Tina's Tips

Tina's Loving Care "TLC" Barrel and Pole Horse Training

Training, Clinics, Private and Group Lessons

Tina's Tips

Do you have a training question? Go to my Contact Tina page and send it to me. "Tina's Tips", is a monthly TIP page, email me your question, and I will answer and post it here for ONE month, until I post new TIPS! You may view more of my tips at: www.floridabarrelhorses.com "Ask Tina"

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Dear Tina,

My horse has recently started not going in the alley and when I do get her in, she runs by first barrel and stalls. Can you watch my most recent video and look at a couple of photos and let me know what you see? Debbie in Georgia

Dear Debbie, after looking at your video and photos, it appears you are over handling your horse. Please go back to practice pen and try a simple exercise for me for two weeks and then get back to me. I would like you to work on you. Take your mare out of the tie down and just ride in the short shank 3 piece gag bit you have been using. I want you to spend 20 minutes just relaxed walking and trotting in the pasture, then come to arena and lope big and small circles around one barrel about 3 to 4 times each way, 1 of each size. Goal being you do less she does more. Stay out of her way with your hands and just use your eyes, and light cues from body, voice, leg and rein to guide her from the big extended stride to the small collected stride. Then go to the barrels, trot to walk around 2 times, lope to trot around 2 times, high lope to slow lope around 2 times, slow down where the tracks cross. Have a clear cue to GO, a clear cue to RATE, and ask for the TURN on the backside only with a light cue as well, like slightly bend your elbow lift your inside hand towards your belly button or saddle horn. Please get back to me and let me know if you aren't the cause of your mare, disliking her job. I feel you are over-riding her, and now she dreads competition. If you were closer I could ride her to say for sure, but start there. Of course as with all my training ideas, please be sure she is sound before you start schooling on her. Have a great sports medicine vet or holistic vet you trust evaluate her and make sure pain is not causing her problems. Pain can come from bad saddle fit, poor shoeing or balanced hooves, bad teeth, poor riding, soreness from playing or working too hard.

Update from Debbie in Georgia:

Dear Tina,
You nailed it on the head! I did exactly as you said and entered my mare this weekend, she went in calmly, turned all her barrels relaxed and snappy, and it was a great run. Thank you so much! I was driving her too deep into the turns and pulling her around the barrels. Thank you for your help! Your techniques really worked for us and made me realize it wasn't her but it was me causing the problems.

Tina Spangler
www.tlcbarrelhorsetraining.com
go to www.floridabarrelhorses.com, "Ask Tina" for more articles

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I will work for you, written by the horse to the human

I will work for you, written by the horse to the human.

I will work for you, just treat me right. I was bred and born to run, but not to be abused. God put me in your hands for safekeeping. We can be winners together. I will do my part, I only ask that you do yours. Communicate with me. I know sometimes you think I should understand what you want, but I don't. Please try to talk with me in a way that I can comprehend.

Not by using whips and spurs or bits that look and feel like devices of mid-evil tortue. The flesh in my mouth is soft, like yours. My sides and back are sensitive, so much so that I can feel a small fly when it lands on my skin. Show me the way through kindness and sensitivity...and I will work for you! Dance with me, I am a creature of habit, not a conclusive thinker.

Be consistent when you are showing me what to do. You confuse me when you send mixed messages. Learn to sit on my back with your weight centered, so that I am not thrown off balance, I can't be worked that way. Instead of jerking on my mouth, sit deep in the saddle so that I may take my cues from your seat and legs. Then, when you turn your body, I will turn with you. If you send your energy forward, I will run. Bring it back and I will slow. The two of us in perfect harmony.

Make me your partner, and I will work for you. Don't treat me like a machine. I am a living thing made up of bone, flesh and blood. My needs are very much like your own. But, I must rely on you for my survival. If you are cold, I am cold. If you are thirsty, I probably am as well. When you put on a jacket, blanket or barn me from the cold wind's chill. If the day is hot offer me a cool drink. My mind and body must be condidtioned so that I can perform at my best.

Don't ask me to run the same pattern over and over. I get sore and tired, and I can't think anymore. After a hard workout, I need time for my muscles to cool. I know you want to visit with your friends, but I need attention. Loosen my cinch and walk with me, in lieu of leaving me tied to the trailer with my sides heaving. Fresh water, hay and grain are all I require, but don't make me guess what time dinner is coming.

To perform my best, I need to rest where it is safe, warm and dry. I like to lay down, so please don't put me to bed in a wet, muck stall. When I am sick or hurt, don't make me perform. Give me the time I need to heal.

Take care of me as you would your child...and I will work for YOU!

The poem above was written by a barrel racer that has past away, it's so perfectly said, I had to print it here, it's how I feel horses must think of us.

YOU MAY VIEW MORE OF MY TIPS AT: www.floridabarrelhorses.com, "Ask Tina"