Gaming on 4 yr. old

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

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Thank you, that REALLY helped, could you give me tips on poles?

 

[michickenwrangler]

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Good advice. Follow it. I have a very low opinion of speed people in our area simply because they ride a jiggy horse on a tight rein with an open mouth into the ring, race through their pattern cursing at their horse (even 13 yr old girls!) and bouncing on their backs so hard you can see daylight between them and the saddle, yank the horse down to an open mouthed halt and the horse jigs out of the arena with its nose in the air. No wonder they end up lame!

I hope you do not wish to follow this pattern!

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

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Good advice. Follow it. I have a very low opinion of speed people in our area simply because they ride a jiggy horse on a tight rein with an open mouth into the ring, race through their pattern cursing at their horse (even 13 yr old girls!) and bouncing on their backs so hard you can see daylight between them and the saddle, yank the horse down to an open mouthed halt and the horse jigs out of the arena with its nose in the air. No wonder they end up lame!

I hope you do not wish to follow this pattern!

Nope, i want to go FAST though, but i am usually quiet with a LOOSE rein.

 

[Akane]

Barrel horses aren't ridden on as loose of rein as pleasure. Also don't put any of your pleasure bits on for gaming. You'll ruin the horse's mouth and make them drop their shoulder or tip their nose weird in the turns. Get a good 3 piece snaffle (2 piece snaffles can cause issues in certain mouth shapes) or running hackamore and if you reach the point of needing a gag bit get advice from a good barrel rider not the people who drag their horses around. A gag bit is a useful thing for a gaming horse because of the way and speed in which it conveys what you want. Most people use them incorrectly by thinking they need to go to a gag bit because their horse isn't listening well enough on another bit. Your horse should be great in a snaffle before using a gag bit to fine tune things. Barrel horses bend around the leg not away from it like pleasure or horsemanship generally teach.

Dressage is actually closer to barrels than western pleasure. A lot of reining and barrel trainers have spent time learning dressage so they can use some of the methods and feel on their western horses. You want a similar style of gait, frame, and while most of those horses still know how to neck rein and don't ride with constant pressure you want them on the bit more than a pleasure horse. You want light contact so that a flick of the wrist, setting of your inside hip, and tightening of the leg muscles sends your horse pivoting around that leg. Getting those responses takes a lot of time and most horses don't compete at speed until they are closer to 5 years old. Most people I know break them as 3 year olds, work a walk and trot until they are 4, cantering and fun shows during their 4 year old year, and come back their 5th year for their first all out runs. Most barrel horses who were raised and trained well and slowly will compete in to their teens. My favorite mare retired at 18 still running strong until the day a flexor tendon tore.

For poles you don't want a horse with too long of stride. My best barrel mare did not do well in poles because by the time she finished a stride she was too far to get between the next set of poles. I bred her to a fairly compact barrel stallion to get a nice little filly who's right in the middle. She starts training next year. There are 2 ways to handle poles. You can either teach your horse very quick lead changes or get them comfortable in a counter canter. They are going to have to do one of the 2 and what works best depends on the horse and rider. Some horses are very fast at switching leads and will bounce from one to the next each stride all the way through. Some are very comfortable in one lead and will happily canter around the arena and even tight circles on what would normally be considered the wrong lead. Those horses can jump from one side of the poles to the other remaining in the same lead the whole way. Don't pull a horses head around to get between poles. If you get them too bent they'll over shoot the next pole. Move them off leg keeping fairly straight. Have you ever watched dogs do weave poles in agility? When you are teaching dogs to do it you get poles you can bend so they can step over part of the pole and go straight down the middle without bending much. Slowly you bring the poles upright so they have to curve a little but they still go as straight as possible. The dog's head always points forward. It's body just bends to create an arc around the pole. That spot happens to be the same place your leg sits on a horse. Again barrel and gaming horses turn around leg pressure not away from it so your hands at most just apply slightly uneven pressure while your leg and seat (you want to set and drive the hip on the inside of the turn) say bend.

