[aBreeze]

Ok everyones kinda given off a bunch of wierd responces... so Im going to add mine to the "kettle"[had to say it...]. BW did a great job, and others really dished out their fair share. I barrel race, I ride english, I ride western pleasure, I trail ride, I work cows, and I go for walks with my "game horse." I got her as a racehorse gone pasture pet. She was great on the ground but in the saddle... youd better be ready. We got over that and I sent her to work with a barrel trainer who wouldnt get off my case. Well Dollie["game" horse] was gone. She knew how to run 3 barrels but that was it. So I spent a whole summer trying to run her... but she got worse and worse and worse AND hotter and hotter and hotter. The next summer I said forget it. We went on long trail rides, sorted some cows, round penned alot, just had fun. I still showed her but we brought it down a level[or 4] and we actaully started to do good. That year we PLACED for champ show and even won 9th in poles. At this time she also got calmer and calmer and calmer. She walks into the arena, walks around in the arena, goes when I squeeze and click, slows when I set and Whoa, and walks out of the arena During the whole thing she rivals a pleasure horses head set, and does it in a snaffle. Then last year we started doing some western pleasure and halter. She was okay at them... got bored half way through and my 100lb body couldnt sit her 'jog'. This was still better than most of our competitors. She also brought home arena records in pole weaving, and four in a line[as leader]. That champ show our team placed 2nd in four in a line by a fraction.

Sorry about going on and on but my basic point is that the crazy horses you see... are not what games are all about. I have friends with horses like that and some you really cant help if you show at more than 1 show a year. Others just need to take it down a notch. And Im happy to say that more and more game horses are becoming nice calm well balanced horses.

PaintedPNH - what circuit do you run?

giddyupgal73 - never thought about loosening the cinch in there as a reward. I always did it out of the arena... thanks! I cant believe Iv never thought about that...

[Lou3]

It varies.
I had one games pony i could NOT ride outside a competition ring, she was 100% WORK as soon as that saddle went on and if she didnt know what she was meant to be doing she got very stressed out. Put her in a ring with poles or a jumping course and she was like a different pony. She was quiet as a mouse in the stable and her ground manners were perfect so there's no excuse for that but yes a games pony/horse with a "work work work" attitude can be expected to be a bit crazy under saddle simply because they know their job and if they arent doing their job they dont understand why not - they've got the saddle on after all.
In my experience there are few very "top" games ponies that DONT have this "work, Work work" attitude. There are a few but they are few. For lower levels you can be easily be very successful on an all-round horse/pony but at top levels you need more of a specialist.

[shepherd406]

Any horse that is born crazy isn't a good horse. People ruin good horses by gaming. I see it all the time. I keep my horse on a ranch. The owner, Bobby, has trained horses for just about every discipline. He's done western & English & been all around the US. He specializes in barrel horses now bc rodeo kind of died down here. He stopped doing pleasure shows bc you & your horse are judged by people, which are naturally biased. A timer isn't. It doesn't matter what you or your horse looks like. Ok, so, he has been training horses his whole life, won numerous titles, & qualified for the World in NBHA 37 times. We do local gaming shows for fun & to practice. NONE of our horses are gate or arena sour. They stand perfectly still & WALK QUIETLY into & out of the gate. PEOPLE ruin their horses bc all they do is make them run & whip them to run faster. If that's all they do, that's when they start souring. It's all about training & horsemanship. There are riders, & there are horsemen. There's a difference. My horse games, trail rides, works cows, could probably place at a hunter show too. Game horses aren't psycho. Their people make them that way.

[IIIBarsV]

Here's barrel horses/english horses (dressage, jumping, and WP) from my barn:

Wisher: 1D polebender, 2D barrel racer, dressage lv 2, fantastic Equitation and horsemanship horse:

YouTube - Wisher Poles Horse-A-Rama Saturday

YouTube - Wisher- Leg Yield Right

Turbo: 1D barrel horse, top ten in ApHC World points/show, schooling dressage lv 1/2, and starting WP next year:

YouTube - Turbo around home, April 2009

YouTube - Zip Code Baby June 23 2009

YouTube - Zip Code Baby Black Gold 2009 3D #2

Gooser: Everything from racing to jumping to Wp to Halter- Top three across Eastern ontario when he's "in the right mood for it":

YouTube - Gooser being hot- coming into Eq

YouTube - Gooser Canter L Delta

Sugar Bear: 1D barrel horse, 3X Congress champ polebender, eastern ontario NBHA finals polebending champion and reserve champion, hardcore games horse... also trained for bridleless riding. (Video is refusing to upload of bridleless flying changes, barrel turning, etc....)

YouTube - Cody's Curiosity Polebending Black Gold 2009 #2

Sugar Bear & Zip: Zip is a 1D barrel horse, 1D pole horse, and could give a lot of HUS horses a run for their money... Zip is also trained to the hilt.

YouTube - Relay Race with 3x Congress Champion and 4x Congress Top Ten

It depends on the horse. Wisher is always quiet to ride. Turbo can be very quiet in warm up, but going into the ring, gets himself worked up a little bit and once in a while acts silly out of worry. Gooser is 75% hotrod, but will be dead lazy like an ole plug in certain days, and in certain places. Sugar Bear is a hotrod all the time, but pulls off some good training skills and is VERY consistant with his job. Zip is the same as Sugar Bear, but usually a little less violent with his hotrodness.

