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.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with training an older horse to run barrels. With a little age, a horse can pick things up even quicker. We have trained many barrel horses that were not started on the barrels until much later. One of my great horses never saw a barrel until he was 9 years of age. Be sure not to over-train either. Spend time doing other things with your horses, maybe even just trail riding. I like to ride my horse down for at least 15 minutes before I begin. But, don’t overdo it either. A fresh horse can’t think and a tired horse can’t either. We should actually spend more time riding than we do training.
Try to keep barrel racing fun and easy for your horse. Don’t let the barrels become work that he hates doing. I will work one, after he is warmed up, three days per week for 20 minutes or more. Riding the other two days and maybe going to barrel races on the weekends. It is better to train for shorter periods of time more often than only once in awhile for a long time. Also, only work your horse on one new thing at a time. Don’t try to teach him everything in a day.
After about six months of this, I will start hauling my barrel prospect to exhibitions, time only runs. When I can, I will work my young horse at home before I go to the race. Once there, I like to buy four exhibition tickets. The first time through, I will just trot or slow lope the pattern. This lets my horse see the sights. The second one, I like to lope up and then about two strides from the barrel, break down to a trot and circle the barrel twice. On my third trip through, I make a run at whatever speed my horse is comfortable with. When I go through the pattern the fourth time, I slow it back down and try to fix any mistakes we made in the run, and/or just let my horse relax and realize that running barrels is no big deal.
One final and important point, when you quit your horse for the day, be sure to do it on a good note and not when he is making mistakes. This is how a horse learns. When he is doing something good, that you want him to do, and he gets to quit, he knows he did a good thing. When you continue to repeat, repeat and repeat, your horse will start looking for another answer to give you.
Remember to enjoy your horse and let him enjoy barrel racing.
