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Lickable I mean Likeable
Posts: 3965
    
Location: De Berry, Tx | I am in a HUGE rutt right and need help. I have been training or correcting horses for a few years. I recently picked up a mare and have been working with her. Her pattern is now good and time to add speed. My problem is this mare is very ratey and I have always ridden free runners. So she is right at 2 seconds off with me because I am not very aggressive. I had a friend that rides ratey horses make a couple of runs on her and she worked great. So, I know it's me. So what can I do to become a more aggressive rider? Normally I would get more aggressive as the horse progressed but in the last three years I have been bucked off about 4 times at least.. so no confidence eiter! Help please! |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
| Attend a clinic where they start with slow work then work getting faster as the clinic progresses. This means a 2 or 3 day clinic. |
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 Texas Taco
Posts: 7499
Location: Bandera, TX | I have the same problem.... I can't get my 2D horses out of the 4D....
Whenever my friend rides my horses they want to run off with her - just loping a circle.... (no joke). When I make a run it is very pretty but looks like a western pleasure class..... |
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Lickable I mean Likeable
Posts: 3965
Location: De Berry, Tx | Yes! That is the exact problem I am having! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| I honestly think a horse can sense how hard you are gonna push them, and then try to take what they can cause they're lazy creatures! Me and my mom ran the same horse and I almost always run 1-2 seconds faster at the same arena. I am a pretty aggressive rider, one thing that has really really helped me run ratey horses is to really push to that "spot" where your thigh is even with the barrel and then sit. Make sure your body language says go, you think go, and you are kicking/ squeezing until that point because even if you think "Hmm we should start to slow down", your horse will be breaking down. I was in the same boat about a year ago when I ran my first push style, I am soo used to my free runners that you really really have to force to rate, I think my first run on that horse we were rating about four strides before each barrel!! Another tip for overall getting aggressive, If you are warming up or just riding somewhere, once your horse is in good shape, extend their trot. Once my horses are in good enough shape, they don't get to slow trot ever, they really extend and long trot, when I ask to stop whether we are walking or sprinting in a cornfield, they better plant their butt or there will be trouble. I have found that once your horses respect you and know you mean business, they become less lazy, and it really helps when you go tp that barrel race! As soon as you get into the arena, and know you mean business, you will see a huge improvement. Change things outside of the competition arena and it will translate to your competition runs!
Good Luck! Hope everything turns out well for you! :) |
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Lickable I mean Likeable
Posts: 3965
Location: De Berry, Tx | I have been doing all that. My horse will long trot with the best of them now and bury her butt with no rein. My issue is I "think" I am aggressive and we are running then I watch the video and I am like wth! I didn't even hustle! I am better at my home pen. I started running at our little riding club which has taken a lot of pressure off of me. But I decided to go to an added money inside with my daughter. I had my game plan all ready. Went down the alley and the big fans humming and making shadows made her hesitate and I never kicked! It was disastrous! Maybe I am not ready to venture out of my comfort zone of the riding club? Ugh! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| barrelracer4sure - 2015-08-03 1:35 PM
I have been doing all that. My horse will long trot with the best of them now and bury her butt with no rein. My issue is I "think" I am aggressive and we are running then I watch the video and I am like wth! I didn't even hustle! I am better at my home pen. I started running at our little riding club which has taken a lot of pressure off of me. But I decided to go to an added money inside with my daughter. I had my game plan all ready. Went down the alley and the big fans humming and making shadows made her hesitate and I never kicked! It was disastrous! Maybe I am not ready to venture out of my comfort zone of the riding club? Ugh!
I do that all the time! I have my game plan all set and then I watch the video! ugh! So frustrating! If your horse is solid in his turns and just needs pushed more maybe really focus on kicking and not so much on anything else lol the rest is probably muscle memory! For me at least I usually have about 20 things to think about while I'm running and when I'm running I'm lucky if I manage to think and do one! So think kick! That's my only advice I guess! The more runs you make the more confident you will get with your horse :) Start small and build up!! I have been running my horse since march and have been doing well but if I went to a big added money I'd probably not be able to think and lose it! haha |
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Lickable I mean Likeable
Posts: 3965
Location: De Berry, Tx | Thanks! I bought this one at Thanksgiving and she had some issues of not turning correctly. I have been working so hard on making her turn correctly that I didn't even realize she was super ratey either. I had an original game plan to stay at my riding club until we are both together but I let my daughter talk me into going somewhere else. I think I will go back to plan. We run every Friday and I can gauge improvement in us both. Did on mention I am also impatient! Lol |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 372
| try making a run with a live cougar chasing you.
