New WORLD RECORD!

It is especially great to see a good rider like Courtney in Brazille, since they are very much still learning to ride barrels correct over there. (And not just kick and whip to go fast.) Courtney talks about it a lot in her column in Barrel Horse News, and she is a big part in the shift to correct riding in the barrel racing industry in Brazille.

*No horse who is NEVER pushed lol Darn typo!

Haha, I didn't even notice your typo, because I read it correctly in my head.

Completely agree!

Me and my friends have been running low 16's and 15's at all our barrel runs we go to. Includeing local shows NBHA and UBRA runs around the US!!!!!

Are those low 16's and 15's on the "standard" WPRA pattern?




You can't really compare barrel racing times at all, unless they are run on the exact same standard pattern above.

Every arena's pattern will be a different size, with different winning times.

WS, I remember you starting a thread with something along the lines of why you hate barrel racing a while back. I don't see why you feel the need to potentially bring up a repeat. Or was that not you?

Yes, I push Selena hard into the turn with a lot of leg and I will smack her on the butt with my over and under. It doesn't hurt when I hit myself with it, why would it hurt her? What is bad about it? She requires to be pushed. She's a push style horse.

My gelding Ruger though does not require pushing. I can sit quiet as can be, and if you push he gets frustrated. Selena fires like a rocket when you kick and will shut down if you don't.

It's easy to say you don't have to kick and whip and spur when you have a free running horse (I recall on the other thread saying your horse could "fly into a gallop".) That's great for you. I'm guessing you were on an Arab, which, after running an arab before I can tell you it would not be uncommon for them to be free runners, and too sensitive to be pushed. If I rode Selena like I did that arab, I'd probably not make it back across the timers before my first born child was out of college.

It's also easy to say you don't have to push when you aren't running at that caliber. You don't understand how truly fast you are going until you ride a high caliber barrel horse. When people are learning to ride, everything feels faster than it is. I remember. When there's a couple hundred or thousand dollars on the line, I bet you'd whip and kick too. If you wanna lope at a local gymkhana, yeah, sure, you probably don't have to push hard to win something. That isn't true at the caliber of races some of us go to.

Just a couple things to think about.

For a finished barrel horse, very rarely will you see anyone do a circle before their run, or actually ask for a lead before they start.

When a horse is finished on barrels, they know their job, and they know what to do.

Lol I know that :) we don't or let our daughter. We go to a lot if shows and there is a trainer that makes her students do that.. Also we went to friends house to practice and she was there told my daughter to lope circles to go faster, my daughter flat out told her she wasn't and her pony can pick up speed and knows her leads :) lol never had her try to do it anymore
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If a trainer wants her students to lope a circle before starting, that's a different story than a finished barrel horse with an experienced rider. The riders taking the lessons may still learning to barrel race and/or one of the horses they are riding may also be in training.

I've never seen your daughter run and I was not there on this practice night you speak of, so I can't possibly guess why the trainer would suggest your daughter lopes a circle before starting the pattern. But maybe she saw something in your daughter's barrel run where circling before starting would indeed help in some way. I wasn't there, so who knows.

She was not there for my daughter. There was a bunch of people just practicing.Also the kids she has trained all have finished barrel horses and have ridden for a very long time. She says YOU must do circles before your run because it makes you go faster.. Which I know for a fact you do not have to. A good friend runs 1d she walks in calmly n when she is ready she will go. She is not a trainer ( friend) but she has helped w my daughter.. Also my daughters is a very seasond barrel pony :) when I told my friend what she had my daughter do she was dumb founded.. Bc they have seen my daughter race and couldn't believe she could walk in calm and when she was ready her pony would go ..
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