 

[BobwhiteQuailLover]

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I ride english Pleasure and do dressage with a full cheek snaffle

 

[booker81]

Akane - you could be my sister in law

I've never had a high opinion of speed folk, until I met her. She moved up here and wanted to get into speed events. She had an off the track QH mare, green broke to ride.

Well, she now is doing 2D on her, and this August, when they got married and had a lot of family at the farm, she gave pony rides on the mare, including letting some folks try to ride her on their own. She would do walk and trot perfectly calm, easy, and controlled (the riders were not experienced enough to canter, let alone go full out). Not the "typical" speed horse I remember.

I've watched her run barrels, and since she's a former show jumper, she will do a very calm, collected canter in a small circle, and then BANG! Full bore ahead! She goes to a LOT of clinics, and her form is a pleasure to watch, the horse is obviously not doing it's best because of force, but because it's happy. She does poles well too. When she stops, it's just sitting back in the saddle, and the horse comes to a dead stop, very, very little rein contact.

I coordinated a sale for her from a friend of mine, and she bought a 7 y/o unbroke QH mare. Within two weeks, she was walk, trot, canter both ways, nice circles. She's already started "Expo"ing her, and they do have 4D here, and the mare is doing 3D without stress or pressure, but just easy, calm, good training and exercise.

I wish all speed folk would train like you two, so one wouldn't have to see horses flipping over riders or running unhappy

 

[()relics]

First food on a barrel is a bad idea...The barrel isn't the goal it is an obstacle in the way of the goal...You don't want to train a horse to run to the middle of the race thinking its really at the end.
Second...What is your goal for your horse? If you plan to ride him at the county fair and lope fancily around the pattern with your times in the middle to upper 20's then you would ride and train your horse differently than you would if you intend to look for some 17's or 16's(?). Fast gaming horses are fast because they know how to run a specific patttern. On ce you teach them How and Where you want them to run it defeats the purpose to try and "trick" them by adding extra barrels or other obstacles they have been trained to deal with.
third...Speed is everything. Start with 1 barrel. Run down and "turn it" then run back, as fast as you can...Do It until you are "flying". Sometimes you see "down and back barrels" at a speed show. THis is simply running down and turning 1 barrel then running back, made for younger horses and kids that are still learning the pattern. You have to work with speed because speed will develop balance or show you the lack of in your horse. A horse needs to be "taught" to properly Turn A Barrel. Approach in control ,low in the front, pivot just as his shoulder, and your foot, clears, low in the rear end on exit, like a sprinter starting a race, but with his head down "looking" for the next barrel or the finish. He needs to learn this and you need to learn to ride this or you are destined for D4. If he can't turn a barrel with speed or you can't ride him through the turn, it is time to look for a new horse or a new event before you spend hours prancing around the arena "training" your trotter to look pretty turning out of pattern barrels.
Sure there are the "exceptional" horses that run like the wind and then prance around the arena or stand at halter, I have a few, but most are either gamers or they are not...Again anything can be a gaming horse in the county 4H fair...few can be riden in an open speed show and place with the big boys.
So the best bet...Get a good barrel saddle...Use ANY headstall/bit that you and your horse are comfortable using but make sure you are using a barrle rein...Get him out there are TURN AND BURN...Either way have fun....
One last thing....ever notice how tall the horn is on a barrel saddle? Know why? Once you "set up" your barrel horse at the starting line, there shouldn't be much more "steering" required on a good pass. Obvious steering by the rider=slower times. Sometimes something goes wrong and the horse needs to be Redirected...but the horse that runs the fastest time needs no "reining"....You may see knee and spur cues but mostly the hands stay on the horn or near it through the turns. Teach your horse vocal cues as well...jmo...my kids can ride any of my "barrel" horses....Light between the saddle and their bottoms? Sometimes. 19's? Regularly 30's? Happens...

 

[welsummerchicks]

Super super post.

 

[wpalmisano]

Use a cattle prod on his hindquarters and he'll run like the wind.

 

[fowler_chick]

a cattle prod??? that's a bit much don't yeah think?.