I have some ideas on how I am planning to proceed, but I recently took on a former “barrel racer” as a project. I hope to eventually event her, but our goals right now are a lot tamer. She has been chiro’d and had her teeth done in recent history, to start. I am looking for peoples’ thoughts on retraining that horse that has been taught to primarily stick their head up, hollow their back, evade above the bit, and drop their back. We are solely W/T under saddle at this point, due to some other training issues. The horse was never successfully on the barrels, to my knowledge, because of some training issues they ran into that I have just started to see previews of (refusing to go forward / slamming on the brakes & backing / throwing outside shoulder to evade / a bit of bouncing off the front end / these weird little hop bucks that hardly count / etc). So, sound off - favorite exercises? Ways to encourage the horse to seek the bit? We’re making some slow progress at the walk, but lose it at the trot and we won’t talk about the canter.
I worked with a former barrel racer a few years back and a big thing is getting the horse to understand calmness. The horse I worked with honestly wouldn’t walk and jigged for a couple of weeks. They are interesting challenges but rewarding
My suggestion would be to use a lot of reward (perhaps carry treats in your pocket to give to him when he makes any degree of breakthrough). I would focus on the walk and getting him to mainly respect that you can hold contact (no worry about bend-- just steering on 20m type circles) and that he will respond to your leg. Work to help him understand leg by using the idea of starting with the smallest amount of pressure and increasing when needed. If he is too sensitive to leg, make sure you’re keeping your leg in contact with his barrel so that he learns to get use to feeling it there.
Give him lots of pats and when you feel comfortable, hold the reins in one hand and rub his neck and haunches. This will help relax him.
I would keep trotting to the middle part of your ride and only focus on keeping him in front of your leg. This type of work will be mentally tougher on him so he may display being tired in different ways than you’d expect (like getting frustrated or stopping). Be patient and just keep it simple to steering and staying aware on your aids.
I’d also stick to using the whole arena and using big looping exercises like figure 8s for now.
Good luck! Have fun!
This is the one that can’t lunge right?
I will always recommend learning to long line, but a few years ago my partner and I started a number of young horses aimed at Fox hunting. My partner stayed in the ring and made the horses work. Because he is a significantly stronger rider than I am. I used a tiny trail to train for the first ten sides or so. Think like maybe 60x100 area on an incline with lots of trees and multiple small cross country fences. I took my babies in there and walked and trotted around at first because they were way happy to go forward of the ring. The trails were a guide they could easily understand unlike the ring, lots of circling around trees and jumps, trotting up the incline and walking down. Later introduced cantering up hill, Halting up hill. They really had to pay attention to their feet and became really balanced and flexible very quickly. And they enjoyed it. It was also safer and more contained than taking them out on real open trails, although they easily transitioned to that.
By the time I want back into the ring maybe ten rides later, they understood forward and straight and turning and were relaxed and supple.
If you can find yourself a little spot of woods to cut yourself a teeny tiny cross country course, i highly recommend it.
This is the one I thought would be a project on the lunge line, yes. I am actually seeing more rapid progress than I expected in that regard. We are introducing the very (very, very) basics of ground driving / double lunging at this point too. Under saddle, I am starting to see more relaxation, but have difficulty getting both “in front of the leg” and relaxed at the same time. We are definitely trying to make sure that my leg is like a gentle hug - consistently there without being activating and very difficult to get away from.
That’s a tough row to hoe, but it can be done. Lungeing absolutely is the place to start. Side reins. Loose at first until the horse starts to accept some contact, then shortening enough that he starts to get the idea of pushing.
A horse that has been trained to run barrels is likely not a great candidate for dressage because the conformation and physical demands of each are so different. Although I assume you are just using the correct training of dressage to get the horse to use himself correctly.
Under saddle, do a lot of work at the walk. Asking him to stretch down and relax. Keep it brief and reward a lot when he gives even the slightest hint that he understands what you are asking. Be able to eventually take a light contact and keep your leg on him before you progress to trot. Do lots of walk/halt transitions and really emphasize the slow, slow, slow. Yes, he needs to be in front of your leg, but getting the relaxation should come first. You already know he’s got plenty of forward, so it will be there when the time comes. I have restarted a couple of barrel racers, but mostly TBs off the track. It has been my experience that once they realize that you do not expect them to run flat out all the time, they seem very relieved and really start to relax and get into the work. Patience and time are your friends. Good luck!
My first order of business would be grtting the horse to understand that leg=move, but not necessarily forward. Turn on the forehand and haunches both under saddle and on the ground, even if it is just one step to start and bulding up to being able to move the hip and shoulder into the walk and trot. Once she starts stepping under herself better the base of her neck will raise and the head will start to drop.
Kudos for taking on a challenging project. Is she QH, Thoroughbred, or a combination of both?
On the positive side you probably have forward and leg means move…now. I would work on relaxation in the arena, accepting contact and using the hindquarters. Canter, not gallop. I’m a big fan of poll and jaw flexion exercises from the ground and under saddle at the halt to start on horses who don’t know about contact. And of course transitions, transitions and more transitions.
I am just adding a follow-up in case anyone finds this in a search and wants to know what worked and what didn’t. We didn’t try to figure out the lunging. We did a lot of walking and trying for long and low. Bend, counter bend, offer the chance to stretch. Gentle, but consistent contact at all times - I pretty much just tried to follow her around and never let him find a way above or behind the bit. We haven’t figured it out completely, but these two factors probably made the biggest & fastest improvements.
My BO has run a therapeutic riding program for a long time, along with the regular lesson program She had a fantastic medicine hat Paint mare named Magic Flash. She was one of the best therapy horses ever, quiet, relaxed, calm, and unflappable. Except that she, too, used to be a barrel racer in her younger days. If she walked into an arena with 3 barrels in a triangle, she’d perk right up and break into a trot. Sadly we lost her about 5 years ago, but she was a terrific horse and never forgot her upbringing.
I have a friend whose barrel horse got much too tense in competition. She started working on nothing but relaxation under saddle–stretching at the walk, transitions, stretching at the trot. She only runs barrels in competition now, as he knows his job–he just needed to relax. All the mistakes are due to her lack of practice now, not due to his tension.
From my limited experience, retraining a barrel horse for dressage would be a huge challenge but would teach you a lot.
It can be done. The horse that I had before my current one had barrel raced. The biggest issue that I ran into wasn’t the re-schooling at home, it was the re-schooling at shows. You might not have that problem if this horse wasn’t hauled a lot, by my mare was a NIGHTMARE at anything she perceived as the in-gate. She would rear, jig, and otherwise be a bit scary. So, I would recommend that on top of the retraining, work on calmly walking in and out of the arena.
Thankfully, this one never made it as far as being hauled. Her last rider assured me she was plenty fast for the barrels, but she [the rider] “didn’t have time.” Never mind that she replaced this mare with 1-2 futurity prospects. 
I make my own assumptions about what this means. Glad to hear it can be done! She has moments of real promise, and is athletic as can be.
