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I’ll start off by making the statement that I know not all barrel racers are ignorant horse beating morons. But enough of them are that it gives the sport a bad name. I grew up riding in local gymkhanas, high school rodeo, Little Britches Rodeos and open speed events. My family had state barrel racing and pole bending champions. We know what it takes to raise, train and compete a good speed horse.
A good barrel horse has a nice, slightly uphill, working conformation. He’s got a deep chest, nicely tied in neck, good short back, good hocks and strong cannons. I know barrel horses don’t have to have perfect conformation and most wouldn’t even get a second look in a halter class (Thank God!), but good conformation helps with long term soundness. A trip over to dream horse just about had me gagging up my morning soda.
I like this horse. She’s fairly balanced, nice neck and head, solid hip. It’s not a great camera angle, but she’s still a good horse. I’d like a better gaskin and a little bet tighter neck, but overall she look athletic and sound.
On the other hand this next horse is not a barrel prospect. Naturally he has his balls, because all prospects need them, right.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse camera angle in my life, but even if this horse was photographed by Ansel Adams he’s still going to be a down hill, bad necked, straight shouldered, bench kneed piece of shit. The only thing I can envision this horse doing is pulling a plow, down a slope.
For those of you enamored of his “puuuurrrrtttttyyyy” dun color and big ass he can be yours for a mere $2,500. Dream Horse Barrel Prospect He’s a two year old, hasn’t done shit, but he’s supposedly the next great herd sire and barrel racing champ.
A good barrel horse is a calculating animal that thinks six strides ahead. He can be revved up and shut down with a light touch. He likes to run, but he has no problem being a good trail horse, or working other rodeo events.
What a barrel horse shouldn’t be is a crazed nutbag that flips into fences and runs out an arena gate and into a pick-up truck parked half a mile away. He shouldn’t be downhill like a ski slope, or be so bench kneed or cow hocked that he looks like some third grader made him out of play-doh.
Let’s examine the psyche of the average barrel horse. There are horses like Charmayne James’ Scamper, that compete for years, stay sound and make records other competitors can only aspire to. One thing I noticed in the years I watched them compete is that Scamper was never over bitted and she rarely got into his mouth. She also didn’t beat his ass around the first barrel. She gave him time to set up his pattern and get in the groove before she asked for more speed. If only other riders had as much consideration!
On the flip side, we have these little can-chasing wannabes, showing us everything you can do wrong. I have blacked the horses' faces to save them the embarassment of their pasture mates knowing what fuckwits they have for riders.
First rule of thumb for keeping a balanced seat: don’t tuck your chin. It’s something that show jumpers and cross country people learn very early on. And if you’ve got a really powerhouse of a horse it can prevent a nasty case of whiplash. Second rule: make the pocket going into the barrel, not coming out of it. Going wide coming out just means you lost a few seconds. Third rule: If you can’t keep your toes from pointing at the ground you aren’t likely to keep your balls from whacking the horn. If you don’t possess balls then you can get a smack in the belt buckle that will make you puke. Pointed toes mean your hip is open, your leg is loose and your ass is sliding back and forth in that saddle like a Jamaican bobsledder. It is not conducive to getting a good time. As this poor horse’s head shows those reins are doing more than guiding, they’re holding this dumbass in the saddle.
I thought it was supposed to be barrel racing, not barrel ramming. Poor horse. His inside shoulder has dropped so far his ass is swinging out like a school bus taking a sharp turn. The person in the saddle has loosed her inside leg and is high spurring on the outside. This horse is so out of sync I wouldn’t be surprised if a few strides later he slipped or fell over. Horses like this aren’t prospects; they are re-training projects. This horse needs to be rebalanced, get his head up to where his shoulder is free and he’s working off his ass, not so deep on his front.
When we think about barrel racing we usually think about the greats like Charmayne James, Martha Josey, Brittany Pharr, Molly Powell and Dena Kirkpatrick. These women have made barrel racing a respectable sport. Sadly they are the minority. Instead, we have boneheads like this bunch running around and pretending they are the next best thing:
RK3 Barrel Horses/
Let’s start with the stallions. It should be a national horse improvement priority to get the testicles off these stallions as soon as fricking possible.
