Why I don't like barrel racers

LOL... can't do that... didn't you see that video that shows Parelli is cruel?

Hey, we are all cruel. I tap my horses with whip, for example!

Kayty,i go with your idea.except for one thing,i don't care for pareli.

I'm with the majority here. There is good and bad in EVERY discipline. Have I seen nutter contesters with riders that had no business doing anything at speed? Absolutely but I have also seen (and owned) speed horses that had extremely quiet manners and very level headed.

My old reining mare did double duty and was my go to speed horse as a teen. I could walk her in quietly, she'd stand on the line head down and calm, run a 16 or less pattern and walk as calmly out of the arena as she went in. I could go get her out of the pasture now, blow her out all the way and hand her over to my 6 year old to cool down and she'd not take a step faster than a walk.

There is overhorsed and under trained in every aspect of the horse world. Can't fault the discipline for the poor decisions of some involved in it.

Every discipline has the good hard-working riders who love their horses and work as a team, but also every discipline has the bad riders, selfish, using their horse as a piece of equipment.

You know, when my friend and I were in 4-H...many, many moons ago. We did barrel racing and keyhole...we never did anything to our horses that would have ever hurt them. We loved our babies. BUT...those foaming, flailing, riled up horses that are charging in to the arena? Yep...Vodka was one of those. Was it ANYTHING we did? NOPE! In fact, my friend had to have Vodka stand facing away from the arean because when she saw barrels she got so worked up and ready to go that you had a hard time controling her! She LOVED it. I only ever rode her one time doing barrels. I turned her and off she went! I just held on for the ride...lol She flew! I swear she was smiling the whole time.

In training,there is a thin line between correcting one and abusing one.and if you've been training long,you'll know where that line is.

Is it bad I was almost laughing my butt off watching that? Someone needs (or a few someones!!) to go back and get basic riding lessons. There was hardly anyone who could keep their butts in the saddle.

That aside, I'm on the boat with this being too close to a bashing thread. Don't start something out like "OH I HATE..." because well, you have to know no one is going to go along with that. Now if you started out asking how we can help get people to get lessons BEFORE they try to race; that's different.

I have a friend who wanted to just get on and go barrel racing. I set her ass straight and told her to get some lessons first. I even had her get on my mare and watched and corrected her. She asked if she could run Indie on some barrels (which Indie is amazing at for having no formal training), and I about laughed her right back off the horse and sent her back into trying to sit a trot

Add in KV that a good portion of the horse falling around barrels were in the same arenas (couple of different events there) tells me that that is really, really crappy footing that does nothing to help the horse get around the barrel but can cause some spectacular crashes.... One or two I can see, but when you have MULTIPLE horses falling at the same barrel it tends to indicate a problem there as well...

I had a negitive impression of barrel racers because I have seen some really bad ones. But when I think to the ones i've actually known, they were great. The first one had hers very well trained, used to w/t/c the trails bareback with us, then would go do barrels on the weekend.

I just had a barrel racer come try a horse and she had a great seat, used her legs properly and had nice soft hands. Her and her family were wonderful, one of the few buyers that have come out and really know horses, don't expect perfection, and realize that a horse is a living thing with a personality all its own.