by: Lyndee Stairs, September 2012
In any sport it is the same: A winning athlete wants or needs, to perform at their best over an extended period of time. A horse is not a machine and may not understand your gold buckle dreams. So what do you do? How do we prevent our horse from encountering burnout? Think about it.
Many of us barrel racers attend up to 100 barrrel races in a year. Many hours away from home with little recovery time.
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by: Lyndee Stairs, August 2012
Start with a well broke horse. Don’t try to break one and train him to run barrels at the same time. It dosen’t work so well. The more hauling and life experiences a horse has prior to starting his barrel horse training the better. We start ours on barrels at three years of age, beause we like to futurity them. We do their basic training as a two year old. And of course they are still learning throughout their lives. Just like you and me.
by: Lyndee Stairs, July 2012
When I get to the barrel race or rodeo, the first thing I do is go and pay my fees. The very next thing I do is check out the lay (set up) of the arena.
In other words, is it a long arena with the third barrel sitting in the middle of the pen with no fence near it? If it is, warm your horse up with set in mind. Help him to rate, collect him with two hands and then turn.
by: Lyndee Stairs, June 2012
When you watch the top horses and riders run barrels, you will see a straight line directly from the second barrel to the third. The horse will run up there, rate, put his rear up under him, and use that inside hind pivot foot to drive around that barrel. He will then push off with both back legs and run straight home.