During difficult economic times, many horse owners are forced to make the heartbreaking decision to sell their horses while they try to meet their budget. However, there is hope for those who want to try to keep their horse during financial trouble. These guidelines are not meant to be everyday money saving tips, but instead, larger scale measures that you can use to preserve horse ownership.

While some problem horses may need the help of a professional trainer to get rid of bad habits and rectify unsafe situations, there is no reason why a reasonably competent and experienced horse owner cannot train their own horse.  Training your own horse can seem like a challenge at first, but with patience, knowledge and hard work it can be done.

Horses can get sick from cooling down too fast after working up a sweat. Like humans, they need to cool down gradually after exercising, even during icy winter months. Put a horse away either sweaty or wet and he/she could catch a chill or contract colic! It’s important get a horse’s temperature, respiration rate, and pulse rate back to normal following hard work.

Whether you plan to ride barrel racing events competitively or just have fun on your own home pattern, it is important to establish the right fundamentals, and build on those fundamentals in order to have a happy, healthy and sane barrel horse.  As with other aspects of training and working with horses, it is far easier to install good habits from the beginning than it is to try to correct bad habits and unlearn improper training.