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Member
Posts: 18
| Hey y'all! Has anyone ever picked up a cheap trail horse and started them on barrels and they surprised you with how good they are?? I'm debating on wether or not to get a cheap one just to play around with during my free time. And also what made you think your horse might be able to make a good barrel horse?
Please feel free to post your success stories or pictures! I look forward to hearing them! |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
  
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Pretty much any horse can make a nice barrel horse, just depends on what level you want to compete at. Only an elite few make the top rodeo horses.
My first barrel horse was an appy mare my dad packed elk on and my grandpa roped on. I won a lot of buckles and awards on her. If she were up against todays nice horses I think she would be in the 2D. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 477
Location: Lost in the swamps | My current horse was a cutting horse drop out and a roping spook, sold to me by my friend who got him sight unseen as a kids pony ride horse...... Which he is NOT!!i tried him for a week before buying. He's was Skittish and quick and scared of everything!!But boy did he have a handle on him!! Bought him from her for cheap and was gonna put a little more time on him and resell to make a quick buck.... But I ended up falling in love!! The best little barrel horse I've ever had(or trained)(not many) lol!! He has made me learn to like and respect the catty ones! Lil sucker tries his heart out!
Edited by imturnin3 2016-01-07 7:17 PM
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Member
Posts: 18
| imturnin3 - 2016-01-07 7:14 PM
My current horse was a cutting horse drop out and a roping spook, sold to me by my friend who got him sight unseen as a kids pony ride horse...... Which he is NOT!!i tried him for a week before buying. He's was Skittish and quick and scared of everything!!But boy did he have a handle on him!! Bought him from her for cheap and was gonna put a little more time on him and resell to make a quick buck.... But I ended up falling in love!! The best little barrel horse I've ever had(or trained)(not many) lol!! He has made me learn to like and respect the catty ones! Lil sucker tries his heart out!
That's what I'm hoping to find! Sounds like a nice little horse! |
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Member
Posts: 18
| wyoming barrel racer - 2016-01-07 7:13 PM
Pretty much any horse can make a nice barrel horse, just depends on what level you want to compete at. Only an elite few make the top rodeo horses.
My first barrel horse was an appy mare my dad packed elk on and my grandpa roped on. I won a lot of buckles and awards on her. If she were up against todays nice horses I think she would be in the 2D.
Yeah I would love to find something that has been used and has a good mind and a surprise burst of speed like your mare sounds like she has! |
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | I used to run any horse I could get my hands on. Some are better than others but they are all fun IMO. |
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Member
Posts: 18
| equussynergy - 2016-01-07 7:32 PM
I used to run any horse I could get my hands on. Some are better than others but they are all fun IMO.
Haha yeah any horse that come to my house is gonna see a barrel at least once. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| My older finished horse was free, he's grade and had stop and go on him when I got ahold of him. Several years and a lot of trials and tribulations later he's a solid 3D horse when you hustle him. More importantly he's safe sane and sound - my boyfriends 8 yr old niece can hop on and make a run on him before I run after I run doesn't matter, he adjusts to her.
My younger horse is cutting bred and was at least started in the cutting pen based on how he's handled stock for us (he's sawwwweeeet to work cows on). I bartered a bit for him and he had an excellent handle on him but no pattern and aside from the handle hadn't done much to anyone's knowledge. He's picked up the pattern faster than anything I've had the pleasure of riding, he's super catty and quick. Every time I get the chance to cruise a pattern on him I just think it NEEDS to be spring and time to go go go! |
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Member
Posts: 18
| OhMax - 2016-01-07 9:30 PM
My older finished horse was free, he's grade and had stop and go on him when I got ahold of him. Several years and a lot of trials and tribulations later he's a solid 3D horse when you hustle him. More importantly he's safe sane and sound - my boyfriends 8 yr old niece can hop on and make a run on him before I run after I run doesn't matter, he adjusts to her.
My younger horse is cutting bred and was at least started in the cutting pen based on how he's handled stock for us (he's sawwwweeeet to work cows on). I bartered a bit for him and he had an excellent handle on him but no pattern and aside from the handle hadn't done much to anyone's knowledge. He's picked up the pattern faster than anything I've had the pleasure of riding, he's super catty and quick. Every time I get the chance to cruise a pattern on him I just think it NEEDS to be spring and time to go go go!
