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zlp1981

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Hello. I have a four year old. Mare that I bought about two and a half months ago. She got hurt so I havent been able to ride her alot. She has only had about 5 rides on her. The last ride wa this weekend. We went to a barrel race and I took her to give our barrel mare some. Company. She hadnt been ridden for a month or so before that. She did great. But I am having trouble with her turns. I have never trained a horse before. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Do you mean you've only put 5 rides on her or do you mean she's only ever had 5 rides total in her life? Because that's not very much.
If you don't have your horses head you don't have much. They need to be soft in the face, to give to the bit, to collect and that takes some time. Until you get that they'll just blow right through their shoulder.
I know a grand total of zero about barrel racing, and this is free advice so take it for what it's worth :wink: but a good exercise for a horse is to start by walking along a high fence at a steady rate. Pick up your direct rein (fence side in this case) and slowly turn her head towards the fence. The instant she commits to the turn release the rein and let her finish it on her own and then continue down the fence in your new direction. If you keep doing this you will get to release earlier and earlier in the turn and she will also develop a nice roll back. As she gets it you can pick up the pace.
Don't know if this helps for barrels or not but it's a good foundation exercise.
 
How long have you lived in Gillette? There are a lot of people there who could help you. What Silver suggested sounds good to me. After all, if
they can't turn slow, they can't turn fast. :wink: There is quite a bit to it, like disengaging their hip so they can't run off. Hopefully your mare is safe and sane and you'll learn a lot! Good luck!

Another little trick is to tie their head around to the saddle for a bit until they give to the pressure. But I think you should have someone there that understands it before you try it. You can tie their head to their tail too,
just make sure it's not tied to tight or too loose. And don't leave them very long. Lots of times people leave them all afternoon like that. Not a good idea IMO.
 
Faster horses said:
Another little trick is to tie their head around to the saddle for a bit until they give to the pressure. But I think you should have someone there that understands it before you try it. You can tie their head to their tail too,
just make sure it's not tied to tight or too loose. And don't leave them very long. Lots of times people leave them all afternoon like that. Not a good idea IMO.
Click to expand...

The version of that that I do is to tie the bridle reins behind the cantle forcing the face into a nice collected position. Sometimes this does take a good portion of an afternoon. A horse may fight it for awhile but eventually comes around. This can be pretty stressful for them but they do work their way through it and figure it out. In time they will be standing quietly nice and collected.
I like it because the only pressure they get is pressure they put on themselves, and they aren't getting a bunch of other pressures thrown at them to overwhelm them.
 
We've got a neighbor kid who'll put 30 honest days on one for $250 thats my idea of training.
 
Denny said:
We've got a neighbor kid who'll put 30 honest days on one for $250 thats my idea of training.
Click to expand...

That's by far the best way to do it!
 
You are not to far from Peter Campbell - check his clinic schedule, looks like a couple in your area. Even auditing the clinics are a great help. His or Buck Brannaman's DVDs are a good source also ... good luck and have fun.

http://www.petercampbellhorsemanship.com/horseman/node/11

PS: check youtube for video instruction - there are clips available from keen horsemen/woman on there also.
 

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