Cant stop thinking about it!

LOL, no that's not my horse. I can't remember where I had seen that pic at, maybe here. Then someone sent it to me the other day, thought it would make a dandy avatar. But I can't help to laugh everytime I look at it!

Ideally, a barrel horse should know how to use all of its body too.

And they should know how to do that before you train them for barrels.

You need to be able to move every part of your horse's body because when you get into competing, you may need to make a split-second small adjustment in his position when going for the barrel (for example). Maybe his hip needs to go in. Maybe he's dropping a shoulder. Maybe he's going to anticipate the turn. You need to have control over all of the individual "horse parts" so you can make small corrects in body position when it counts.

I'm all about cross-training though. I think it keeps their mind fresh and keeps things interesting to not automatically make 3 turns in the arena and then go home, all the time.