Blown Up Barrel Horses

01/08/2024

12/23/2023

Facts

12/23/2023

We are invested in our students and their growth with their horses

12/18/2023

Wishing all our clients and students a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ☃️🎄🎅🏻🧣❄️

We had an excellent year and saw so many improvements in our students and their horses. Looking forward to next year! We are fully booked for the remainder of this year and will not be scheduling any more lessons until mid January (weather permitting) and will not be taking any more outside horses until March. We are always a phone call away in the meantime with any questions, concerns or issues. We are also planning some clinics here in central Oklahoma and have been invited out of state and are looking into possibly setting up some clinics in other areas next year so stay tuned!

Thank you all for entrusting us with your horses and kiddos. We truly love what we do and we’re completely devoted to our students.❤️🤗

11/22/2023

This young gelding is cruising a nice pattern with a 10 yr old kid. Ready to add speed. Videos on request. All info in pics. Some videos will be in comments . He’s push style but has a ton of speed.

10/26/2023

Sometimes training horses can take longer than we anticipate. As we grow and mature in our horsemanship, we learn some horses progress slower than others. And that’s ok!

10/22/2023

Winning comes from confidence.

Confidence comes from doing the work.

Belief in your program, belief in yourself comes with the daily grind.

If you are doing your best every day then it will translate to the leader board.

www.betweenthereins.us

📸: Bee Silva Photography

10/16/2023

Started on pattern a few months ago, has not been pushed. Loping a nice pattern with a 10 yr old girl. Push style. Not hot at all. Great disposition. Ready to go! Videos will be in comments.

07/24/2023

Who can relate

07/20/2023

We have one opening for an outside horse for training starting August 1st. No c**t starting. Performance horse tune up or problem solving/ correction.

07/13/2023

A couple of our students are preparing for the AQHA Youth World Championships where they will compete in barrels, poles and stakes. Although we don’t usually practice pattern work every day, we do need to a little more often in the day’s leading up to the competition. The riders need to really be in “time” with their horses at speed. One exercise we like to do that helps teach your speed horses to elevate their energy level then regulate their energy level is to do slow work AFTER speed work. In slow work we will exaggerate body control and the pattern itself. This is especially great for horses that tend to be really “hot”. On poles, slow work means being very relaxed and calm, walking the actual pattern after running it, circling every pole completely. This exercise also teaches your horse to keep its shoulder up and not fall into the pole. It also helps them learn to wait on the rider to ask them to cross over, rather than anticipate it and cross too soon and hit poles.

If you or your kiddo would like to set up lessons with us, we do have a couple more openings for the remainder of the summer and fall. We’d love to welcome you to our team 🤗

We also have one opening for horse training beginning Aug 1st.

07/05/2023

100% 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Do your research before you send a horse out for training.

You are just as much responsible as the trainer if your horse comes back in poor condition.

Find out what the feed program is. Go visit your horse or require regular photos and or videos—especially in this age with technology there are zero excuses for not receiving photos/videos.

Don’t choose your trainer from the win column. Just because someone is a great competitor does not always mean they are good trainers or horsemen. Go see their facility. Make sure it meets your standards.

Use trainers that have a similar style to you if you plan to ride behind them.

Communicate with the trainer.

Bottom line:
Do your homework and know where you are sending the horse.

www.betweenthereins.us

07/04/2023

🤣👊🏻👊🏻✌🏻

06/30/2023

Limited space remaining!

06/28/2023

Here’s a really good exercise to do with your barrel horse…. Ride circles one handed, use your leg to move the horse out, pick up the inside rein to move his shoulder out… then draw back in and tighten the circle by taking your inside, leg pressure off and easing up on the inside rein. Then push back out… etc.. At first don’t expect a ton of in and out. Subtle try is still a try! keep your hand light and floating. Helps with control in the turn and even helps with a bit of collection.
If you have questions about this drill, or would like to set up lessons, shoot us a message!