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | so...find 1 thing you want to accomplish during your run and do it. For me, I need to spur with my inside leg while pushing my butt in the saddle......next time I will add a few more kicks across the pen....build on what you know, don't throw the whole ball game at your brain, concentrate on perfecting one thing at a time during a run. Also, if you're not confident in what your butt is sitting in....find something better-my new saddle has helped me tremendously. |
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Lickable I mean Likeable
Posts: 3965
Location: De Berry, Tx | LMS - 2015-08-03 4:00 PM
so...find 1 thing you want to accomplish during your run and do it. For me, I need to spur with my inside leg while pushing my butt in the saddle......next time I will add a few more kicks across the pen....build on what you know, don't throw the whole ball game at your brain, concentrate on perfecting one thing at a time during a run. Also, if you're not confident in what your butt is sitting in....find something better-my new saddle has helped me tremendously.
Thank you! My saddle sits really well. No issue there. Just me riding! Lol |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | arion - 2015-08-03 2:18 PM
try making a run with a live cougar chasing you.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | LMS - 2015-08-03 4:00 PM
so...find 1 thing you want to accomplish during your run and do it. For me, I need to spur with my inside leg while pushing my butt in the saddle......next time I will add a few more kicks across the pen....build on what you know, don't throw the whole ball game at your brain, concentrate on perfecting one thing at a time during a run. Also, if you're not confident in what your butt is sitting in....find something better-my new saddle has helped me tremendously.
This is great advice, focus on one thing you want to accomplish. I have huge confidence issues that I am working through right now. I finally have a horse that isn't gonna try and kill me. But she is super ratey as well. She knew how to run, but didn't really know how to do it right. So with the help of some great friends I was able to slow her down so she would use herself correctly. Well now we need to speed things back up and that means that I have to become aggressive, which I am not, so I just focus on one thing in each of my runs until I master that then I move on to the next thing. At first it was me remembering to sit at the right spot at 1st, which for my mare it is at the barrel not a stride before. So now it's the driving and riding the P*** out of her. So for me I started to carry a riding bat with me, and my run on Sunday wasn't fast, but I had a goal, use the bat from one end of the gate to the other. And I did just that. And so now that is my next goal to get through. My mare is a very lazy mare as well so that doesn't help matters much. The good thing is that I am ready to go faster and I know I have a nice mare that can do it, I just need to find that button. Good luck  |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310
Location: Jersey Girl | Girls_Gotta_Jet - 2015-08-04 9:31 AM LMS - 2015-08-03 4:00 PM so...find 1 thing you want to accomplish during your run and do it. For me, I need to spur with my inside leg while pushing my butt in the saddle......next time I will add a few more kicks across the pen....build on what you know, don't throw the whole ball game at your brain, concentrate on perfecting one thing at a time during a run. Also, if you're not confident in what your butt is sitting in....find something better-my new saddle has helped me tremendously. This is great advice, focus on one thing you want to accomplish. I have huge confidence issues that I am working through right now. I finally have a horse that isn't gonna try and kill me. But she is super ratey as well. She knew how to run, but didn't really know how to do it right. So with the help of some great friends I was able to slow her down so she would use herself correctly. Well now we need to speed things back up and that means that I have to become aggressive, which I am not, so I just focus on one thing in each of my runs until I master that then I move on to the next thing. At first it was me remembering to sit at the right spot at 1st, which for my mare it is at the barrel not a stride before. So now it's the driving and riding the P*** out of her. So for me I started to carry a riding bat with me, and my run on Sunday wasn't fast, but I had a goal, use the bat from one end of the gate to the other. And I did just that. And so now that is my next goal to get through. My mare is a very lazy mare as well so that doesn't help matters much. The good thing is that I am ready to go faster and I know I have a nice mare that can do it, I just need to find that button. Good luck
This is great advice! I need to work on being more aggressive also. Doing one thing at a time makes so much sense! Thank you for posting this. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | Girls_Gotta_Jet - 2015-08-04 8:24 AM arion - 2015-08-03 2:18 PM try making a run with a live cougar chasing you.
OP, I really believe its the energy in the person and they way they feed it into the mount. I could make some of the terrible run-offs ride like a pleasure horse one day and the next day pop them from the gates with a sharp breeze.
Edited by uno-dos-tres! 2015-08-04 7:40 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 396
| I can relate with everything here!!! What helped me ride more agressive at a race is to GO. Quit running in safe places, home smaller races and go. Just go to every race and get comfortable at a race so you ride like you know how. And I learned to smile through embarrassment and enjoy and be thankful for my horse through slow runs. We finally started running in the race after 2 summers of this. It has taken me awhile so and I'm still not there. |
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