Ok guys I need your help, For All you barrel racers out there…. I have this horse who I am planning on barrel racing in the fair. She knows the pattern and everything but she seems to avoid the barrels instead of hugging them like I want her to do. And she need some more training for them. I just recently trained her to neck rein cuz I love that. Do u like neck reining better for barrels or not? Just wondering if you think it is easier to neck rein barrels? BUt If you have any ideas for helping me that would be great thanks!!
I am getting a lot of things saying that i should not neck rein, I kind of realiz what you mean now but i still think it is easier what do u guys think again?
Thanks a lot for the treat on the barrel idea! I never thought about that!
Ok about the neck reining thing, I have to use a crop ( not hard I barely hit her with it dont worry) with my horse because when she does stop thats the only thing to make her go. But I thought neck reining would be easier for me cuz i have a hard time regular reining with one hand…. what should I do??
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Good question I wanna know to I have a 4 year old mare that I wanna barrel race.And right now I’m getting my 14 year old mare breed and I plan on barrel racing her colt.
Neck reining is not good when running barrels. Especially if you don’t do a lot of neck reining. What happens when neck reining around a barrel is you might end up pulling the horses nose to the outside, causing your horse to throw her shoulder into the barrel and leading the wrong direction. So you should definitely plow rein when barrel racing. But ultimately your horse should learn to neck rein just for everyday riding.
Don’t do the treat thing!! That will not give you the results you are looking for.
You can neck rein but you really should not. When you run a horse, you need one hand on the saddle horn keeping you steady and the other hand should be on the rein next to the barrel helping your horse around. If you neck rein you are not teaching your horse how to flex, if he can’t flex, he can’t "hug" the barrel. How many barrel racers have you seen neck rein a horse around? Goto http://www.youtube.com and type in charmayne james, kay blandford, kebo almond, or any pro that you can think of and watch how they ride. Go get Charmayne’s books and dvd’s, they are great!!
If you are barrel racing then don’t neck rein because you may lose control of the horse and the horse will get confused so don’t neck rein just regular rein.
Put a horse treat on the barrel. Whatever she likes. She will want to get close enough to grab the treat. You will need an assistant on the other side of the barrel to hand the treat to you when she gets close. Then reward her with the treat. (I don’t like a horse to graze or be looking for food while I’m riding, but the lure will work for most horses to get them where you want them, right next to the barrel.)
Walk through the pattern several times, and tell her "Good!" "Yes!" or use a clicker each time she gets close, then give her a treat.
Soon you won’t need the treat on the barrel. Go through the pattern a few more times giving her a treat each time she comes close to each barrel. After 12 to 15 repetitions, she should start to catch on to what you want. She will also associate the barrel with a treat and want to get close. Then you can begin to slowly fade out the treat and increase your speed again.
Always reward her when she runs the pattern particularly fast and particularly well.
I would suggest you don’t work her on the pattern to much. Especially at a faster pace. You will burn her out and she won’t want to run at all or she will run a really poor pattern.
Definitely don’t neck rein. You need to pull her nose around the barrel.
I used to neck rein when I was younger until someone explained this to me: you should ride with two hands because it will help your horse get a better bend around the barrel. i.e, when going around the 1st barrel (right barrel), you should slide your right hand far down the right side of your rein to make the turn. Neck reining is probably causing most of your turning problems. Neck reining may be a little easier, but it is only going to hurt you in the sport of barrel racing.
YESS!!! Me and my girls go to nationals every year. Neck reining is very good. It gives you more power id you know waht you’re doing! Good Luck!
My horse does the same thing and what helps me is "check" on the reins which means get your reins and like do little tugs to slow your horse down some I use two hands on the reins to get better control of my horse