How to Move a Horse Laterally in Rodeo Barrel Racing

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Holly Heidemann and on behalf of Expert Village I'm going to show you today how to do some lateral movements on your horse. What we're going to do first is called a sidepass. It is not a true sidepass like you would see you know in other elements of horsemanship. For barrel racing what we're going to want to do is move them ahead and to the side at the same time. A true sidepass is just moving right to the side. But for barrel racing, coming between that first and that second barrel, we've got to move them over and this is the move we use to do it. So I like them to move a head a little bit while they're moving to the side. It's not a true sidepass but its close. So what we're going to do, I'm going to be sidepassing to the right, so if you'll notice I'm going to lift up on my left rein and barely until I can see that horse's left eye on the left side, I just want to bring that nose around. Then I'm going to open up my right rein and so he has a place to go, he's already wanting to do it, and I'm going to squeeze with my left leg. Horses move away from pressure, so when I squeeze with my left leg, he's going to want to move to the right. That means I'm going to have to open up my right leg so that it's not against his side saying, "uhn-uh". We want to make sure he has that window to move into. So I'm going to show you that; lift his left side, use that left foot, and we're going to be pushing him to the side while he walks forward. What I want out of this horse, I want him to yield to my leg and give me that lateral movement because as I go between that first and second barrel, this is what's going to cause my horse not to duck off. If he respects my leg, I can move him over as far as I need to, to complete that turn. "Whoa.""