What are people looking for in a beginner barrel horse.?

What is it people look for in a horse to be a barrel horse?What are people looking for in a beginner barrel horse.?
I guess the question is what does a BEGINNER look for in a barrel horse or what does a person look for to evaluate athletic prowess in a horse.








What does a beginning barrel racer look for - a push button horse who knows the pattern and will run it regardless of the idiot flopping up top without getting too hard to handle.





What do you look for when evaluating barrel horses?





This is a tougher and more interesting question.





1. SPEED %26amp; athletic ability


I don't care how flexible your horse is, how well they turn, if they dog it between the cans you're not going to get a good time. A lot of people look for horses in the 70s - 80s SI (Speed Index) in horses off the track. I personally believe that the faster the better - an athletic horse can be trained to turn. Please note there are fast horses only and then there are the few horses that are fast and agile - a superior athlete is both. Obviously you're not going to find a race horse in the cutting pen - but you can tell who lets it all hang out to make the times and who still has their bodies under control. You want a horse who controls themselves - they're safer and you always have another inch to ask for.





2. Trainability


The horse has to be somewhat sane and you have to make a point to keep their minds engaged with plenty of non-barrel work. A burnt out barrel horse will refuse to run, purposefully knock barrels, or throw fits near the gate. The barrels needs to be a fun, purposeful thing for a true champion and this comes a great deal from having brains between your ears.








So what does all this mean, practically speaking? Mechanical perfection. I don't care what his head looks like - i don't care if he's purple or green. You want a horse with nice shoulders (look at the Kitaman bred horses) who has a hind quarter to match that front end. Typically speaking the 15-16 horses tend to do better as turning gets unweildy for larger horses who have to loop themselves around the barrel. You want short cannons, a full hip, gaskins are a great indicator of how much get-up-and-go you're going to get as it's a major addition to that hip.What are people looking for in a beginner barrel horse.?
i look for willingness and flexibility. also, i prefer finished reiners. its just my preference. reiners have a lot of training and can help in barrel racing..i'm better at finding a good horse than explaining it. lol.





pretty much, look for one whos willingn to learn %26amp; work. one who's quiet and respectful, or else you'll end up with and extremely hot horse who tries to run the barrels without you, which most times ends up with knocked over barrels. ha
I look at bloodlines. Anything with Three Bars in them is my choice. Three Bars is behind Dash For Cash and they tend to be very athletic.





Also, I look for a horse I could connect with, one with straight legs and I like big horses for racing [contrary to many others]


Also..something cheap:)
height/ age/ body structure%26lt;-- (not really important)


how fast it learns


if it has good turns/ bends/ build of speed (how good it works)


spirit (not something on crack- but not something lazy)


temperament


practice %26amp; practice


willingness


strong legs


how athletic it is


bloodlines/breed (not very important)


what its good at/ has been used for before


for a beginner not that much- but it should be able achieve %26amp; learn most of all that and more- depends on how far it will go in barrel racing!
depends...





for a beginner rider...an older horse that will be consistent








beginner horse, experienced rider..... speed, heart(willingness / wants to run AND TURN) the ability to turn, and calmness. a calm horse is much easier to run barrels with than an excited one, i have both.
Well first and foremost the horse has to have heart. If he doesnt want to run, you arent going to get very far!


A short back/body (length) is desirable.


Long, strong legs, correct pasterns.


here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_conf鈥?/a>


that will tell you everything you need to know. But just remember - you CANT have a perfect horse. So dont get to picky about it. Just basics.