Covered Arena Take Over

[LilDunFilly]

@TheDBYC

The barrels are supposed to be a minimum of 18’ from the sides to provide a safe zone.

I rode at a barn that did low-level barrels and didn’t have proper clearance between the fencing and the side barrels (maybe 6-10’). No one else ever seemed concerned about slamming into the fence and didn’t understand why I was. Needless to say I don’t lesson there anymore.

@Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom

Also never met one who gave a crap about arena niceties like passing left to left, or who gave a crap about properly training and taking care of their horses, either. Just wait until the horses become so mind-blown with constant running that they are dangerous to even be around.

I’ve never boarded with the above (or any barrel racers actually), but I’ve met quite a few nice ones at shows. I find the ones I like the most tend to be cross-trained to barrel race and the owners just do it for fun/on the side. The one who sticks with me the most, years later, was a very nice chunky liver chestnut gelding. The show kept the next few riders in a holding pen in the corner of the main arena, after they warmed up in a separate pen. I watched various groups come and go. Lots of horses were jiggy, twitchy, or generally a bit up. One had to be backed into the alley by someone on the ground. Still, a few just stood and the chestnut was one. He had the fastest time of any of the rounds I saw (I spent about 3-4 hours watching); ripped down the alley and around the barrels and came to a hard stop a few feet into the alley. I assumed his owner used him as either a roper or some type of cow horse based on their tack.

[goodhors]

It is all about training the horse. You take the time to teach horse what you want, do not drill AT SPEED. Daughter took one of our CDE driving horses who had competed in Pony Club with son. In Pony Club he had done eventing, Jumping, dressage. Daughters goals were 4H, pleasure English and Western, barrels, poles, flag races, over fences classes. He usually placed well in everything, despite his 16.2H height.

Having done gymkahna myself, I told DD how she needed to train him for the speed classes, starting with her walking horse 100 times in EACH pattern. We have a correctly large arena for proper measured distances. It was slow going for a while as she got thru the beginning
100 sessions oF each game. Doing games practice, horse wore his “games attire”, quickly learned the mechanical hack, splint boots meant new activity. She did her homework, told me when she completed the walking practices.

We then moved up to trotting the patterns. She did about 5 to 10 of each game, per day. Usually after doing her other practice riding Western or English. Horse is required to be a consistant distance around each barrel, no shoulder dropping. Then legging him over in poles, rather than pulling his nose bending, turn at the end to go back thru, then turn at the the other end for the straight run to finish. He knew how to leg over, she had to get smoother when asking. Flags was mostly her learning how hard to “spike in” the flag without bouncing it back out. How tight to the bucket did she need to be, plus being consistanty the same distance to bend the barrel. Slow speeds allowed plenty of prep time for next step. Teaching them both muscle memory, brain reactions.

As they got more coordinated, smoother, we added cantering to finish. She might have one day a week to practice runs at full speed. Even then not more than 2 runs each and if not perfect, it was back to trotting the pattern to make it perfect. The horse was very smart, learned where he needed to be, “helped” her do it right. She was always in control of speed, varied gaits in all parts of practices.

Her work paid off well over the rest of their careers competing. He was pretty quiet waiting for his runs, maybe a prancey step entering. He really liked games, knew what was going to happen after getting dressed in “games attire!” The slow practices established where he needed to be, he was like a train on rails! Never got close to hit a barrel or pole. As mentioned, he surprisingly placed in most games he entered, against smaller and faster horses. It was pretty obvious those horses and riders were not in control. No two of their runs were ever the same. Perfect practice paid off for DD, even though it took a long time to make him ready.

Listening to these barrel racer stories is painful. There are a number of them who train carefully, thoughtfully, are polite people. Those at the top levels treat their horses well, compete and win on them for years. They need horse as skilled as possible to win the big money in barrels. Doesn’t happen by slammin’ and jammin’.

[TheDBYC]

There was a guy on Rural Heritage that used to barrel race with his gigantic Percheron workhorse mare. She was more agile than you’d guess & they always rode to thunderous applause from spectators delighted by the lone full draft in a sea of QH.

[Spudsmyguy]

My friend did the long format three day event at Rebecca on a full Clyde. They completed all the phases and while they didn’t place; had a great time. In fact, they were featured on the USEA website.

[sorrelfilly721]

@Spudsmyguy

However, they need a lesson in how to pass (left to left) as I witnessed two crashes of horses and riders when there were 3 in the arena.

I do dressage and barrel race and I can tell you barrel racers do not know ring etiquette. They don’t know which side to pass on and frequently, the young girls park themselves in the middle of the arena. You might ask the BO to post arena etiquette. They don’t know what they don’t know.

As for the space, you mention it’s a covered arena. Is your climate mild? Is there somewhere outside the arena they could set up the barrels?

[Spudsmyguy]

It’s the PNW so outside is wet 9 months of the year.