I want to start a 13 year old mare on barrels. Is she too old or not? I would like some help.
I started my horse Dexter on barrels last year at age 12. He was starting to hit 3D times in less than 3 months. Very excited to see how he progresses this year. Often, when they are older, you can progress a bit quicker because they should already be decently broke and their minds are mature.
So no, she is not too old!
Have you ever barrel raced before? Do you have anyone helping you and/or have a trainer you can work with?
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As long as she is fit for hard work (or can be conditioned for it), and has no joint issues, I don’t see why you couldn’t.
Do you have a trainer to work with you, or do you train yourself? How much experience do you have on the pattern? Would you be able to recognize the difference between the horse being green on the pattern versus pain/soreness, or bad habits on the pattern that could result in injury?
Gal I boarded with started with an 18 year old and they were doing fine healthwise and she won a buckle - no idea of her times though!
I do have a trainer that is willing to help me. I have never done barrels myself but I want to start. The horse I want to barrel with is my trainer´s but I have ridden her enough to know that she would be a great barrel horse.
What do your trainer think about putting the horse on barrels? Have you asked the trainer?
The key point is to go SLOW until you are ready to go fast. Not that it can’t be done, but you both (horse and rider) will progress slower if it is new to the both of you, because neither of you know what to expect. But as long as you are taking lessons and/or working with your trainer along the way, you should be fine.
The horse also needs to be BROKE before you start them on barrels. You need to be able to control all parts of their body (nose, neck, shoulder, ribcage, hindquarters) at all gaits (walk, trot, lope) and soft/responsive to the bit. Then it is a matter of teaching the horse how to use their body correctly during the turn and figuring out the horse’s individual turning style that will best suit them.
In general, it takes about 2 years to train a horse to run barrels – give or take based on the horse and the rider.
The more sensible way for a rider and a horse to learn to run barrels is to find someone that will teach you on a horse that already knows to run barrels.
Until you know what you are doing and have a feel for what is right and an understanding of why, you really can’t think to teach a horse to do it right, where it won’t get bad habits or hurt?
At least give it a try first to taking a lesson from a barrel racing trainer and then see what you think.
She is a really great mare but I feel that her lope is a little rough. I am having a little trouble sitting it, Any advice?
Well…you don’t lope the barrels after the very beginning stages of learning or just conditioning. You don’t run either when schooling but if this mare of your trainers does not have a good lope/canter? She might not be a good prospect for something that requires a solid and well balanced gallop to start with. Barrel horses are very balanced and agile, most very good movers by any standard. They have to balance and bend around the barrel without bleeding all their speed away, stay straight between them, keep the leads sorted out and sprint to the timers.
One other thing, I dabbled in barrels a little, conditioned one for somebody else , great on the patterns but I really did not like adding speed particularly the sprint to the timers, Didnt like Jumpers either, happier slow and pretty- the horse not me. Just not in my wheelhouse.
So ask yourself if this is in yours in general and ask your trainer if it’s a good fit for this mare with an irregular lope. Often horses with irregular gaits are not completely sound, even if they don’t limp. Hate to see you put time into something with a horse that you don’t own and just is not going to be able to do it well, even at just a fun game level, and won’t be a ton of fun to work with.
It depends what’s going on.
Does she have a pain issue, she’s compensating for?
Is she not traveling collected?
Again, what does your trainer say? (since it is the trainer’s horse)
You say you’ve never done barrels but you also say you know she will be a good barrel horse…how?
When i first started riding reiners, what I thought would make a good reining horse vs what actually makes a good reining horse are two completely different things. I would highly suggest you get trainer involved…a horse that will need to be very balanced and catty to run a pattern shouldn’t be “rough” to lope…rough enough for you to have difficulty with it. That would be like me selecting a horse that changed leads very poorly or stopped poorly to rein on…probably not going to work.
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