No rubber bands here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2DQ2z3w9Y&sns=fb
[QUOTE=Gnalli;7755010]
because it does not work like that. I thought that way too, until my girls started listening to the pro trainers in the area. They cut 1-2 WHOLE seconds off their runs. You have to stay out of the way, and yes, flapping is bad, but you sit to slow down, and you get “up off him” for speed. These horses turn hard. They make it look smooth, but it is not. You get yanked. You look awful, but you are having to really ride and pay attention to 40 things at once.
I have only seen maybe a handful of barrel racers truly get “up” off their horses, and I see far more barrel racers than I care to. Bouncing on their backs is not, “up”. I gallop racehorses, if you get the chance to watch an exercise rider at the track, or an upper level eventer on cross country, you can see what being “up” off of their backs looks like. This is perfectly achievable in a western saddle, I do it all the time when cantering and galloping on the lead pony at the track whenever I get the chance, as he is older and I want to save his back.
I never let mine use the bands, until this season. Jamie’s feet don’t slide out anymore, and she can keep proper foot position, rather than having to jam her foot in to the heel (HORROR!!!), and not loose the stirrup. You actually have to get out there and run a pattern at speed on a horse that knows what it is supposed to do to really get a feel for it, and the reasons why they do things that make equitation minded riders cringe in horror.[/QUOTE]
I have done it, on some supposedly well bred (for barrels) horses. There is NO reason you can’t do it and ride well. Keep your hands low and steady, don’t LEAN, learn some balance, and learn to either develop a good seat and sit low or get off their backs, no in between (aka flopping), and for the love of everything holy, LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING. Call me “equitation minded” if you really feel that way, you will in fact look much better when you know the basics of riding.
[QUOTE=Angelico;7757245]
I have done it, on some supposedly well bred (for barrels) horses. There is NO reason you can’t do it and ride well. Keep your hands low and steady, don’t LEAN, learn some balance, and learn to either develop a good seat and sit low or get off their backs, no in between (aka flopping), and for the love of everything holy, LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING. Call me “equitation minded” if you really feel that way, you will in fact look much better when you know the basics of riding.[/QUOTE]
I am not sure if you are getting onto me or not, so with that being notated: No, I agree with you that bouncing is not “getting off his back”. Bouncing and flapping is hard on the horse, distracting and bad for your wallet in more ways than one. My girls do it right, and don’t flap, bounce or use a bat like a hive of bees is after them.They rise in the saddle, and sit-not flop. They lean when they need to. They guide their horses with their legs and the rein being lifted or dropped at the appropriate time. They make the effort to help their horses as much as possible and stay out of their way. They do look where they are going, because where you look is where your horse is going to go. The rubber band helps-even if it just a mental thing, and it very well may be. 3 out of the 4 of them would have no problem climbing off a barrel horse and onto a (flat only) equitation class and placing well English or Western. They have done it.MANY MULTIPLE TIMES. They have beautiful seats, quiet hands and quiet feet-though with # 2, it took a while to grow out of her butterfly feet. The 4th one, well, she refuses to ride anything that trots. She is a gaited horse kid only, and definitely believes in good equitation.
I think barrel racing is the jumping of the western world. Top riders are top riders, but the lower levels are downright terrifying borderline abusive with the wrong trainer. I wish there was some equitation around barrels classes where the kids get rewarded who ride well. Or an optimum time like there is in eventing - too fast or too slow gets you penalties.
[QUOTE=arapaloosa_lady;7757432]
I wish there was some equitation around barrels classes where the kids get rewarded who ride well. [/QUOTE]
Total side note, but that is one of the reasons why I love barrel racing.
The timer is the only judge.
There are no opinions, no cliques, no “preferences”, etc. You don’t have to be judged by someone else’s opinion on who the winner should be. You don’t have to worry that the judge is best friends with someone else in the class, or that the judge doesn’t like their first impression of you.
You just have to be the fastest. 
Although as already discussed, there are good ways and bad ways to go about being the fastest.
[QUOTE=BayRoan;7757212]
No rubber bands here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt2DQ2z3w9Y&sns=fb[/QUOTE]
And she was sitting up! The only time she tipped forward is when they hit the barrel and I think she looked down at the wrong time.
Carry on…
[QUOTE=sk_pacer;7755291]
Seems more and more riders in all disciplines think doing the funky chicken on horseback makes for a better performance - barrel racers looking like they are trying to take flight, dressage competitors with flapping legs, arms and a bobble head, pleasure riders flapping elbows frantically at a canter/lope. It seems that no one understands the virtues of sit straight (doesn’t mean you arch your back and stick your butt way out, sit down (again the butt over the cantle) and sit still.[/QUOTE]
At least in dressage those riders get a written comment from the judge. There’s nothing like a 4or5 in “Riders Position an Use of Aids” to make a rider pay attention.
[QUOTE=vicarious;7759093]
At least in dressage those riders get a written comment from the judge. There’s nothing like a 4or5 in “Riders Position an Use of Aids” to make a rider pay attention.[/QUOTE]
Some of those riders look like they are doing the chicken dance rather than giving aids/cues…you don’t have to ‘spur’ from shoulder to flank to give aids 
Snort! Perhaps in dressage performed “East of Dog River”, but never here in the highly educated East.
Although I will admit to having seen some pretty bad rides but they are rare, and one would hope becoming rarer.
[QUOTE=merrygoround;7759210]
Snort! Perhaps in dressage performed “East of Dog River”, but never here in the highly educated East.
Although I will admit to having seen some pretty bad rides but they are rare, and one would hope becoming rarer.[/QUOTE]
I am talking about some of the stuff they have on TV, not many shows of any kind around here that are worth going to regardless of discipline you wish to watch.
