Happy New Year!!!

The New Year has begun with a BANG! Gabe and I began at a barrel race in Conroe, TX called the Extreme barrel Racing Plus. This barrel race had over 400 entries! Anyhow, the month of December was more like a holiday for Gabe and I. I was very limited on my ride time at home and it showed at the race. We rode maybe 10 times during the month. Not only was Gabe very sluggish to the first barrel, he was not able to push past the second and manged to go wide on the third. When you are watching the video, Notice a few things. Before reading this, you must know that 99% of all mistakes are caused by the rider, not the horse!!!

1. From the Alley, the harder I kicked, the slower he ran. Also, we did not go up the middle which caused Gabe to not have a pocket and he then hung up on the backside of the barrel.
2. I sat down too early going into the 2nd barrel. This caused Gabe to shut down and turn before he got to the point past the barrel. You will notice that he appeared to "wrap" the barrel, but, in all actuality, he was too close and not able to cross over on his front end to drive to the third barrel.
3. Well, my third barrel was a disaster! As Gabe was leavi9ng the second, I should have utilized my whip to encourage the speed. However, instead, as we were getting close to the third barrel I made a POOR attempt to move Gabe over with my hand whip which in turn caused me to be out of balance and then it caused Gabe to be out of Balance as well. Therefore, we came into the barrel wide and came off the barrel wide.