The learning process when you first start barrel racing can seem overwhelming. Charmayne James explains how to navigate so you can improve your riding and become a better barrel racer.
When you get into anything new, especially horses and barrel racing, you have to go into it knowing that it’s a never ending process of learning information, even for experienced riders.
The Basics Keep Building
As you begin, some of the most basic things can seem difficult, and that’s completely normal. A lot of people I teach, in the beginning when they’re still learning to stay on their horse, can’t grasp the more complicated mechanics of riding until their mind frees them up as their balance gets better. For example, if a person is simply trying to keep their balance and not fall off a horse — whether they’re new to riding altogether or simply new to the speed of barrel racing — it can be hard for them to think about what their hands are doing, how they shouldn’t be working side to side and crossing too far over one direction.
There’s a lot to work through when you’re learning. You have to practice your balance, learn the feel for how a horse moves underneath you. Some people have to work through a certain amount of fear and simply just staying on the horse. As you learn, you’re going to move through these steps of the basic, foundational aspects of riding — you can’t learn them all at once. You may not be able to master one thing until you’ve got another down. The more you ride, the better you’ll get.
Spend a lot of time researching how to ride and how to guide, and the spend time in the saddle implementing those practices. It’s crucial to have a knowledgeable person for help, but there’s no amount of instruction that can take the place of riding your horse, learning how they respond to what you’re doing, learning about horses in general, and then going out there and competing. There’s nothing anybody can teach you that takes the place of you spending time in the saddle.
The Hidden Lessons
A lot of times there’s a lesson right in front of you as you learn something else. This other piece of learning to ride and taking care of your horse might be blinding you from a different piece that’s equally important.
For example, you may be learning how to correct something your horse is doing, and instead you actually learn he’s doing it because he’s in pain. Now you’ve learned more about how to correct a specific issue, and you’ve also learned how to recognize pain, how to treat the issue, and more about equine professionals like vets, shoers, chiropractors, dentists — the list could go on.
The way you get really good in this sport is having a passion for getting out there and doing it, loving it, and going above and beyond to learn and feel all those little details that really matter.
Sometimes It Gets Worse First
You’re always on a journey with horses. You may learn something new on a horse, like where to put your hands, a particular position around the barrel, whatever it may be. Then, as you’re learning and practicing, it gets worse. Now you have to decipher, is this really the right position for my horse? Is this working? Or do I have to just keep going until it gets better? There’s never a clearcut answer. That’s why those processes can be very frustrating for people.
It’s times when you think you’re doing the right thing but it’s not working that you learn. Sometimes it could be that you need more time to master it correctly, and another time it may be that’s not the correct mechanics for you or the horse. That’s the frustrating part, but it’s part of the learning process.
Sometimes those things come to you when you’re not even thinking about it. You’ll be riding and something clicks — yes, this is what feels right! You can’t always be looking for somebody to save you, because it’s time spent riding and building you own feel and awareness that can be the ‘aha! moment’ to figure it out. Just keep riding.
I remember when I started riding younger horses and going around the barrels on a young, green horse. I just started taking him around the barrels where I ran Scamper around the barrels. This horse wasn’t super broke yet, and I noticed he was getting worried and not wanting to do it. He didn’t do anything bad; I just knew he was nervous about it. That’s when I went through my own learning process. I realized how young horses don’t have the training nor the muscle and strength to be framed up in a small turn, and it worries them. I started doing bigger circles on that horse, and he chilled out. Once he learned to do smaller circles and got stronger and started chasing steers and getting roped on, those smaller circles where you run the pattern weren’t scary to him.
Learning from Failure
In every sport, there’s a certain amount of a failure involved. As hard as it may seem when you’re in the middle of it, just keep working to get better and find a way out. When you find your way out, you’ll have learned so much. It may not have been exactly the problem you were trying to fix, but your journey on that road to get there helps you learn so much more.
Controlling your emotions serves you well in everything you do. That’s something that bleeds over from sports. Even coaches will tell players that if they’re upset about something the coach has done or something’s happened out on the field, don’t talk about it when you’re mad. Wait until you cool off, then sit down and talk about it. That is just such a valid point that crosses over to riding. You can make much better decisions when you’re not emotional. Let it go away, and then go to work on it.
When something goes wrong, I’m not going to curl up in a ball and get mad. Be curious and a problem solver — why is this happening? What am I going to learn from it? Every single time, there’s something to be learned, whether it fixed the issue or not. A positive mindset when things go wrong has served me throughout my career. Just work, figure it out, be smart about it, make wise decisions, use common sense, and you will find yourself coming out of it.
This article was originally published in the September 2022 issue of Barrel Horse News.
