The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion

Book excerpt: As the second book in the BarrelRacingTips.com series, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion delivers that and much more. Author Heather Smith has gone above and beyond to share the critical and often overlooked elements absolutely necessary for achieving positive results with any barrel racing exercise. She has gone in-depth to explain why and when certain exercises are appropriate, as well as how they should be implemented to be most effective. With chapters addressing rider development, groundwork, quality movement, problem solving, the mental game for both horse and rider, and much more, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion provides tools for creating greater awareness and advancing skills to empower barrel racers to dissolve obstacles standing in the way of achieving high level barrel racing success. Guidelines are offered for training barrel horses as well as building strength and coordination - necessary for expressing speed on the barrel pattern. What sets this one of a kind resource apart is that it provides structure for developing mental engagement in horses resulting in greater understanding, responsiveness, communication and connection. Within many of the practical exercises featured are actually several exercises - described with possibilities for variation and expansion to build upon, advance, and customize to meet the needs of each individual horse and rider. Truly unique in that it addresses the mental, physical and emotional aspects of the barrel racer and the barrel horse, The First 51 Barrel Racing Exercises to Develop a Champion will become your #1 resource for learning, and continuing to do the simple things with excellence, which is the foundational element for success in barrel racing, and every other equine discipline.