Can i?????

Can I turn my TWH into a barrel racing horse??
He loves to run and that's all he seems to love to do now, and he can turn on a dime.
Would it mess his legs up?

Why would it mess his legs up any more than a normal barrel racer? I say try it, if he likes it stay with it, and if he doesn't chalk it up to experience

It's not going to mess up his legs. I can't imagine it would do any good if he was gaiting around the barrels, but loping and running is fine.

I know a couple of girls that barrel race their gaited horses.

I barrel race my gaited horse

I want to so bad, he runs and lopes fine. And he also racks and walks so I think I may have a chance with him =) I hope so. Can anyone give me some advice?? Please?!

I know lots of people that run TWH. They do very well! What kind of advice are you looking for?

My advice on training the barrels is to wal and trot the pattern of the barrels, everyday. Engrave the pattern in his head so it is second nature. This is what the pro barrel horses are like. Several of the barrel horses I know are trained to the pattern. Notice that I only said to walk and trot the pattern. I mean, every once and awhile you can lope it to see where you're at with him, but save the loping and running of the barels for competition and for the real race. This may help eep him quieter and will cause less injury. Try to teach without aids like a whip, bat, or over unders. If he runs all out in the barrels, he won't need the encouragment of the tools and the tools can become a nuisence. I hope things go well! Barrel racing is a lot of fun!

I disagree with the above post.

It's three turns, it doesnt take long for them to know the pattern. You do not want to drill the pattern or else you're going to end up with a sour horse.
I only ride the pattern maybe once a week.

Reining training is great on barrel horses, so is dressage. You want a supple, responsive horse that knows how to sit on his butt when you ask for it. Trails are also great to get away from the arena and strengthen legs on uneven terrain.

Teaching the pattern is the easy part, it's the foundation that is hard.

There are tons of threads on here about how to train the pattern once you get to that point. Before you worry about the pattern though you want your horse to be totally moveable. IE you should be able to move the front and hind end independantly and have lateral movements down. You want to be able to collect and extend the gait with ease.

It's not just knowing the pattern or taking it slow, it's the basics to know before even starting on the pattern. Can your horse side pass, leg yield, do a flying lead change, do a roll back? If not, start working up them. Barrel horses need to know how to use their bodies to bend around a barrel and away from your leg, they need to know how to set up to turn a barrel. In addition to walking and trotting the pattern, stopping at the barrels is crucially. It teaches the horse to set up to turn. Bending around the barrels with as little rein pressure as possiable, going off mostly leg pressure. With a gaited horse, your putting yourself behind anyway, their not sprinters like Quarter Horses, you need three perfect turns to be competitive. Perfect turns come before anything else, I don't care if the horse just started I will make him perform a turn as perfect as I can. Speed only comes when their ready and when they have three good turns down. And if they start messing up when we do speed up, their not ready and we slow back down.

This is based on what I learned. The woman who told me this trains barrel horses and seels them. I take her advice because her daughter (who she herself taught) has won a lot with her barrel racing. Everyone has different training techiniques.