did very good, but learned to really ride. By thirteen, I knew enough to actually pattern a horse, and worked with a roping horse until he loped through a decent pattern. At fourteen my parents bought me a solid 2d horse, that the seller just didn't click with. I worked and worked and worked with him, and by the fall was winning rodeos, and he was 1d, we clicked! I got that taste of winning, and being on top. It was about September when we clicked, and then had to take the winter off cause It's Iowa! I got him out in January, cause I couldn't wait another month, and we trudged through snowdrifts to the indoor arena and I rode him at least three times a week. I got him tuned up and running amazingly, by March, I was riding four miles down the road ever day and he was in insanely good shape. Our practice runs were smoking fast, I rode five days a week for three months! This was gonna be our year, everyone knew it! Three weeks before our very first rodeo, I found him in his pen, holding up one leg, and walking three legged. He cut his front tendon, and long story short, required 12 months off!! I got busy, and took out two roping horses, hay bellied, and wooly. I patterned the heck out of them, and rode like crazy. Our first couple of runs weren't pretty, but they both had tons of potential. Every time we run, the one horse blows way out on first, and doesn't have much rate. Now 10 runs since we started, and you can tell they're roping horses. My dream is to become a futurity trainer, and I know working with these roping horses will help me in the long run, it's just so hard to stay positive! They are both 3d, and I just don't know what to do from here. If you would like to watch some of my videos and critique my runs, please pm me and I'll send you them. Sorry for the long post!
I just wanted to tell you I have respect for what you've done and continue to do. Keep your chin up and keep working----every one of these horses and these situations is teaching you something. The barrel racers will have advise I can't give, but be proud of what you're doing and keep at it. Good luck and hope your horse heals quickly. | |
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