I am hoping to get some good advice from people who have had experience seasoning prospects successfully. This summer will be first time hauling a young horse and I don’t want to screw her up! My 4-year-old mare is currently spending 60 days with a professional futurity trainer then I hope to haul her along side my finished horse this summer so she can see the sights before I enter her in the Northern Barrel Futurity Tour next year. Some of my questions are: Do I haul her to every jackpot and barrel bash I enter my finished horse in? Do I exhibition every time I bring her or just see how she feels when I get there? How many exhibitions do most people do on their young horses? What are some tips on helping her get ready or not letting the possible negative times filter over to my finish horse this summer? Unfortunately, the I gal I go to for training and lessons only really does futurities so I will not be running with her a lot this summer. Next summer she can help me a lot more when I can run with her! Thanks in advance!

I'm in the same situation you are.   I'm going to haul my filly everywhere.  She seriously throws a fit when she's left at home.  She's fine while we are gone, but shows her disapproval when we get home.  Standing on the trailer is a good skill to learn. 

Exhibitions depend on how I feel. She'll get rode pretty much every time, but sometimes I'll get her in the arena, and sometimes I won't.  I'm cheap, so I'm not going to spend $20-30 for 8-12 exhibitions each day. I'll maybe do $10 worth, 4 times.  Couple slow works and a couple faster works.  If she needs more on a certain day, I can always add on, but I don't feel like there needs to be a set number of works.  Heck, if she does well in the slow work and has one faster work, I might call it good.  

I do want to take her through later on in the year as a paid exhibition at the end of some races for time-only to be in the running atmosphere.  But we aren't there yet. 

Each horse is different as to how much hauling they need. I would start out by hauling her and just riding around the jackpot getting her used to things and see how she does. After she’s confident riding around in strange places exb.her. I usually get 3 with them spaced a few horses apart. First exb is slow to,show the pen, second is to work at whatever speed they’re working at, 3rd one is slower to correct and or relax from the previous run. I want to work at whatever speed they can be correct at and I want them to work without a lot of handling, showing focus and confidence. 

I am never concerned about what time I get when seasoning. I want a confident, happy horse that works pretty much on his own with minimal help from me. I want him to be smooth and correct on the pattern.

be careful not to exb. Too much because of “you” needing it, not so much your horse. If your horse tries and pays attention to what you ask, that’s plenty.

Comparing yourself and your horse to other horse/riders in the same stage will be your worst enemy. Put some blinkers on, have your own goals and stick with them . Most of all, have fun ;-)

If you’re unsure about what your doing or if you’re on the correct path, consider sending a video to your trainer and let her critique it. I spend a lot of time at night critiquing runs for customers. I have a Huddle app that allows me to talk thru someone’s run (or draw on the video) which helps a lot. Talking someone thru a video has been an in valuable tool, especially for out of state customers.

I can't imagine doing the pattern 8-12x at a race. lol once maybe 2x

Yes, haul her with to every single barrel race you take your other horse. It is a good skill for her to learn to be tied at the trailer, and to be an experienced hauler.

As far as when to start exhibitioning her, that's up to you. Some places do time slots and some "sell" by the exhibition. I would probably try 3 of them, to do 1) trot 2) lope 3) trot   or whatever training level they happen to be at. Heck, if they loped through perfectly, I might even forfeit my 3rd exhibition if they did THAT GOOD. Quit when the horse has done something right.  But it's nice to start getting them in lots of different arenas, because some are more looky than others.

I can't either!!  BUT I've seen some people work them through 3-4 times, go away, come back, do it again, several times.  I want to quit on a positive note, not beat it into their head every time they see a gate they're going to get hammered on!

4 times for me is going to be a real stretch, even with horses in between, but I don't have an arena at home, so will have to haul.  I can walk/trot, and maybe slow lope at home, but there won't be running involved! But I'm not going to hammer one at a show environment. 

I am not sure I could exhibition that many times either, 8-12 seems crazy! I was liking the idea of 2 or 3, one slow and one at practice pace. Thank you for the tip of just hauling her and riding her around in a different place before I start the pressure of exhibitions!

I really like races that do 30 minute arena time slots for 10 horses at a time.

thats generally a better bang for my buck than exhibitions.  

Haul her everytime you go, even just standing tied at the trailer at some events is an experience. We have some where there's no warm up area besides riding around the trailers. So you'll 10 have people trotting/loping circles around your rig. That's a good place to leave one tied all day to just experience it, especially if they're not used to people riding around them at the trailer like that. Coming around the end of your trailer about 1 foot away while they're tied to the last ring has set a few off at those places. Mine doesn't even stand tied well in the quiet at home so we're building up to places like that, haven't hauled anywhere yet this year. When I did haul her last year I did open arenas with her before expos started in the early morning. So then I could get all the watchy stuff out of the way, rode outside during the busy part of the day as she hadn't been in an arena with multiple horses riding around. Walked around the trialers, etc. Thats all I did the first time I hauled her, didn't worry about expos. Just saw the sights all weekend.

When I do expo her I generally do 2-3, it's $5 each most of the time. I have a 50x70 arena at home so literally all of my patterning is getting done on the road, I'm not patterning a 16h horse in 50x70 spot. I do drills and things but the actual pattern stuff gets done elsewhere. Some places where it's cheaper for expos I'll do maybe 4 and there's times I do 3 and want to quit, but I'll go back in for my 4th and just walk a lap around the pen or something that doesn't involve the barrels & I don't mess with her. Then I feel better about not just throwing that money away on an expo I didn't use. She's just trotting and is almost ready to lope so when she does step up I'll give her a lope through and then after that fix what went wrong and then if I do a 3rd after that I do in the middle where I'll ask for a little of the speed, but I'll guide her and be ready for the areas she had issues in before and end on a good note. There's a couple places that sell 30 minute slots with the barrels up & if I can get in there I will and use that as my expos.