Lesson 2: Caring for the Perfect Barrel Horse

Preventive Care I

When riding a horse in an exerting sport like barrel racing, warming him up and cooling him down are necessary to prevent injury and illness. But first, let’s talk about toning and training.

In order to get the most speed and endurance out of your horse (not to mention taking a major step towards preventing injury), he needs to be in great shape. Ride him as much as you can, and, of course, do more than just walk along. A horse’s natural gait is the trot, so do a lot of that and walk him for short periods, maybe a couple of minutes. Galloping is essential too, considering what you’re preparing him for—and I would definitely recommend spurts of running him as fast as he can go. It helps him to test his own speed—to stretch his abilities and also to remind him how fun it is. Most horses absolutely love to run, and it’s important he retains this love as you continue to run barrels with him over the years.

But, one word about loping and running. Whatever you do, please don’t run him for too long. Horses, while powerful and athletic animals, can still do too much running and receive damage from that permanently. Once this happens, that horse will never be a great athlete again because he won’t be able to get his wind.

This is the basic fitness routine I recommend: · Walk for about ¼ mile · Trot for about 1 mile · Walk for another ¼ mile · Gallop for about ¾ mile · Walk for ¼ mile

If you’re unsure about the mileage, judge by your horse’s body language. How hard is he breathing? How much is he sweating? Does he seem tired? If so, shorten your galloping distance and spend more time working him up to that point. What we’re looking for isn’t to make him tired, but to tone his muscles and his body. The better shape your horse gets into, the more time you can spend exercising him and building his endurance. Don’t rush him—especially if you have a young horse under three or four years old. They’re especially fragile (for a horse), both mentally and physically, and you definitely don’t want to sour them on riding.

Now, on to warming up. You can think of this much in the same way you would for a human being—when we are planning on doing something strenuous, we may stretch or start to do warm up exercises. It’s similar for a horse. Walking and trotting are perfect warm-ups, especially a nice slow trot. Focus on warming up his muscles, loosening him up (especially when the weather is cold) and awakening him. Warming up a horse helps to avoid injury (again, just like people!) and is also a great way to tap into the bond you have with your horse before a competition or exercise, thus making that experience easier and more rewarding for you both.

Once you’ve finished your exercises or competition, it’s just as important—if not more so—to cool your horse down. If you put a horse away sweaty and hot, it increases the likelihood that he may get sick or his muscles may tie up. And the best part is, it’s easy. All you need to do to cool him down is to walk him. Just walk for a while, and you’ll begin to notice that when you touch his neck, it’s less hot than it was, and he’ll stop sweating, too. It’s an easy method that really helps your horse, especially if you’re feeding him right after you’re done riding.

Plus, most horses will go right for water after you’ve ridden them—this is when the cool down really helps. Again, I’m making the correlation between horses and people when I compare how we need to cool down before we drink very much water when we’re working out. It’s the same principle for your horse.

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