Down To A Science

One of the technologies developed specifically for barrel racers is a breaking down of the time spent on each portion of the barrel run called Interval Time Reports. I have never been to a barrel race where they have had this option available before, but they did at the Xtreme Barrel Race. Unfortunately, my Saturday run was such a dismal failure that it was useless to me, but Sunday's run was darned sure good enough to get a print-out.

I did a hand-drawn version for you because the printout I have has a tiny pattern and now I can't get the picture to show on blogger in an upright position. Hopefully, it's still understandable...


Interval Time Training measures how much time your horse spends on each of 7 portions of the barrel pattern compared to the fast run of the day.

#1-Is the time it takes to get from the starting line to where the horse starts to turn the 1st barrel. Moon took 1.534 seconds to complete this portion and ran 22.22 miles per hour. The fast horse of the day did it in 1.380 seconds and ran 24.70 mph. So the fast horse of the day beat us by .154 of a second.

This is something that I believe is still a work in progress. Moon has just lately really started to run to 1st barrel. I am still more concerned that we get the rate properly and get around the barrel in good form than I am about all out speed. Although we are almost there and we seem to be handling it better. The first barrel is considered the 'money barrel' and how well you can get around it pretty much sets you up for the rest of the run. Unless of course, you have my problem, which is remembering to drive into the 2nd turn. LOL

#2-Is the time it takes to get around the 1st barrel. Moon took 1.928 seconds to complete his 1st turn. The fast horse of the day did it in 1.864 seconds. We were beat by .064 seconds.

Not terribly concerned about that fraction of a second. I believe when Moon gets up to full speed running to the barrel, he will have the momentum to nip that off a little bit.

#3-Is the time it takes to get from 1st barrel to 2nd barrel. Moon took 2.858 seconds and ran 20.28 mph. The fast horse did it in 2.494 seconds and ran 23.24 mph. We were beat by .364 seconds.

This was a biggie. Because I did handle Moon to keep him from wanting to duck into the 2nd barrel, I'm sure I inadvertently kept him rated down. I'd almost bet this is where we are consistently losing time. Hopefully, now that I realize it, I will start asking Moon for more here. I really, really need to get over what we were doing going into the 2nd barrel and just drive him for all he's worth .

#4-Is the time it takes to get around the 2nd barrel. Moon took 1.479 seconds to get around the 2nd barrel. The fast horse took 1.633 seconds. So Moon actually beat the fast horse around the second barrel by .154 seconds.

Certainly can't complain about that.

#5-Is the time it takes to get from 2nd barrel to 3rd barrel. Moon took 3.169 seconds, at a speed of 21.52 miles per hour. The fast horse did it in 3.159 seconds at a speed of 21.58 miles per hour. We were only beat by .010 of a second.

Can't complain about that either.

#6-Is the time it takes to get around 3rd barrel. Moon took 1.464 seconds. The fast horse took 1.529. Moon beat the fast horse around the 3rd barrel by .065 of a second.

No complaints here. If all the other factors were equal, this would even out the longer fraction of a second it took us to get around 1st barrel.

#7-Is the time it takes to get from the 3rd barrel back across the finish line. Moon took 3.691 seconds, at a speed of 25.86 mph. The fast horse did it in 3.484 seconds at 27.40 mph. We were beat by .207 seconds.

Yea...about all I can say about this is, either we are simply getting outrun or due to Moon being off and on for the last month, he has lost the condition he needs to keep powering all the way to the end. This did surprise me though as I always thought that Moon made up a lot of time on his run home. The bugger can really stretch out and run. Maybe just not fast enough?

Moon spent a total time of 4.871 seconds in his turns, whereas the fast horse spent 5.026 seconds making his turns. We are better by .155 of a second. Where we really got our ass kicked was in the straightaways. Moon took 11.252 seconds to complete each of his 4 straightaways, where the fast horse took 10.517 seconds. We were beat by .735 of a second. Almost 4 10th's of that was simply between 1st and 2nd barrel. Since Moon can keep pace with the fast horse between 2nd and 3rd and is almost as fast going to 1st, this isn't because he can't be as fast, it has to be because I am still safetying up. The run home? I dunno. I hope that is a conditioning issue and that we really aren't getting outrun that badly cause there is no 'cure' for that. :-/



**The time used to compare Moon's run to was the fast time at the time we left on Sunday. I see on the results that the actual fast time on Sunday was a 15.169. Moon ran a 16.123, so was one second off of the fast time. I'm anxious to get that printout to compare. I have a feeling he just got really outrun in the straightaways.

Now, I don't know if Moon has what it takes to actually catch the kind of horses that are winning these big races like this. Those are some powerhouse deluxes. I do think we are capable of taking at least a 1/2 a second off of our times in general.

If he had run just .046 of a second slower, he would have been exactly one second off of the fast time and won the 3D (and over $900). It takes longer to blink than the difference in times it takes to draw a check or not.

Moon got his last treatment after he had been walked out after his run. The therapist did find tension in his loin but she thought that might be due to heat in the muscle yet. A horse has to be dry to do the treatments, so I did not cold hose him after his run like I normally do to cool his muscles out. You are also not supposed to bath them within 4 hours after having a treatment. Something to do with the water washing whatever the electric pulses do out of the muscles. Moon was totally relaxed through the whole 45 minutes. Did a lot of yawning and chewing about the 25 minute mark, then pretty much went to sleep. There were no more signs of aggravation or irritability. I put him back in his stall to rest while we got packed up and ready to leave. He drank good, did not pee this time, but went back to eating. Moon really likes to eat...in case you guys didn't catch that. LOL. I'm pretty sure that while he is eating one meal, he is thinking about the next one.

I did ask the therapist about whether hauling him would negate the benefit of the last treatment and while she did tell me that it wasn't optimal, we didn't have much of a choice. Which is my one reservation about getting treatments done AT these barrel races. I think they do help, but there you are...either getting ready to compete again or getting ready to haul home. I'm sure that has to negate a good portion of the healing properties of the treatments, which seems to me, kind of turns it into a quick fix vs. a true healing treatment. A darned good reason to take those classes and get my own unit right? Not to mention, no one else around here does these treatments publicly. It might be a good opportunity to make money at the local barrel races.