Barrel racing is fast and furious with speed, agility, twists and sharp turns as you move through the cloverleaf. Due to the nature of barrel racing, the horse faces many challenges. Five key areas in which a horse can be strengthened and prepared for barrel racing to help give a successful race are:
Stamina. The horse must be fit to sprint away from the start line, and sprint to complete the arc from barrel to barrel
Balance. Essential for when they edge around the barrel to achieve the perfect arc beat the clock
Flexible. The horse must be able to bend in both directions fluidly and quickly
Strenght. The horse must have the muscle to take the weight shift through the body when going from speed to almost an instant stop
Mental. The horse must be physically and mentally prepared.
So how do we achieve these 5-key elements, and where do we start?
The beginning is the best place, the first key we will look towards is fitness. Getting a horse fit for barrel racing is a lengthy process due to the amount of oxygen and stamina they will need to help increase the natural speed of the horse. Brook Harris from Texas A&M University, looked at the physiological responses to barrel racing. He commented on the lack of similarity that a horse had in its pre-race training to the workload when competing, this made a difference to the horse not only in performance but post-performance recovery and exposed the lack of injury prevention.
Working towards Long slow distance work (LSD) will help build the horse and increase its overall health and level of fitness. Working on not only the respiratory system and cardiovascular system but will help condition muscle, tendons and ligaments, bone and even aid with thermoregulation.
To start LSD work, you must first look to increase the distance of your hacking routes for example if you hack for one mile you need to increase to two miles over a week and make sure your horse gets plenty of rest in-between, remember days off are essential. After three weeks you will need to monitor how much walking time you do, trot, canter and gallop and again start by increasing in increments around 10% of the time you already spend in each gait. So, for example, if you hacked for one hour and did 45 minutes' walk, 10 minutes trot, 4 minutes canter and one minute gallop, you would be looking to increase this each week until desired fitness level for competition.
Balance is essential to the barrel racer. To help with the balance of the horse implement schooling and pole work in walk trot and canter. Pole work can include caveletti work as this will also assist in strengthening the crucial hamstrings.
Studies have shown that in lameness of the barrel horse that had raced, 26% was to the left hind lameness and 21% of right hind. The fundamentals of schooling are like dressage, to create rhythm, relaxation, connection, impulsion, straightness and collection. All of which help engage the powerhouse of the hind end and the horse's core muscles, which will in turn aid all over body muscle build and development, which will help the horse's strength and balance for those sharp turns and push through onto the straight. It will also help keep the horse fresh by varying its training workload.
Flex, bend and stretch! Keep these in mind to help create the perfect arc. The horse exerts so much power throughout its body that assisting the horse to not only stay supple through schooling but adding in a stretching routine can significantly help flexibility and reduce the chance of injury. Speaking to a massage therapist or physical therapist, who can work with you to a create a stretching routine that can help increase the length of stride and range of movement, reduce muscular soreness, tension and stiffness, improve coordination and level of flexibility as well as help with circulation. Using an active stretch that is performed by the horse requiring the horse to activate its muscles and sustain a hold for a set length of time, and passive stretches that are performed by the handler (for example a leg stretch) can be easily placed into a warm-up and cool down for the horse.
Practise the Stop! Riders such as Molly Powell believe in a 'Trickle-down stop' that can help prepare the horse for the turn at the barrel. Having access to gallop flats may be able to increase your chances of helping achieve this. Opening the horse up to find its feet and for you to become accustomed to the 'feel' of the pace of the horse can help you understand and plan how to ride the clover. An excellent way to achieve this is through interval training. Allowing the horse to work at short periods of intensity, for example, to come up a gait to gallop, and work to enable the horse to come down a gait to the canter, and the trot and back up. Your horse will also become fitter as the length of time within a set gait increases. Getting in touch with an instructor and working on specific interval exercises will not only help strengthen muscle but add condition to the cardiovascular and respiratory system. It will also allow the horse to become familiar and sensitive to your ridden and voice commands and when introducing a heart rate monitor or taking your horses pulse, can show the level of current fitness and can be a crucial predictor for performance.
Get mentally prepared. Not only does the rider need to focus on the task but the horse too. Making sure the horse is prepared for the work ahead and focused is sometimes not as easy as it may seem. A large cheering crowd can cause the horse stress, or the horse can experience performance anxiety. Allowing your horse to become accustomed to its surroundings and relax before the task ahead can help lower the heart rate and relax the muscles which will aid better circulation to the muscles which can help aid quick action muscle responses. This time can be built up within your warm-up, which can help reduce the risk of injury to the horse in the competition. Sometimes it can be far too easy to get lost in a competitive situation reassuring one's self and can lead you to forget your counterpart remember to take a deep breath and make sure that you praise and reassure the horse.
Most of all, remember this is a fun time for you and your horse and a happy horse can aid the horse to be relaxed and focused on the rider and commands.