Downhill doesn’t even describe it. Skiers routinely eye this horse in hopes of a quick training run. He's got it all; bench knees, bad shoulder, roman nose and weak gaskin. Yep, looks like a herd sire to me…not. For $600.00 you can prove that your mare is an improvement broodmare, because if she fixes this thing she’s worth her weight in gold.
Tragically he’s not the worst stallion they are standing.
Seriously people, is this horse not deformed? He can’t even blame it on a bad camera angle like the other horse. He’s downhill, bad low neck, no gaskin to speak of and totally screwed up forelegs. I can’t believe this thing can even canter, much less turn a barrel. I suspect that with that neck and down hill form he could be used to increase the number of palomino yaks out there in the world. Surely there is some Tibetan farmer sitting in his yurt wondering how he's going to add some height to his yak herd, little knowing this horse is a mere plane trip away.
Aside from his blatant conformational flaws he sure is a puuurrrttttyyyy color. So obviously he must keep those balls. {Where is my frickinig brick wall when I need it?}
If the two poor quality stallions aren’t enough let’s take a look at their training and riding skills:
There really are no words to describe this shit. I know that barrel racing is a quick sport and equitation is not an option. I know things get hurried and, depending on the footing, riding form can take some odd shapes in order to stay on and stay alive. But this shit has no excuse. And it really doesn’t need to be on a website that is advertising someone’s training and riding skills, or lack thereof. I would not send a horse to these people, either for breeding, or training, because in my opinion they exhibit a serious lack of skill and judgement. They make the rest of us speed freaks look bad. They promote the breeding of poorly conformed horses in a sport that requires solid, and sound, conformations.
Looks like the Barrel Horse World forum has gone all stupid and defensive, much like the Pleasure Horse Forum does, whenever one of its flying monkeys gets criticized. They are bitching about me, but no comment on the poor riding, because most of them are at that level. They belong to the hurley burley crowd that has to flog a horse through a pattern, because they don't have a clue how to ride and glide. Mrs. RK3 has even gotten wrong who owns this blogs, obviously unable to click on my profile. She also lied about sending an email to me and me supposedly replying. I've gotten no emails from her, and I certainly haven't responded back to a non-existant email. Looks like she's throwing a Walmart toy aisle tantrum because she got outed as a poor example. Too bad. She put out the ammo to do so. She's now put a poorly worded, and misspelled accusation on her webpage that is against another person. Besides being a complete idiot horse and parent-wise, she can't even figure out who owns this blog. Seriously, shouldn't you have to take a test to be a parent or horse owner? Something that would assure the government that you had an IQ above 50?
I just love it when the dregs of the horse world get all indignant when they get outed for being stupid. I rarely hear the true professionals complain about the blog. They mostly agree with it. It's always the lowest bottom dwellers that get all swelled up. Why? Because they can't read for content. They missed the part where I said that I knew all Barrel Racers weren't bad. They missed it because it wasn't drawn on that big lined paper with a crayon. However, I cannot condemn them too harshly, because they definitely prove my point: There are some real idiots in barrel racing.
Now back to youtube:
This crap just makes me ill. This is not cute! This kid is all over the place. She’s hard on the pony’s mouth. Her saddle needs a rear cinch and her parents should have their asses beat for not having a helmet on her. I commend the pony for not killing her.
This one is even worse!
You can tell this kid has her feet rubber-banded or tied in the stirrups. Thank goodness the horse didn’t roll completely over or crush her. She’s not wearing a helmet and she has no control going into the barrel. Her dumbass parents need their butts kicked into next week.
With ignorance like this out there it is no wonder that barrel racing gets a bad rap. Those of us that actually train without gimmick bits and know how to sit on a horse in a manner that doesn't interfere with it will continued to be slammed by people who see the above stupidity as representative of the sport.
