Try These Strategies to Give Your Barrel Horse a Leg Up

As you’re legging your barrel horse up for the competition season, are you strategizing on how you can give him a competitive edge? In between keeping your barrel horse healthy and adjusting your conditioning program to bring out his best, put these tips to work to give him an edge in your next barrel race.

Work on Suppling at Low Speed

Tension or imbalance in your horse can cost you seconds and knock you down multiple places in the race rankings. Take some time and work on suppling exercises at low speed. One benefit of focusing on suppling is that you can use it as a low-impact exercise multiple times a week. There are also countless drills you can use to focus on suppling and body control, making it easy to change things up so neither you nor your horse gets bored.

Practice Only Parts of the Pattern

It’s easy to get caught up in drilling the pattern until it’s perfect, but too much work on the entire pattern can make your horse sour, boredmor lazy. Instead, focus on a single part of the pattern that’s giving you trouble. Once you’ve put in some quality work, focus on something else entirely, like trail riding, to help keep your horse (and yourself) from burning out.

Focus on Your Body Alignment

Your riding plays a role in your horse’s performance, too, so take a look at your body alignment and see where you can improve it. Focus on riding with a straight line from your hip to your heel to give you a more secure position, and have a friend or your trainer watch you ride a straight line from behind to make sure that you’re centered in the saddle.

Once you have that down, work on developing your seat and balance some more by sitting the trot, riding while standing in your stirrups and twisting your body from one side to the other as you ride. The better your seat and balance are, the more you can help your horse through each run.

Work With a Different Trainer

Working with a different trainer, even for just a few sessions, can give you some valuable insight into your horse’s performance and areas where you can improve. A new trainer will approach you and your horse with a fresh set of eyes, and often different trainers have different ways of explaining techniques. If you’ve been struggling with one particular issue for a while, a few sessions with a new trainer might change your perspective and help to solve that problem.

Feed Un-Lock to Support Your Horse’s Performance

Un-Lock Advanced Muscle Formula can also support your horse’s performance during a barrel race. Un-Lock is a carefully formulated blend of nutrients proven to prevent cramping, help your horse maintain top speeds longer and improve muscle recovery. This amounts to increased endurance and performance.

Because Un-Lock is 100% free of banned substances, it will not test and you can purchase it confidently. We also offer a 90-day money back guarantee, and we’ll refund 100% of your purchase price if you aren’t satisfied.

See the difference that Un-Lock can make in your barrel horse’s next race; order today.