Barrel Basics for Beginners

Barrel Basics for Beginners is designed to help you either start a colt on the barrels, allow you to train an older horse on the barrels, or for you to learn how to ride a barrel horse if you have purchased a barrel horse but have never run barrels before. All of the drills will be used as the foundation for the Intermediate and Advanced courses so it is important that you know them. By the end of this course, you and your horse should be able to complete these drills easily and with smooth gaits to ensure that you are both mentally and physically ready to go to the next level, which will focus on getting your runs up to sped to enter. Side note- if your horse has already run barrels, it might struggle little more and become frustrated with these exercises if it has some bad habits so stick with it- it will get better! Once a horse has been allowed to turn a barrel incorrectly, it actually takes longer to fix it than create it in some cases -depending on how long that horse has performed the barrels incorrectly. Imagine if you had to relearn to walk after an accident and the frustration at not being allowed to do it like you once did- that is how your barrel horse will feel if it has been allowed to do things incorrectly at speed. On the bright side, horses are extremely forgiving and capable of relearning so be patient and you will have better runs shortly!!