The last few months we have talked about confidence, believing in yourself and having a positive attitude. What a difference that makes with you and your horse when the TRUST is there.
This month I have had a lot of first barrel questions, so I thought that would be a good subject to write on. How do you get a great first barrel? My first answer to this is having a lot of basics on your horse. Basics meaning where you can go out and do a basic reining pattern and not have a fight with your horse. It is easy to do anything with horses that have a great handle. Now when I say a reining pattern I don't mean the long sliding stops and fast roll backs. Your horse should stop easy with cues, not pulling, because when you run to the first barrel the horse is going to win the pulling contest. Then you want to do more of a turnaround with your horse rather than a rollback and only do a half of a turn, not a full one. Too much turn will get your horse cutting back into the turn and teach them to step in.
You also want a horse to run in straight lines and without stepping in and out, because if they do you will loose your rate to the first barrel. This prevents them from using the inside hind leg.
You want your horse to be able to sprint, that means take off fast and hard with no hanging when they take off. You also have to teach transitions. Leaning forward to go, sitting down to slow down.
Then you have to have a lot of confidence to use what you taught your horse. Remember, basics are the same, everyone has their own style. Use your style with the correct basics and things will work much better for you. At my clinics I teach basics, being there for your horse and using the right cues at the right time. I never try to get anyone to change their style.
So this month work on your stops, backs, turnarounds and gettting your horse to use the inside hind leg for correct drive and rate. And we all know a horse has to be broke in the poll to do that.
