Ratey mare slowing down before timer...

I have a phenomenal mare that I'm using for this show season. We are doing really good but she is super ratey and I always have to push, push, push her past barrels and kegs or we'll hit them. That's not the issue...

The issue is on the run home, she starts slowing well before the timer. Causing us to have a slower time. I carry a crop with me, it's one that makes a lot of noise as opposed to hurting.

The past 3 shows, we've ran 20.4/20.5/20.6 barrel times. Last night, she ran a 21.6 and the pattern felt really good. When I was rounding the 3rd barrel, I looked up at seen 14 seconds on the time clock. And it does NOT take 7 seconds to run home! More like 4.5-5 seconds. I should have had a 19 at least but she just shuts down on me.

Does anyone have any tips for me? Maybe try an over/under to get after her on both sides as opposed to just the right side? (side I carry the popper crop on)

She's been running for 10 years, knows the patterns and she loves to run. She's completely sound, sane and healthy. Nothing is hurting her.

Can you practice at home?

What I would do at home is turn the third barrel, run to the fence then turn and keep running along the rail for half a lap or so since she's anticipating the stop.

Over and unders are fun though too (So long as you don't hit yourself like I do ) Selena gets one because she's super ratey and needs that extra. I do a lot of that running to the fence and turning to stop her anticipation for reining too with the run downs and stops to keep her from getting bracey.

Have any videos? Make sure your body language is still pushing her forward. Really it's just trial and error to find what works for you and the horse.
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I can practice at home, but she doesn't do it at home. Plus, I don't like to run my horses at home, and I rarely work on the patterns once my horse's are well conditioned on them. At home, I try to trail ride as much as possible to keep them from getting hyped up.

I don't have videos of the runs from last night but I have some from previous shows. I know that my body position is good and still pushing her forward, and I'm still cropping her to keep her going, she just shuts down.

The problem with the over/under is that in my barrel pattern, I crop her coming out of the turns to push her forward and I won't be able to do that with the over/under as good as I can with the crop. I only need the over/under for heading home. LoL. The rest of the time I need the crop. Figures...

My answer...They need to move the timer closer to the patterns.

Welp I don't really know what to tell you.....

Well sometimes you have to run your horses at home to see what you can work on. Just do it only once a week though, so then you don't have to worry about your horses about getting hot.

Also, there is usually a set distance between the timer and the barrels. Which brings up the question of what size is the pattern. Your horse may be running out of breath too quickly because ti's so big. If there is a lot of distance between the gate and the timer, how about you walk your horse in a little bit, like right before the timer then run. Also, I reccomend not to kick when going home because it makes them puff out their air. Instead, I usually lean over and slap my horse a little on the neck to keep her going.

Sounds to me like your horse is running out of air.......what are you doing to condition your horses to get them fit for racing? How do you ride during the week, what do you do?

I've been riding about 5 times a week. The first 2 weeks was W/T/C, rollbacks, spins, sidepassing etc because she hadn't been ridden consistently. And I wanted to ease her into the racing season again.

We trail ride frequently, a few miles each time. And on those rides we do lots of steady trotting and when I come to a nice field, I'll let her canter.

When we come out of the arena, she's breathing heavier then when she went in, but she's not huffing and puffing like an out of shape horse would be. That's my mom's gelding, lol. And after walking about 50 yards back towards the trailer, her breathing is normal again.

Maybe I should start exercising her heavier...?

I would start Long Trotting her....and I would make a run on her once a week or so if your not going to races a lot. The long trotting builds up stamina and gives them some air. But when we are not busy and have a slow period I will make a run to keep there lungs good and keep air in them.

There is a difference between fit and running fit.....you can have the fittest horse but if you run it for the first time I can guarantee you the horses that have ran a few times will last longer just because they have that extra air. So you need to condition the lungs to working harder then just the average pace...your horse could go all day long at those paces because the lungs are conditioned to it, but won't last if they are not conditioned to more exertion such as running hard.

Make sense?

I wonder if the magical tool called breezing would help?

Even on your trail rides when you get to a good spot where you would canter, work up to the canter, into a nice hand-gallop and back down. I think that would help