Instructions
Condition your horse by trotting and walking it on hills; perform two, 20-minute hill sessions per week. Stop the session if the horse is breathing heavy. Exercise the horse with low trotting on days when hill work isn't done; include a lot of circles in your work. Exercise the horse three times a week by engaging it in ring work; each session in the ring should last approximately 30 minutes.
Practice the barrel pattern with your horse at a comfortable pace. Your horse must be comfortable with the barrel pattern before you ask it to increase its pace. Practice the pattern two to four times per week for a few weeks. Practice the pattern after your warm-up of slow trotting. The pattern should only be practiced for 15 minutes.
Ride your horse through the barrel pattern. Close your leg around the horse after navigating the barrel, encouraging the horse to increase its speed. Adding additional leg, spur or tapping your horse with a crop encourages it to add more speed. Leg should be added first, then spur and then tapping with a crop. Continue until you reach your desired speed.
Practice the pattern at the faster pace for at least a week. Continue with your hill and slow-trotting work. Speed between barrels increases in conjunction with strength and muscle development. Encourage more pace from your horse until it becomes automatic.
How to Make Your Barrel Horse Run Faster
A barrel-racing horse needs to be able run, turn and "rate." The latter is a barrel-racing term defined as when a horse slows down to navigate a turn. This skill is taught when the horse is beginning to run barrels. The final skill taught to a barrel-racing horse is to run between the barrels. Speed is crucial to winning a barrel-racing competition.