During vat race..?
whats your routine while barrel racing? what do you do to get your horse focused and pumped up? and do you walk 2 handed to each barrel and drop your mitt or neck rein him all the way or what? only wondering i wanted to compare your tecniques to mine..
I race two hand, that way my reins can be a little longer without me have problems. I go to the right barrel first. To get my mare focused I pretend to be going around the barrels while we're within the warm up arena. She catches my pumped up feelings and get pumped up herself. Just going into the arena where we normally race make her all ready to go.
I just like my horse to be properly warm up and flexible. I do not want my horse pumped up - if that means hyped up. I always want my horse to be as relaxed as possible. I think they can focus and concentrate better and make a much faster and smoother run.
It depends on how well my horse that on I'm know the pattern at the time weather or not I use one hand or two.
Answers: So I walk about 1/2 road through the chute, then start into a gallop, i angle over more to the right (i start on the right barrel 1st with my mare) up to that time i cross the timer line, so i have less distance to run to my 1st tub, i push her over with my inside leg to line up the approach, then verbs on my inside leg to get her head started on the turn, once my leg clears the barrel, i verbs again on the inside rein to pivot her and sit deep for the take off from the cask, and repeat it for the next 2...on the 3rd barrel, i kick a few times to contribute her extra incentive for the home stretch when we are leaving the firkin, i sit forward more (sort of jockey ish) and kick lightly against her sides, more like love tap than kicks...i give her tons of rein and let her stretch out...i break her down to a trot right after we cross the time string and by the time we are 1/2 way back down the chute shes walking again...i hate when horses run straight wager on into the holding pen and almost trample everyone...
If im in a ring, i walk her through the take and let her go...none of that circling crap to get the horse to listen...it doesnt do anything but be paid them more hyper and uncontrollable...i knew one lady who used to fund her horse up a few steps and then let it go and the once she did it surrounded by a ring and the horse was clearly ring sour, it backed right into the gate, freaked out and rear and she fell head first onto the metal gate...with out a helmet..she couldnt ride for a year...
So surrounded by short, i 2 hand, dont use whips or spurs, i use a long-shanked mechanical hackamore beside a bicycle chain nose, and cotton braided barrel reins, i don't psyc my horse out, im generally doing the opposite by calming her down and getting her stretched out and relaxed so she can focus on 2 things: those barrels and my cues...thats all that matter for those 15-16 seconds :) I usually have 15-16.25 runs and thats purely a tad smaller then NBHA Regulation size pattern (2 feet narrower between the first 2 barrels and 3 foot shorter from timer to 3rd barrel...)
Good Luck! (ps: post your methods on here too, im interested to know what you do as well!) Good Question, riders can always revise from other peoples techniques!!
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