06/28/2023

Something to think on 🤔…
We see a lot of riders, adults and kids, that have “hot” horses and are constantly pulling up on the reins in an attempt to keep them under control and not run off… you’ll see these horses prancing and pushing right through the pressure of the bit. And the rider just holds them there with absolutely zero response except keep pushing through. In our training program we expect any bit pressure to actually mean something to the horse. Either slow down or stop or reverse. It’s creating a bad habit when you allow the horse to just push through the bit and keep speeding up. Eventually, you’re going to have a very hard time rating that horse. The horse certainly will not be soft in the mouth, and gaining collection will be nearly impossible.
We also believe a good barrel horse knows how to collect. This is a little more advanced riding and training, because you are actually putting pressure on the bit, but expecting forward motion by squeezing your legs, driving that horse’s hind end up underneath them and rounding out their back yet maintaining forward motion. At this stage, you are setting their head and body up to stop or slow down smoothly. They don’t actually stop until you release leg pressure. That’s a whole other lesson lol It just puts them in a more athletic position to do their job and protect their body from injury. 
It seems to be a natural instinct in the rider to just pull back when their horse is being hot and prancing around and won’t just walk or trot on a loose rein without speeding up. Yet allows the horse to completely ignore the pressure.
Here is a drill we like to do and we have taught Paisley. In this video she’s riding a young horse, Moose. This is a fairly new concept to him.
We like to do big circles and ask the horse to ride up into his bit a little while squeezing your legs. In the beginning, you only want a stride or two and then release . Eventually you can ask for more. Sometimes learning this will make a horse feel a little nervous because they’ll feel trapped and almost like they’re getting mixed signals. And what do horses do when they feel nervous or trapped? They tend to speed up. So instead of pulling up more on the reins, which would defeat the purpose of the exercise, try sitting deep into your saddle and GENTLY circling your horse in a tighter circle until they either stop or break down to a walk and relax their body. We refer to this as “coming back to you”.  You should be able to ride your horse at a walk or trot in the arena on a loose rein without constantly hanging on their mouth, and they should not speed up unless asked. You’re not going to accomplish this by constantly pulling back on their mouth. They will learn to ignore it and lose softness. Sit back in the saddle and Circle your horse the moment they speed up. It might take them three times, it might take 100 times but eventually they’ll get it and learn to rate off your seat. If you have questions about this drill or would like to set up lessons shoot us a message 😊

06/22/2023

* watch how between the first and second barrel Paisley uses her left spur to help Moose move over to the right while still holding him straight so he hits his correct pocket, INSTEAD of pulling his head over to the outside causing him to drop his shoulder then whip around the back of the barrel. Moose has a tendency to leave the second barrel too soon and not finish his turn. Although we work on drills to correct that, when she breezes him through, she can offer a little help with her outside spur, in this case, her right spur. Watch the backside of her turn, how she uses her outside spur to encourage him to finish his turn. She isn’t gouging him the whole way flapping her legs, she is not tensing up and squeezing them into his side. She is only making contact with the spur when it’s needed. She is doing it at the correct time and in the correct manner. This takes practice. Especially for kids.

**Sometimes we get asked about running barrels with spurs. Our answer is… it depends! A lot of riders don’t truly understand how to use spurs or when to use spurs. I always say, “They aren’t to make you look like a cowboy/cowgirl!” They’re a tool. NOT FOR SPEED! But rather for BODY CONTROL and sometimes CORRECTION. There are some kids that have no business wearing spurs at all much less during a barrel run. Simply because they are so unaware of what their feet are doing, and they are making contact with the spur at the wrong time for the wrong reason in the wrong way or maybe they’re not releasing them at the right time. Sometimes we advise people that know how to use their spurs correctly to maybe use them during slow work and take them off during a run. It is so easy to lose control of your feet when you’re making a run. Everything happens so fast. If spurs are used correctly, they are a tool that will help you with your riding/ training. But if they’re not used correctly, they can be a real detriment. They are not painful, but they apply a certain kind of pressure that is hard for a horse to ignore. It is really easy to ignore the heel of your boot. The best way to understand this is to double up your fist and press it into the side of your ribs. You can feel that pressure but it’s not uncomfortable so you can ignore it very easily. Now take your finger and press your finger into the side of your rib cage. That is uncomfortable. It doesn’t hurt but it’s uncomfortable enough that you want that pressure to go away so you don’t ignore it. That’s my 2 cents on spurs and barrel racing 😉 you don’t have to agree. But it works for us.

06/19/2023

We have a few openings for summer. All ages. No beginners, must be performance level.

06/12/2023

2 of our students placed in the final run at the Josey weeklong school. Both were not on their regular horses. Paisley rode one of her young geldings and this was his first competition run. Barit rode her backup horse. They rode correctly and had 2 nice runs! Very proud 🙌🤗

06/07/2023

"A good coach is someone that sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness."

Maestas Show Horses
bar H Photography

06/01/2023

A couple of our students won buckles again last night! Really proud of the progress they’ve made with their horses 🙌