From Drills to Starting to Run-Barrels for Intermediates

Barrel Drills to Running the Pattern is designed to get you from teaching your horse the basics of barrels, to actually being ready to do time onlies, or compete at your local playday, gymkhana, or Jr. Rodeo. We take many of the drills from the Beginning level (Basic Drills for Barrels) and either make the pattern smaller or take the maneuvers up to a lope. The focus is on making your horse soft and able to complete the pattern with minimal rider assistances so that you can just continue to add speed to the pattern for your competitions. Remember that if your horse hits a growth spurt (in light on being on a colt) or if your life causes you to not be able to ride three days a week, or there is an injury then your progress may stall out a bit. Always be willing to go back to then Basic drills in these cases to strengthen your horse again or let their body catch up to their mind. Also a hot temperament horse may decide that it will just want to run once we add a little speed, and then you need to decide if you can handle that energy level or if you need to return to basics again to get the mind of your horse to catch up to its body capabilities. Some of you might fly through this course in a matter of weeks and others take 6-8 months. Getting through the course in a set time is not a competition, it is about preparing you for future competitions in the arena, so get the foundation right and your actual competitions in the arena will reflect your preparations. It is always a delicate balance of mind and body for both you and your horse at this stage, and you do not want push the teeter totter either way; but, rather maintain a balance to achieve the goal of strength in partnership and build to have consistent runs that stop the clock.