|
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | I've searched and can't find a good answer. So I'll ask here. I have a finished mare, no lameness, loves her job and is in great physical shape. But...she's lazy. I need to put the run into her. I breeze her out about once to twice a month. We don't work barrels at all in between race days, maybe once a month if that. So I just basically long trot, lope and trail ride 3-4 times a week, and then breeze about once or twice a month. So my question is, should I be breezing her out more or is there something else I can be doing that I don't know about to help put the run into her. She fires hard into 1st but dies out on me on the back side of 2nd and completely shuts down after 3rd. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks |
|
| |
|
 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | I have recently been revising my conditioning program for my mare as we were having the same issue. She fires hard to the first and loses some after that. Breezing is important but I never worry to much about it as it just kinda happens 1-2 times a month whenever I happen to be on good ground. I just have gravel and dirt roads around that I get to ride down. I'm going to try to get her over to a few deep sand arenas that a few friends have in my area and get her working in those, I have to haul 5-10 miles to get to the arenas but I thnk it will be worth it. I think where I personally am losing her ability to fire through the entire pattern is that I am working her every day on flat, easy ground and she is having to work in deeper dirt or sand when actually making a run. Need to build up their endurance in deeper ground so they can handle anytime of ground with ease. Maybe look at that part of your program? |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | I was already leaning towards this idea but I guess I just needed the reassurance to be sure. LOL!! I have access to almost 350+ acres of hay ground with rolling hills and it's all hole free and it's just out my back door. My husband said basically you just have to go out and run in the fields like you did when you were a kid. That was his answer and the more I think about, I feel he's right. Thanks. |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 602
| Try running her on a really big figure 8 pattern. Let her get some speed between the barrels, turn it and head back to the first one. (Don't worry about how pretty the turn is, just let her work) Do it once or twice. I had a mare that would get lazy and standard breezing wouldn't work. I would do this drill once a month and it helped a lot. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | spitzh - 2016-06-08 9:41 AM
Try running her on a really big figure 8 pattern. Let her get some speed between the barrels, turn it and head back to the first one. (Don't worry about how pretty the turn is, just let her work) Do it once or twice. I had a mare that would get lazy and standard breezing wouldn't work. I would do this drill once a month and it helped a lot.
Thanks!!! I never thought of that. We can do standard breezing and she's got a long and fast stride to her. I will have to try that for sure. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 2128
| I dont have anywhere big enough to breeze out completely but I do breeze my horse around the pattern probably once maybe twice a week. He is more of a push style and sometimes that helps free him up a little and reminds him that the objective is to GO FAST. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 2097
Location: Deep South | Girls_Gotta_Jet - 2016-06-08 7:51 AM I've searched and can't find a good answer. So I'll ask here. I have a finished mare, no lameness, loves her job and is in great physical shape. But...she's lazy. I need to put the run into her. I breeze her out about once to twice a month. We don't work barrels at all in between race days, maybe once a month if that. So I just basically long trot, lope and trail ride 3-4 times a week, and then breeze about once or twice a month. So my question is, should I be breezing her out more or is there something else I can be doing that I don't know about to help put the run into her. She fires hard into 1st but dies out on me on the back side of 2nd and completely shuts down after 3rd. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks
First, I would make sure she's not bleeding. Firing in hard and then fizzling out is a symptom of an internal bleeder.
Second, how long (in minutes) are you loping per day? Loping builds wind.
Third, you can increase the number of times you breeze a month. Once a week isn't going to hurt her as long as she's not bleeding and is in good enough shape. |
|
| |
|
 ...Dot Dot Dot...
Posts: 2062
Location: SW New Mexico | Rule out pain, or medical issues.
I believe every horse is different. When I rode Lotto, who was all cow bred , and very turny, I breezed him as much as 1 X week.. It freed him up nicely.
The horse I'm running now is hotter bred, all race, free running and OTTQH. I won't breeze him, it would "undo" all the slow stuff I just spent years putting in him..
Edited by jettster 2016-06-08 6:07 PM
|
|
| |
|
 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | BamaCanChaser - 2016-06-08 3:27 PM Girls_Gotta_Jet - 2016-06-08 7:51 AM I've searched and can't find a good answer. So I'll ask here. I have a finished mare, no lameness, loves her job and is in great physical shape. But...she's lazy. I need to put the run into her. I breeze her out about once to twice a month. We don't work barrels at all in between race days, maybe once a month if that. So I just basically long trot, lope and trail ride 3-4 times a week, and then breeze about once or twice a month. So my question is, should I be breezing her out more or is there something else I can be doing that I don't know about to help put the run into her. She fires hard into 1st but dies out on me on the back side of 2nd and completely shuts down after 3rd. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks First, I would make sure she's not bleeding. Firing in hard and then fizzling out is a symptom of an internal bleeder.
Second, how long (in minutes ) are you loping per day? Loping builds wind.
Third, you can increase the number of times you breeze a month. Once a week isn't going to hurt her as long as she's not bleeding and is in good enough shape.
Bleeding was my first thought as well. What you described is pretty classic, and the only way to tell for sure is to get her scoped after a run. If it's not that, I bet it's still a breathing issue of some sort. |
|
| |
|
I AM being nice
Posts: 4396
Location: MD | As others have stated, there could be underlying issues causing your horse to slow throughout the pattern. You definitely want to have those things checked and either managed, or ruled out. I've had horses who will do this though and I have had a lot of luck breezing horses to fix it. For this sort of issue, I want to breeze maybe 300 ft, come back to lope for a few strides and then breeze on again. I have one right now that the minute he gears down from a run, wants to stay stuck in neutral. Breezing in this manner a few times woke him back up a bit and now, he is powering on the straight lines again. |
|
| |
|
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 507
Location: Lost in the corn of Iowa. | Thanks for all the advice, bleeding I'm not sure about. She is VERY cow/foundation bred (like King and Hancock one off the papers more than once). There is no medical issues preventing her from not firing, obviously I didn't have her scoped for bleeding because I didn't feel that was an issue in the spring when I had my yearly vet check done on her. She needs woke up more than anything I feel, when I breeze her out she fires very hard in the turns and on the pattern, she becomes snappy again. I just wasn't sure if on a lazy type of horse you could do it too often. I've only been into barrel racing a few years and this is my first finished horse, so I just don't want to screw her up. If she keeps not firing after the daily stuff to wake her up, then scoping for bleeding will be my next route. |
|
| |
Folks on-line