# barrel racing a 15-20 year old?



## barrelracer892 (Apr 3, 2010)

As long as the horse can handle it, there is no problem with age. One of my friends has a 23 yr old horse that she barrel races and she wins a good bit off of him.


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## Tennessee (Dec 7, 2008)

Age is but a number.

I think as long as the horse is healthy and determined enough to do it, anything is possible. Of course, I hope she doesn't expect 1D run times.


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## site4pets (Sep 28, 2010)

she doesnt expect her horse to be too fast, she (her horse) is a little lazy when it comes to anything thats "hard work" she does not expect much more than a canter run and probably nothing less than 1 minute! her horse is super lazy  thanks for your replies!


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

site4pets said:


> her teeth say 15-16 years but her rib spacing says 20)


Teeth are reliable. Very few people use rib sapcing. Hands/fingers are different sizes, horse bone structure is different, etc.


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## dressagebelle (May 13, 2009)

I personally say go for it. Just make sure that she's paying attention to the health of her horse, but my 35 year old gelding was still barrel racing up until we put him down, and he was definitely not as fast as he was in his younger days (he's a national champion my god sister used for years, was her top horse), but he still loved it, and as soon as he saw a barrel in the arena, he was ready to go.


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## BarrelRacer86 (Jul 6, 2010)

My 15 year old gelding still runs 1D times, but he was trained for it as a 4 yr old and did it for some years, then sat in a pasture until I bought him this year. Really the only issue is the fact that unlike other horses her age she hasn't been doing it forever, so she has to develope the muscles for it. Just tell your friend to take it slow.


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## Redial (Oct 1, 2010)

I won a barrel race on a 18 year old aussie stock horse gelding, he'd only been doing it for a year but he'd been campdrafting all his life which is similar to barrels but a bit of cutting and cattle incorperated so it wasn't a massive jump. just tell her to take it slow and get her working up to it, don't expect anything too soon but once she's fit and as long as she's sound she shouldn't ahve a problem having fun on her and it's a great way to learn the sport, i learnt on a 28 year old gelding called hokey.


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