Speed Never Lies
- Jul 7, 2015
- 6 min read
Seasoning a Barrel Horse takes time, patience and can be extremely humbling. Everytime you think things are going good and you have it all figured out, something will fall apart. You work hard to get your horse soft, responsive, balanced, extending and collecting. Those five things will consume your time and energy in your everyday rides. It's crucial that your horse is doing those well before they are ready to start running. Even then, your horse may work perfect for you at home, whether its on the barrel pattern or in your other excercises, when you make a run things tend to fall apart. Let me start by saying, that's okay! It's information. I consider my runs a test, not the kind you pass or fail, but more of a way of discovering the holes in your training. You really don't know what the issues are, what your horse's tendancy is, until you start making runs. Regardless of whether your asking them to high lope through the pattern or start grabbing gears, a competition run is different than an exhibition or practice run at home. I believe that's due to two factors,
1. you know the difference, no matter how much you may try to calm yourself and ride through it the same as at home, you won't.
2. your horse knows the difference, because of your nerves, the amount of horses or people around and because you don't ride the same.
Now I have been struggling with this for the last month. The horse I started on barrels in January has been running since April and he was going so well that I began asking him for more speed. As he figured out that it was a running game, we lost integrity in our turns. I tried changing tactics to fix that. I started with helping him more going into the turns, by making sure I rated with my outside rein and reinforced with my inside leg so he stayed elevated and in position. When that wasn't enough I slowed him down again.
Here was the run that confirmed my fears. I let him coast through at his own speed and he still bowed out and fought me. Because of how strong and heavy he felt in my hands on both the second and third barrels, I pulled him up on the way home and asked him to walk to reinforce that he doesn't get to run if he doesn't turn.
There were three key problems that were creating the slow times and untidy turns.
1. He was starting to anticipate the turn, by doing so he would either get strung out and/or drop his shoulder and dive in, cutting off our pocket.
2. He wasn't staying engaged and balanced, caused by his anticipating the turn. If he cut off his pocket by dropping in, he was getting heavy on his front end (losing forward motion and balance).
3. He was bowing out of the barrels, instead of driving from behind and staying balanced in the turn. When he cut off his pocket and got front end heavy, he would crossfire behind and scramble leaving the barrel.
Now these 3 things were being caused by a multitude of factors and it took me a while to pinpoint what they were and create a plan to fix it.
His tendancy to dive in, my fault. Plain and simple. I hate hearing women say that their horse shoulders, because if they do, it's because you taught them to. I taught Dakota to dive into his turns by asking for too much speed without being able to reinforce the rate and create balance before the turn. I created that by dropping to one hand and going to my horn too soon. I create that by not using my inside leg as a reinforcement. I created that by trying to run him in too tight to his barrels and not giving him the room he needs to turn balanced. I created that. I couldn't blame him for wanting to turn, I taught him to want to turn!
If he dives, he isn't balanced and cannot turn efficiently. He will crossfire (drop his lead behind) and scramble leaving the turn. When he crossfires and scrambles he was hitting himself with his back feet. Knocking the inside of his cannon and fetlock hurts! He began to fear that part of the turn, so he would bow out wide to avoid the pain. The more he bowed off, the more I tried to pull him around. Now that created a new issue, he feared the bit and hitting it. So then he was bowing out and taking the bit and running blind. He was trying to protect himself. I can't blame him for that. Unfortunately it took me a while to figure all this out. Once I did, I began to make the necessary changes.
First, I bought a pair of hind boots with protection for the inside of the fetlock and cannon. I talked to Jumper friends and asked what they used. After shopping around I found a reasonable pair of Teknas. I never ride without them now.
Then, I called my farrier and moved him up to a 5 week reset schedule to make sure he was balanced.
Next, I went back to his training bridle. I did this for two reasons, first I thought it would help to break the stigma about the bit I had been running him in, because he had always been confident and responsive in the six and martingale and I didn't want to scare him when I took hold on the back side. Second, I knew I had the reinforcement of the martingale if he threw his nose out and head up trying to get away from my hands. He did fight it, and I did have to take a hold of him. Going across to second barrel I really had to use my legs to get him over for second. When I did, he still changed his lead at the barrel and went by a stride.
Watch the video of this run -------> https://youtu.be/4-87ckJCGlM
I had anticipated this, so I changed directions. Now I don't recomend this for every horse. I chose to with him because when I started him he had difficulty with his left turns and I wanted him to only have one. I started him to the left and ran him that way until two weeks ago. Once these issues began I wanted to make an effective transition to the smooth fast runs I knew he could make. Over the course of the last few months, his left lead became his strong one. During his rides he felt even side to side but in a run I noticed him changing to his left lead to run up to his barrels and then switching back to the right for his second and third turns. That told me he was more comfortable on the left lead. Also, I wanted to replace that fear in his mind and changing directions would help to create new habits and a new though process about the pattern. I will admit, it didn't fix everything immediately. Not that I expected it to! We still struggled with that right hand turn. He would go in balanced and upright, in good position and on the back side where he needed to drive off he would still bow out.
Watch the video of our first run to the right -------> https://youtu.be/CkLtTJvJPTk
Finally, I decided to put him in a Side Pull to run. I was working at home on getting rebalanced for the turns but Dakota was still fighting his head. I had an appointment booked to have his teeth done in a little over a week so I wanted to make him more confident until then.
Watch our first run in the Side Pull ------> https://youtu.be/QGY5oGmz8p8
Transitioning from a bit to a Side Pull will take some work and getting used to, my timing was off in this run, the important thing was that Dakota was staying balanced in his turns and not fighting his head. There is a ton of room for improvement but every step in the right direction is a victory!
Making these changes and discovering the cause of the problem didn't come quickly. I literally watched every video of every run in slow motion twenty times before I felt confident I had picked out the errors. I read an article this morning that confirmed my thoughts, http://www.barrelracingtips.com/speed-kills-how-to-solve-issues-that-only-seem-to-occur-at-speed.
I'm headed out to ride! I will keep you updated on our progress and which techniques and excercises I use to correct these issues. Until then, read the great article by Heather Smith above!
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