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 Veteran
Posts: 148
 
Location: Rome GA | I have a nice broke mare, runs great to the first barrel. Has a snappy first barrel. Runs across the pen good. Then, as she changes leads at the second, she slows her feet and loses her shape. Probably even more so at the third. I've worked on her shape and position at a moderate speed, she works great. It just seems to be worse at competitive speed. Of course, here in the south we run quite a few small pens which isn't helping our cause. Any suggestions? |
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Veteran
Posts: 118
| Kyle - 2017-09-30 8:25 PM
 I have a nice broke mare, runs great to the first barrel.  Has a snappy first barrel.  Runs across the pen good.  Then, as she changes leads at the second, she slows her feet and loses her shape.  Probably even more so at the third.  I've worked on her shape and position at a moderate speed, she works great.  It just seems to be worse at competitive speed.  Of course, here in the south we run quite a few small pens which isn't helping our cause.  Any suggestions?
Is this a new problem or has she always done this? If its a new problem then I would be checking for soreness |
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Veteran
Posts: 148
Location: Rome GA | Actually it's always been a factor. It just seems to be getting worse. She's 8 years old, and been lightly hauled. |
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 Member
Posts: 49
Location: Aggieland | This sounds identical to one of my mares, interested to see what others have to say. |
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  Keeper of the King Snake
Posts: 7622
  
Location: Dubach, LA | 1. Train your eyes to look outside the pen. 2. Squares |
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Location: South Dakota | Check out Danyelle Campbell on www.trainingbarrelhorses.com Her exercises may help you...she uses square turns. |
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Veteran
Posts: 148
Location: Rome GA | Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will check into it. |
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Member
Posts: 36
| Almost all of mine have had this problem, pretty common in ranch horses. When you cue them to stop, they STOP. The last horse I trained, did something different. I checked him at the barrel, but I kept him going in constant motion until the end of my run. He turns the barrels faster than any horse I have ever seen, and I ran in pro rodeos for a while.
If she rates well, try not cueing her until it is absolutely time to turn, when her shoulder is at the barrel. That is what I have done with Pete, the horse mentioned above, and with my older barrel horse. It has worked wonders. They are not slowing up and anticipating the turns too much, and the momentum is making their turns faster.
I would also suggest that you get her to change leads after you leave the barrel you just turned, that will help tremendously. She won't have to work as hard to be in position to turn, and when they change leads it also slows them down.
Good luck. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | Make sure you don't have any lameness issues dealing with that lead, then the Breakoff drill from Clampitt. Also I know with my big ratey mare, the more pocket I tried to create the harder it made her want to go to the barrel, where as if I ran her in there were she belonged it helped her visually stand up more. And I know most people tend to go to a lighter and lighter bit for ratey horses, I know Ed Wright had me go to the Pretzel on my mare, wanted her feet to stay quick and he felt that Pretzel did that. It did help tremendously, I had been switching back and forth between an S hack and a short shank 2 piece smooth.
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Veteran
Posts: 148
Location: Rome GA | Thanks for the replies. Where can I find information on Clampitt 's breakoff
drill? Happy to have some new thoughts.
Edited by Kyle 2017-10-03 5:00 PM
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | most horses need rate at a barrel-I do that by getting into the correct position, saying whoa and setting them, even backing up a few steps. With the ratey horse we have we will trot to the barrel and then lope at the rate point or walk then trot around the barrel-encourage "more speed" at the rate point. We also practice squares and go past to the fence at all speeds, I would imagine your horse is a bit like mine in that he listens to you, make SURE you're not rating, checking or handling him too much until you've kicked his butt even with the barrel-it takes some pretty lucky riding but it is possible. We've also noticed with this horse if you lean to the inside at all-he's going-be sure you're up and over and squared shoulders and hips, keeping your eyes forward to the fence! |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | I think with any horse, ratey or not, maybe even moreso with a ratey one, that they need to learn to come forward off your legs and up into the bridle. It's been years since I've run a ratey one, but I do remember the more I got mine mentally freed up and moving forward off my legs the better he worked. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 357
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=alJAJgaV-bk
Here is a video of my ratey push style horse. She always thrived in large outdoor pens. Drive more with your body and learn to hang on with your thighs vs sitting back. If I went in there at half speed we would crash every barrel. |
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Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | WYOTurn-n-Burn - 2017-10-04 6:20 AM
I think with any horse, ratey or not, maybe even moreso with a ratey one, that they need to learn to come forward off your legs and up into the bridle.  It's been years since I've run a ratey one, but I do remember the more I got mine mentally freed up and moving forward off my legs the better he worked.
Exactly what the break off drill does, free's up their mind. We use it a lot in the cutting pen when one starts to over work the turn backs causing them to be short and lose cows.
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