Training Exercise with Tamlin Osborne

This article is from the August 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

Growing up in a non-horsey family never suppressed Tamlin Osborne’s passion for horses. The barrel racer from Victoria ditched hairdressing when she became a mum to two sons and then later took up horse training full-time. Her most recent success was becoming the 2019 1D Winner at the ABHA National Finals and it was definitely this mantra that helped; “Set goals and work hard with a never quit attitude. This sport is hard. Stick with it and your time will come.”

Aim

My go-to drill is a four drum square with one drum in the middle. This exercise makes the rider more aware of their body position and they have to use their legs and body more. For the horse, it gets their feet and mind working together.

The Exercise

Start this exercise in walk and then build up to trot.

1 To begin, circle the inside drum using your inside rein only, for example to the right. This teaches the horse not to rely on two reins.

2 Next, arch out to a drum on the outside and travel around it in the opposite direction, while keeping the right flexion (counter flexion).

3 Return to the inside drum, travelling right with true flexion and repeat with the next barrel.

4 Take a walk break and then repeat the exercise in the opposite direction to before; in this example, starting the first barrel to the left with left flexion.

On to Competitions

I know that my horses are ready to run in divisional events when I can start to add pace to the standard barrel pattern. When they are clocking 1D times, I would then feel ready to enter a rodeo on them.

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