Dear Mrs. Wright,
I have a 9 year old gelding that you used to own, his name is Wizard of Honor. He is truly a great animal and I love him dearly. I was kind of frustrated with him for a while because we just kept running 3d and 4d times and I know that the people who had him before me had some success with him.
Anyways, by the grace of God I went to a barrel race out of town and accidentaly left my tie down at home. I had never run him without a tie down but I only used one because the people who owned him before used one on him. Well, Eureka! I have made two runs on him and one was at a large barrel race and we ran just out of the money in the 2d, and the second one we were third in the 1d! So I was kind of wondering what your thoughts on tie downs are.
The other question I have is that he is stalling on the backside of the first barrel and I was wondering if there was something I could do to work on that.
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Kirstin
Dear Kirstin,
Yes, we owned Wizard Of Honor until he was about 4 yrs old and then sold him as a green horse. He was not trained with a tie down so that may be one reason that he works better without one.
You may be trying to take him in too close at the first barrel and are getting him bound up and stalled in the back of the turn. Try giving him a little more pocket going in to the turn and be sure that you ask him to collect his stride at the rate point (where you path going into the barrel crosses the path leaving the barrel).
Martha Wright
