Every horse enthusiast understands the connection between a horse and a rider far exceeds the time spent in the arena. Barrel Horse News caught up with professional barrel racers Lisa Lockhart, Tricia Aldridge and Michelle Alley about the connection with their horses. They share why having a bond with their horses and trusting them is important to excelling in the arena.
Lisa Lockhart:
Bonding with your horses is best done by spending a lot of time with them. When you spend countless hours together, you learn what keeps them happy, their likes and dislikes, and what keeps them healthy and working on the road and how they react and respond to things. There’s no substitute for paying attention to detail and spending time with them.
Sometimes it’s easy to get with a new horse and sometimes it’s not, and I do feel like a bond with a horse can help you with confidence and can make it so much more personal and rewarding in the long run. A lot of people do it a lot of different ways. I just love the bond with these animals and learning what it takes for each unique individual to become a champion!
Tricia Aldridge:
I am very fortunate because Adios is totally my buddy and I hope everybody gets to experience that in their lifetime. I’ve only had that bond with a couple horses in my life. I really think that people don’t give horses credit for how smart they are. I really do believe you can talk to them and tell them what’s coming. I always tell them, “Okay, you’re up in a couple horses, or you’re fixing to go.” Just tell them to relax, because they get excited and are learning how to handle their emotions, especially when you’re working with young horses.
I really think that the bond has enabled me to work through it together, even when I’m in scenarios that I’m pretty unsure about. There’s a lot of times I’m not sure the best place to take off, or at the rodeos where the ground isn’t really that great.
I think when you are seasoning out a horse for this kind of stuff, I think that that bond is so important so they can lean on you, and you can lean on them a little bit and I think that that’s why he’s (Adios) been so successful transitioning. People ask me all the time what my favorite quality about him is and I say he’s a team player. If I make a mistake, he’s going to step in and be there. If he makes a mistake, he’ll let me handle him. It’s so cool to be on one like that where we have such a good bond that he is 110% of the time a team player. It’s worth driving 20 hours because you know he’s going to be there for you.
Michelle Alley:
It’s a team effort. Obviously, the horse has to trust it’s jockey and the jockey has to trust the horse. From the day Stilleto was born, I have had my hands on her. I don’t just like her and her up and coming siblings now, I love them. She’s a carbon copy of her mom, and so the training process was really easy because I kind of knew what to expect and I basically just brought her along like I did Saucy (Seis Caress). I spend almost every day with her, and she trusts me and I trust her. There’s definitely a connection there, which I had with Saucy too. I’m their person and it makes a difference in the arena.