Gotta love those safe and sane horses!! How is your younger horse bred? I'm going to look at a horse that is all cow bred next week. I've never ran a cow bred barrel horse. |
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I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | I train barrel horses for a living, but my biggest owner is a bit of a bleeding heart, so we get all sorts of horses in from time to time. One in particular was a 3 month old, halter bred filly that was her dam's first foal, on the smaller side and very non-descript. Just a plain, little red thing. The breeder weaned her early and was going to run her through a local sale. We ended up with her. She ended up being one of the easiest horses I have ever started under saddle and on the pattern. She was a very nice local 2D horse. Certainly wasn't anything special about her and honestly, 30 days in on her, I was thinking that I would end up just getting a few buttons on her and selling her off as some kid's 4H project. She made good though. |
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| My dad bought a 5 year old grade gelding for $800 a few years ago. He was quiet so he bought him for the grand kids to ride and play around with. I started riding him and started him on the barrels and he turned out pretty nice. We've won 2 saddles and he's picked up checks at a few pro rodeos which is a lot more than we ever expected! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 629
| My first homemade barrel horse was a mutt. Unregistered Appaloosa/Arabian cross. He was my boyfriend at the time's trail horse, and the other horse I was riding for a friend was no longer available, so I wanted to run something, so he learned! Like someone else said, it just depends on how competitive you want to be. At the time I was just starting out myself and was just running at a little local open association and hitting nbha shows for a change of scenery maybe once or twice/year. We run several year end championships together and had a lot of fun. To this day, he's my favorite horse to ride even though I know my others are much faster and better suited for barrels. |
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 Miss Laundry Misshap
Posts: 5271
| I turned my mom's old pleasure horse into a barrel horse at the age of 16. She was a 4D/5D horse with the occasional squeak into the 3D with me riding her. She was Impressive bred.
I got a free horse from a friend who was bred out the wazzoo who was a jack of all trades and absolute master of NONE. They trail rode him, took him around the barrels at home, poles at home, roped a little bit, and he stood around more than he was ridden in his 10 years. His idea of going into first barrel was just that! Run right towards that sucker! He's now coming on after a long, slow retraining period and attitude adjustment. He can be in the 2D easy, but is running 3D/4D with my mom and he takes excellent care of her.
You can turn anything into a barrel horse, you just have to have the time and patience to work with them. Conformation helps, but just about any horse can at least be in the 5D with a little work.
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| Any horse can run barrels.... but finding a diamond in the ruff is very rare now days!
I grew up on a working ranch and my parents just gave me ranch horses to run, I had fun, did well junior and high school rodeo's. Now days, i'm not so sure those horses would be able to hang. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2128
| My husband traded my father in law out of a really young gelding that he had given 125 bucks for at a sale. Horse was cutting bred top and bottom. He ended up earning his grain when it was time to work cows/go to the pasture. I was bored and didn't have a barrel horse. My husband suggested I start this gelding, and even if he didn't make anything great it would increase his value and we would make money selling him. He now has PRCA wins and places team roping (heeling), wins at high number jackpots heading, and is making a pretty good barrel horse. We seasoned at the amateur rodeos last year and was just out of the money at many. He places and wins at the jackpots in the 1D. I am super excited about the year ahead :) Lesson learned..don't count one out just because they aren't fancy bred/bred to run/were cheap.
Edited by scwebster 2016-01-08 11:24 AM
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Regular
Posts: 51
Location: CA | My horse is actually an ottb polo pony I got for free. My dad had been playing on her for a while for a friend and one day he let me ride her. Thankfully my dad's friend didn't want her, cause after that one ride I became obsessed with that horse. Now I do gymkhana on her, and she's running better times than the barrel bred quarter horses.
This probably wasn't that helpful, but I thought I'd share my little success story... and this quote about polo ponies that reminds me of barrel horses :)
"they must have the speed of a racehorse, the handiness of a cowhorse, the balance of a dressage horse and the braveness of a jumper...all rolled in one"
Edited by CHLOE21 2016-01-08 7:24 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| The mare in my profile picture was turned out on the back 40 of a Missouri farm after she was blown up as an extreme trail horse. We traded them a dud pleasure horse and got her and a grade quarter pony. She was in training to be a ranch pleasure horse but she was too go go go all the time from her old extreme trail days (as a 2yo). So I put her on the pattern and she ended up being a 2D/3D barrel horse, won me a top 10 award in IBRA youth, not to mention ended up being a rocking all around horse that won me a bunch in 4H. haha |
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Expert
Posts: 1446
Location: California | If you have a good eye for good confirmation and athleticism, you can make any horse a nice horse. I remember Jackie Jatzlau saying she doesn't know why people say "that horse will only be a 3D barrel horse" when every single horse she has ever trained as gone on to be a 1D horse. Over 50 horses. I can't imagine what number she's up to now. |
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| hotshot was not bred to be a barrel horse and was small too. size does not matter either. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 464
| Any horse with agility and speed has potential. We have 5 grade horses, that we run. 2 are consitantly 2d, and can squeek in a 1 d every now and then. The rest are 2-4 depending on the day. Personally, I prefer a horse that came from no where. Our 6th horse is just a big ole gray. Looks like Qh Tbred. He's about as promising as I've ever seen. |
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