Charmayne James goes over some common mistakes on the patter that she sees in youth or novice riders.
There’s a few common mistakes novice riders or young riders make when they go around the barrels. If you’re a mom, dad, loved one or friend helping someone learn to run barrels or improve their times, these are some things to keep an eye out for and little ways you can help them correct those mistakes.
Cutting Off the Arc in the First Barrel Approach
When you’re in the alleyway and going to approach the first barrel, those first three steps out of the alley are going to be pretty straight and centered with the third barrel. Then, if you’re headed to the right barrel first, you want to start pointing the horse’s nose over to the left of the first barrel about eight feet, eventually closing the arc in to about four feet to the left of the barrel when you get up there. You never want to run straight at it — younger kids or beginners typically want to cut that arc off going to the first barrel.
If you’re helping a novice rider, you may want to take some flour and sprinkle it on the ground to draw the line heading to the first. You don’t want to do that too much though; don’t let it become a crutch.
Turning Too Tight
A lot of people, especially kids, when they get to the barrel want to turn too tight around the barrel and look straight down at it. Instead, you should go into the turn about four feet to the side of the barrel and then three or four feet past the barrel before beginning the turn.
A lot of young or new riders anticipate the turn, which makes the horse anticipate the turn. Not riding past the barrel far enough is one of the most common mistakes.
Arm Straight Out in Front of You
Novice riders tend to ride with their hand straight out in front of them, elbow locked and have a lot of movement in their hand back and forth when going around a barrel. Especially at the second barrel, you’ll see them go around the turn and as they come around the backside, they’re already thinking about running to the third so they put their hand forward and straighten their elbow up. You don’t have much control from that hand position, so then the horse is running way too wide going to the third barrel.
That’s where the rider needs to learn how to ride two-handed between barrels, keep their elbow bent around the backside of the turn and not shove their hand forward too soon. When riding between barrels two-handed, work on keeping your hands still and squarely in front of you, on either side of the horse’s neck with your elbows bent and fingers closed around the reins. As you come around the backside, keep your elbow bent and don’t let your arm get straight out in front of you.
These are some little things you can work on going slowly at a walk, trot and eventually a lope to develop a solid foundation around the barrels.
Working on being correct in both rider positioning and the horse’s footwork in slow work will help it become more natural as the rider goes faster and gains confidence.
Watch Charmayne demonstrate these mistakes and how to fix them here.
This article was originally published in the July 2022 issue of Barrel Horse News.