I never have used rubber bands in my years and years of rodeo life, though I’ve noticed some of my friends with shorter legs do because some have a tendancy to lose their stirrups. I have freakishly long legs lol. I know of instances with people being in wrecks and getting drug around cause they used rubber bands…
^^^ It seems like putting the stirrups up a hole or two would make sense, rather than tying your feet to them.
I don’t know - in english sports, the faster you go, the shorter the stirrups get. I don’t ride in the same length to do gallop sets or jump XC as I do when practicing flat work in the arena.
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7765173]
I don’t know - in english sports, the faster you go, the shorter the stirrups get. I don’t ride in the same length to do gallop sets or jump XC as I do when practicing flat work in the arena.[/QUOTE]
Your body position (and stirrup length) needed for jumping is completely different than what you need for turning a barrel. I do both, so I should know. One big difference is that with barrel racing, you want most of your weight in the outside stirrup (science and centripetal force) during the turn, whereas with jumping you want your weight even in the stirrups or maybe even a little to the inside (maybe depending on who you take lessons from) when you are making a circle on the course.
However, it is true that many barrel racers actually lose their stirrups because they ride with their stirrups a little longer than they should. If you find you are losing your stirrups frequently, try shortening them by one hole.
With that said, having your stirrups TOO short for barrel racing can be just as bad as having them too long, as it affects your body position.
On the rare occasion that I use rubber bands, I buy the really thin ones. So thin, that they sometimes break when I’m putting them on. You don’t want any chance that they aren’t going to break in a wreck.
Wow! This board has so much knowledge on it! As I’m getting older, I’m realizing the more and more I do not know. This is an interesting discussion. I have no doubt if I tried to ride barrels, the horse would leave me at the in gate or if I was lucky, make it to the first barrel.
Seems like the rubber bands come down to personal opinion. I think every sport has good and bad riders/competers/athletes.
[QUOTE=arapaloosa_lady;7757432]
Top riders are top riders, but the lower levels are downright terrifying borderline abusive with the wrong trainer. [/QUOTE]
The barrel bashing is kinda ridiculous. I agree with Arapaloosa_lady 100% on this! Every single sport has the improper use of tack and poor riders. For some reason barrel racers get it a lot. I have taken lessons in as many disciplines as possible and it always comes down to the barrel horses and reiners that are the softest, athletic and sane. I am confident enough in my horse right now that I could compete in dressage, race him and hand him over to a kid. He is simply that soft and broke! And that goes for most of the top barrel racers in my area.
As far as the banding goes, I didn’t really understand it and wondered the same thing as most. If you can’t keep your feet in the stirrups, you probably shouldn’t be competing. Then the moment came where I had to pick my leg up to avoid catching the barrel. While my foot was out of the way, the stirrup still caught it. I lost a pretty big check because of it.
[QUOTE=beau159;7757714]
Total side note, but that is one of the reasons why I love barrel racing.
The timer is the only judge.
There are no opinions, no cliques, no “preferences”, etc. You don’t have to be judged by someone else’s opinion on who the winner should be. You don’t have to worry that the judge is best friends with someone else in the class, or that the judge doesn’t like their first impression of you.
You just have to be the fastest.
Although as already discussed, there are good ways and bad ways to go about being the fastest.[/QUOTE]
My “preference” for barrel racers are riders who maintain control of their horse, work as a team, can sit a horse in and out of the arena, and don’t have horses with gaping mouths and 10,000 different contraptions wrapped around their nosebands and mouths because they’ve hyped the horses up so badly that they can no longer ride them in something simple.
And yes, there are several out there. Unfortunately, like any other discipline, folks rarely focus on the “good guys” as the attention, especially with the evolution of social media, is normally on the “WTF” riders.
[QUOTE=arapaloosa_lady;7757432]
I wish there was some equitation around barrels classes where the kids get rewarded who ride well. [/QUOTE]
My husband instructs at a children’s home and they do a horse show every summer that’s just them. They more advanced kids do something like this because we don’t have the horses for them all to be competitive. So we have the judge place them based on how well each kid rode it. I don’t see it catching on but it works for our program. The more advanced kids got to do something different and more “fun”. But it worked since we didn’t have the speedy barrel type horses.
My trainer barrel races!
She says its a lot like English riding. She goes up into a two point, similar to a jockey, to allow the horse to fully extend without her hindering him, then sits for the turn. The sitting is our horse’s cue to get ready for a turn.
Perhaps they seem all over the place because a lot of barrel racers wave their legs, or kick the horses to get them to move faster?
I know my trainer has an awesome seat. And she rode in English shows on her first barrel horse (when she was 16). She always tells me how she won her first jump off because it was a line of jumps and you had to go through, turn and go back through. She won because her horse could turn on a dime, and didn’t need to take a wide circle like the rest of the jumpers did.
That was a long time ago though, she still barrel races though and 95% of the time gets in the money so…
There are alot of very soft barrel racers out there. Many of the hunter rides would drool watching the long trots in the warm up pen…
[QUOTE=beau159;7756056]
I like to use Lisa Lockhart as an example, and her horse Louie.
http://youtu.be/PTaOOUoaF5g[/QUOTE]
THANK YOU! Well ridden & that horse has his homework written all over him. I’ve watched a lot of barrel patterns in my life – I think I’ve seen THREE that were un-cringeworthy (note: most of these were local rodeos, although at the Houston Livestock Show I saw ONE – and she was 63 & kick@$$!!).
All sports DO have their faults, as is evident in each folder, from the Hunter Praying Mantis to the Flopping Endurance Racer to the I Never Took My Horse Out Of The Ring Eventer.
Now, if that girl would just wear a helmet, I’d love her (lost my fiance & love to a TBI, so FREAKING PUT 'EM ON, it’s not all about you). But yes, THAT is a very nice ride indeed!!