Totally depends on two things:

1) The horse.

2) The rider.

[Serenity06]

Ok first off i don't mean to sound harsh AT ALL towards you but this is a topic that really gets to me!

I am a game (barrels mainly) and out of all the horses i have personally gamed on NONE of the were psycos and NONE of them spazzed out going into, in, or coming out of the arena. Its because I took the TIME TO TRAIN THEM PROPERLY! They learn to respect me and to ALWAYS pay attention and be SOFT or they DO NOT get to run!

I helped work the gate at a high school rodeo this past weekend and it sickened me to see so many gate sour, badly/under trained, "psycotic" horses that most of the barrel/pole benders were riding . Honestly if your horse is throwing a fit and refusing to go into the arena (gate sour) then WHY are you going to whip and spur the horse until it listens !!!!! If you take the time to PROPERLY train your horse and show them the arena is not just a place where the are to run and be whipped and spurred to go faster then your horse should remain sane. I DO NOT whip or spur my barrel mare! I do use spurs on her if necassary to keep her shoulder up going around the barrel or to get her over but thats IT! At her last time only (the very first time i let her speed up from a slow lope) we walked calmly into the arena and we're 5 seconds of the top 1D times!!! She did a 20.46 and she wasn't even RUNNING yet! Did she do it calmly? On a loose rein? Was she soft the whole time? YES!!! not ONCE did she freak out!

Sorry it just bugs me when people think ALL gaming horses are way too hot and just know how to run. (my little mare also does western pleasure )

[BlingRacer]

I personally wouldn't own a speed horse that couldn't run barrels on friday and compete in a show doing WP, horsemanship, trail, etc the next day.

They are as crazy as you make them.

These are terrible quality photos, but here is my barrel horse Dash doing walk/trot western pleasure with an 8yr old girl who had only been riding for a few weeks. He sure looks pyscho! (Obviously he does not look like a "real" WP horse, but notice the calm disposition and loose rein.)

[xlilxonex]

Sorry but if your horse freaks out at the gate or is unrideable outside the barrel arena... You fail...

Gaming is just like EVERY other discipline... You have to work hard, train, and get the horse t odo something they wouldn't naturally do in the wild.... It makes me beyond mad when people let their gaming horses act like a nut because "They're a barrel/pole horse.... it's supposed to be like that".... Same thing with jumpers....

EVERY horse should be able to do everything... Win? No but do it... I have a friend with a barrel horse, who's also her jumper and her dressage horse... AS WELL as a leadline horse... Dead calm before the arena but he's consistently doing well(Local shows) but he's excited of course before he goes in but he LISTENS.....

[kodemiester]

My all around mare, Dakoda, goes get a little prancy before the gate sometimes.. but over all she is very mellow. She "walks" into the arena.. I make her. lol. If she doesn't, I usually don't push her all that fast. Even at home, I don't push her hard. Mainly because I don't want her to slip in the pasture, but just to make sure I have full control. And that's also why I do EVERYTHING with Dakoda. Halter, Western Pleasure, Trail, Barrels, everything. lol. So she never really knows WHEN I'm going to be taking her into the ring to game her. lol. The old gaming mare I had was completely fine at home.. but she did get a little hyped up at the gate.. but was controlable. Dakoda is completely controlable at all times as well. lol.

[Lou3]

Originally Posted by xlilxonex

Sorry but if your horse freaks out at the gate or is unrideable outside the barrel arena... You fail...

Gaming is just like EVERY other discipline... You have to work hard, train, and get the horse t odo something they wouldn't naturally do in the wild.... It makes me beyond mad when people let their gaming horses act like a nut because "They're a barrel/pole horse.... it's supposed to be like that".... Same thing with jumpers....

EVERY horse should be able to do everything... Win? No but do it... I have a friend with a barrel horse, who's also her jumper and her dressage horse... AS WELL as a leadline horse... Dead calm before the arena but he's consistently doing well(Local shows) but he's excited of course before he goes in but he LISTENS.....

This isnt always true, my world champion mare WAS pretty much unridable outside a competition ring, but inside that ring, she listened, she was supple, she was calm and she did the job better than any other horse in the world (literally). The type of horse that makes the best english gaming horse is the type of horse that has to have a job ALL the time. They want to learn and once they know their job they want to be doing it constantly. Doesnt mean they cant have more than one job my mare showjumped exceptionally well too.
Maybe English gaming is different, a barrel horse learns the barrels and thats the only event they do, an english gaming horse has to be much more versatile within their own "job" there are some races that require a steady even rhythm, some that require fast stops and starts and yes there are some that just require flat out speed. The horse has to be trained within an inch of its life to be able to do each race perfectly. However that doesnt necessarily translate to outside the arena. I have no doubt that my mare was partly just in a huff cause she wasnt doing her job if I tried to ride and not game or jump. Put up a course of jumps and she would trot round them without a problem, but try and trot her in a circle without a jump or a gaming pole in sight and that was the end of the world for her. Totally out of her comfort zone and not something she was prepared to do. The mare won world championships and was the quietest, easiest horse to handle I have ever met, no problem to me to cut her some slack and not stress her out by trying to force her to do things she just didnt like to do.

[X3cuppycakeX3]

My barrel horse is now also my western pleasure and hunter under saddle horse, at the rated level, and can still run a mean barrel and pole run. So not ALL are crazy.