Halter horse doing barrels?

Today I rode my friends 4 year old 16+ hh halter-bred palomino. She is so lazy but I decided to take her on the barrel pattern and she did amazing!!

She even did better than my barrel horse... Now that is just sad. :P
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I actually this bought a full bred halter horse for barrel racing. She can turn on a dime and she has the speed. So I believe it's possible.

Haha! I actually have a video and a few pictures that I will post in a little bit :)
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Oh yeah, and she is actually 6 yrs old... typo :P
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Here she is doing plug

That horse doesn't look comfortable at all. She's swishing her tail a majority of the time, since she doesn't run barrels regularly that probably means she's hurting somewhere. She also changes leads really awkwardly twice, like she's uncomfortable in her strides.. If your friend rides her a good bit I would suggest having her vet checked and probably a chiro out too. It could be anything pain related, from ill fitting tack to rider error causing soreness.

Usually with the halter bred horses, they are bred to be bigger horses and have tiny feet. Those little feet can't hold up to a lot of stress when carrying that big body and do serious damage to their legs if overly stressed..like running barrels.

Please, no bad criticism. I know a lot of horses that swish their tails. She has been checked by a vet before and it just so happens that her owners husband is a farrier so they take very good care of their horses.
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She's very pretty, although I have to agree that she looks stiff and uncomfortable. Have you tried western pleasure with her? I'm no expert on wp, but judging by the way she moved in that video, I think she'd be good at that- she'd turn some heads in the ring, too!

Thank you! I don't think she has ever done wp. She was shown in halter as a 2 and 3 yr old but she has not been ridden much since, so she is a little bucky in the video. I agree, she definetly would do very well in the wp ring! :)
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She does look very uncomfortable, but, considering the fact that she's not a trained barrel horse and has not been ridden very much, I'm pretty sure that she is sore and confused. I would get a couple good conformation pictures and see what other people think, and, if all is good, start doing slow work with her. Just remember to pay close attention to any soreness she may develope. she's pretty!!
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