Rodeo Barrel Racing Do's & Don'ts

"Hi, I'm Holly Heidemann and on behalf of Expert Village and I'm going to show you just a few quick do's and don'ts in regards to your hands and body position when you barrel race. Remember when you come in the alley getting ready for a run, stay back, back on your horse, pet him, hold the back of your saddle, something to keep him calm and under control. When it's time to run put your hand up there and go. Keep your body forward running to those barrels. Don't sit back until it's time to turn. When it is time to turn, stand back, push on the horn, use your inside hand, lift it slightly, get that horse's nose tipped the way that the barrel is going. Make sure your elbow is staying close to your side. Don't have your elbow out like this. Don't straighten your arm like this. Notice when you do that how low my hand is. That will cause the horse to shoulder. We don't want a straight arm with a pulled arm to the side. What that also does is it tightens this outside rein which we want loose. Bring your elbow in and your hand up. Automatically you get a loose outside rein and a tight inside rein which is exactly what we want. It gets them in turning position with that shoulder up. The other thing we want to make sure we don't do is drop our shoulder. Dropping your shoulder causes them to drop their shoulder. So when your shoulder comes down like this your hip comes down, that pulls that whole horse's body down in the turn. Instead you want to sit up, keep that shoulder up, stay in the middle of your horse as you come around that turn. That will keep him balanced and able to execute the turn."