wanting to do barrels and poles..

Thats fair enough. I just find that at top speed, with a pocket I come out on a much tighter line, and it avoids any possible ballooning out. Without a pocket, if they don't quite rate enough I find (expecially on the turn around the second barrel!) they will ballon out and it totally ruins their line to the last and takes sometimes up to 2 seconds.

But i've never ridden watern or a western trained horse, so it may be different as a lot of other things are.

Also, I don't put in a huge pocket, probably only half a meter?

Same thing. I don't like pockets. I think you kinda have to figure it out with each horse you ride on the barrels....but ya my gelding will drop his shoulder if I do that...

Exactly, it depends on the horse.

My old horse I used to run barrels on was crazy, he didn't have any sense of self preservation. If you put him even the slightest bit too close to the barrel, he would just plow into it. It was kinda scary!

Maybe that's why, my guy has a pretty big rate on him and we worked with a barrel trainer for awhile

Also, I'm used to utilising pockets as I don't only run barrels or poles. I do many other games and a lot of them need pockets. I also think poles is a big one for pockets, as you can lose seconds off your time is you aren't lined up perfectly for the line home.

That could be a big difference. My old horse, the crazy, had no rate but if I put in a lttle pocket he didn't need it. He would just haul his ass around at top speed. Very scary, but made for some brilliant runs!

Plus, he was so big that he got around the barrel in about one stride. His truna were almost like rollbacks, I would put in a pocket and ride alsmot a stride past the barrel, and he would turn back on top of it and come out perfectly lined up.