Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How old should a horse be to start training in barrels and poles?

I was just wondering, thank you for your help!
Answers:
As a four year old, and depending on your mare's maturity mentally, you could start "patterning" her for barrels and poles-no problem.
You will also need to consider her level of training, because both of these event require a horse that can understand and respond to cues to bend, pick up correct and flying lead changes, gather and get their hind quarters under them, etc.
So, if you feel your horse has that level of training, start out slow and---most importantly---take your time. The most common mistake made among barrel and pole riders are that they get the itch to just go do it. This can ruin your horses' chances of being successful in the long run.
There are an abundance of great "drills" you can do that will ready your horse for both events without even showing them the actual patterns.
Try getting some instructional videos from top riders and possibly some coaching or training for you and/or your horse.
Also, most of the "big timers" give 2-day clinics that you can take your horse to and particapate win together. They are actually fun and VERY informative.
Good luck with your future, I will warn you, it's a terminally addictive sport and you won't want to stop. ;D
if your riding her at polo
she can be started on pole and barrels!
Well usually you don't actually start riding a horse till they are two, you could start doing basic stuff i suppose to get them ready at that age, but actually start training, i think, would be better to wait till they are older, like 3 or 4. If your horse is 4, that is definitely ok to start. =]
my horse was started at around 3 1/2 and she just turned 4 in june and our fastest time on barrels is 18.494. she's a quarter horse. one of our poles times is 29.?. my horse is good at poles but i'm not so i take it easy. at all the other events with gaming we usually place 5-7 out of around 29 people. so i'm sure your horse can easily start poles and barrels now if my horse already can.
you should start teaching the basics right now...try natural horsemanship (parelli) to get her used to moving around barrels!
He is a good age to start.
you should of started the horse off when it was 2-3 but better late then never. it will be harder now because you are working with a older horse.
I start my horses at 2 or 3. But I go easy on them. Circles..Do lots of circles with them..small ones, larger ones, and do watch videos on barrel racing. If you train slow and go easy they should stay pretty level headed. I don't like horses that get all goofy when you walk into an arena or even before you get into the arena and face barrels. I make mine stand and watch the barrels. And we do other excerises around and go by them. I always change the pattern of the barrels also. sometimes I go around one, sometimes two, and have even lined them up loped around the first one then away, then comeback to the second one and lope away etc.. During training, before and after. We do nothing but stand for a few minutes her and my eyes on the barrels. I want her attention on me not the barrels. If she gets too ansy we go work on something else and comeback and stand. I've seen a few wrecks in my time with horses hitting a gate or missing the opening and hitting the corner of the gate opening. There is a great Western Horseman book on barrel racing. It tells you everything you need to know pretty much. You can find it at your local tack shop or ebay.
It really depends on the horse and their build. I have one paint mare that I was racing and winning with at 4 years old. She was solid as a rock and a good sound horse. But I have another paint mare that has just turned four and I'm only just now starting to work on her bending. he bones and muscles and general body confirmation just weren't through developing yet. But if they are well developed, I'll start working with them at 3. Simply doing figure 8's at the walk trot and lope asking for good bends, teaching them to rate when I sit deep, etc. there is alot alot alot of work to go into a horse before they ever see a pattern, so there is alwasy something you can be teaching them at any age to prepare them.
I'd say you are fine to 'start' her. Just go slow and keep an eye on her and you should be fine. I wouldn't recommend pushing her for awhile though, just use this year to get her patterns down. Any type of hard-turning, hard-stopping, fast lead change work should have A LOT of prerequisite training that isn't accomplished overnight. So I would say, 'starting' now, is fine. :)
If she knows her basics of walk, jog, lope, lead changes, right, left, back, and she has no injuries then she wouldn't have a problem. But also another thing to consider is if she will like it too. But you got a very nice mix to excel in the sport.
Depends of the horse's legs. I could not ride one of my horses until 3 years old because xrays showed bones were not closed yet.

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