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 Regular
Posts: 73
Location: Central Texas | Call me crazy but I'm stuck between total opposite running styles. Are there horses out there that are basically free running or hard runners that are also ratey? I put down my free running gelding a year ago and I'm itching for feeling that tall powerful stride again. I was always timid on him though to first as he wouldn't rate at all if I let him run. Tons of slow work and drills never really helped so I just held him up to 1st and let him go with a few kicks between barrels the rest of the pattern, drive home. He was so big and ran so hard, it felt like 2 strides got me to my next barrel and I SO MISS THAT. My current mare is a little cow bred girl with a heart of a saint. Total kid safe, fall asleep in the alley type and I miss the hype lol. She is hella ratey, have to kick like a duck the entire run just to get 3d times. Send her from the back 40 and don't stop driving until your back in the alley. Is there a happy medium? |
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| Yes, there is such a thing. I had a really powerful and free-running gelding that wouldn’t rate at all if you didn’t do it for him....would run right past the barrels like they weren’t even there. BUT I could let him run up into the hole and then ask him to drop his butt and turn, he’d come right to me. It was awesome and I miss him. They are out there; finding them is the hard part! |
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 Hummer's Hero
Posts: 3071
Location: Smack Dab in the Middle | Yes...I had one that was a balls to the walls runner, but you could push the heck out of him all the way to a barrel and he'd hunt it hard. He was so fun and won A LOT. He was fast, but he won races because he ran ALL THE WAY to where he turned, and then just flat set down and turned. He would not run by one. I was never really the one in control of a run, I just had to keep up, LOL. And I was usually more wore out than he was. But I loved running him. |
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Location: Idaho | Yep!! Have one of those whom Im actually going to list for sale. I prefer the ratey cow bred have to ride all the way type horses.....My big free runner that hunts barrels is actually my favorite to ride, do arena work on, ride in the mountains etc but his and my style of running barrels just doesnt work!   |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I don’t think that free runner vs push style and ratey are necessarily the same things.
You can have one that you don’t have to kick the wheels off of that still wants to find and turn a barrel. And you can have one that you do need to push all the way up into the barrel who still won’t sit and turn unless you ask him too. IMO the latter is not a good barrel horse - if I’m going to have to work that hard, you’d better peel the paint off them. But I see a lot of horses that I feel fall into the first category just based on the riding style I see on top of them. The problem is the first tends to be a pretty user friendly, amateur, youth friendly type of horse in high demand. |
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 Member
Posts: 24
| Yep! Just good training. My mare is trained to be extremely responsive off leg pressure and also trained to really get on her haunches and rate at the barrels. |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | My best rodeo horse is a hard runner but also push style because you have to hustle him to get all the way to his spot with momentum enough to make a snappy turn. He darn sure won't run by a barrel but if you want to be in the 1D, you had better be aggressive.
I've also got one of those oddballs who is a free runner outside but 110% push style inside. This time of year, I have a really hard time riding him because we go back and forth from inside to out. |
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