I have an arab mare who is doing barrel racing and is getting really good at it. I make sure that when ever i do barrels I make sure she doesn't dance before we take off so that she stays calm upon ring entree. The problem is she has her head INCREDIBLE high all the time, at the worst she puts her nose strait in the air. I am really afraid she is going to hit me in the head with hers. I have been trying to make he put her head down by tapping the top of her head every time it comes up, however, that is hard to do with her when going around a barrel at a gallop when she doesn't neck-rein. Also whenever I tap her head or threaten to,(alot of the time)she plunges her head down for about 4 seconds and then it pops back up. I really really really DO NOT want to use a tie-down on her and I don't beleive in them. Last I use a snaffle bit which she stops well in. So does anyone have a method to get her head down? I have videos to show if you would like...

I'd suggest teaching a leg or rein based "head down" cue.  If you are riding two handed you can bump or wiggle the reins slightly.  When she gives to that pressure reward her by releasing it and praising.  At first it won't be much of a give, but she'll get the point.  Then you'll have a much safer way to help keep her head where you want it instead of waiting until her poll is in your face and hitting it.  Work on keeping her head at an acceptable level always, but do remember she's an arab and thus has a high natural head carriage based on her body structure.  You can also work on bending/flexing exercises as part of your training.  This will give you better control of her head and neck as well as make her a more supple horse (fringe benefit, she may run the barrels faster, or at least turn more fluid).

The second part of your suggestion sound like hard work but good at the same time. I have tried to get her to be soft enough that everytime I put preasure on both reins that she flex at the poll (like following the preasure)  but during barrels she get to excited and doesn't respond the way I have been teaching her.

I will reply again and attach 2 videos

the first will be of her on her best head behavior and the second of her on her "almost" worst.

Ok here are the videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9R33GGJnXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYv2qMU9aWQ

I just watched your one video real quick and saw you are not using a tie down. Gaming horses usually wear one because they need to be able to lean on it to keep their balance. It's not there to keep the head down but to help them keep balanced. Looks like your horse is looking for something to lean on and that would be your hands/bit pressure. Also keep in mind that Arabs have a higher head carriage than say a QH.

Those videos are extremely helpful. Nice job posting them for review.

What I see is a horse that does not fully understand how to drop off the bit. And I'm guessing the head position problem increases the farther you get into each barrel session because her frustration is building. In the second video you can see her head come up with her mouth cranked open, dropping the jaw but not her head to evade the bit at every turn. At the stop you can see it very clearly, including her starting to round her back (which you countered nicely by doubling her. Good job!)  She also appears to be "eyeballing" the barrels, which will also cause her to raise her head a little to clearly see them. (Horses can't focus their eyes as we do. They have to change head position to see things at different focal lengths.) That may correct itself as she gets more experience with the barrels. And in actual competition she'll probably be more concerned with the fence BEHIND the barrels. And... as the OP's have said, she's got that Arab head position to deal with.

I'm sure you're anxious to get her competing, but I would give her a break from barrels while you work on teaching her to consistently drop off the bit and also start on neck reining. QHAA's suggestion about wiggling or see-sawing the snaffle until she drops off it works great for that. Then start walking the barrel course, focusing only on keeping her head down and listening to the bit. Then you can start adding some speed. If you clamp her mouth shut with a caveson or nose band and tie her down she'll still keep trying to fight the bit. It's best to just take the extra time to train her to the bit properly.

(Edited to add: You mentioned in your second post you've been working on getting her to bend at the poll with "soft pressure". Make sure she's getting a reward for yielding. Not constant pressure, even if "soft", but pressure, release, pressure, release. More of a bump, bump, bump on the bit. And like all training, it needs to be learned at a walk, then again at a trot, canter and gallop until her response is thoroughly learned and automatic.)

Due to her breed and the level of racing excitement, she'll still have her head a little higher than normal on the barrels. But if you try to just ride it out and punish her with pops on the head I'm afraid you'll wind up with not much more than a very sour horse. ~FH

Maybe it's just my eyes, but when I paused and zoomed in on a still in the second video, it appears as if the mare's neck is just as long below as it is above.  Is that the case?  If so, she'd have the devil of a time getting that head down and keeping it there.  I had a QH mare with the same build.  She did fine at barrels (I didn't worry about her headset much), but we had to give up roping because I kept clocking her in the side of the head with the rope.  She couldn't have kept that head low with duct tape and baling twine! 

     Wow! This is a lot of info to digest!!! I will definently look a little more into tie down if it helps them balance and I will probly try to incorperate all of these suggestions into her training, you never know when you might run into a situation where one method wont work and another will. Yes she sorta does have a short neck, but her withers are set back very far, as in the picture below. Are her withers a major confo flaw? Thank a lot by the way for all the info it has really been a blessing.

 In these pictures she is quite thin, since she was a rescue the first one is of the day we got her and were yet to fatten her up. The second, she should have had a bit more wieght and I hadn't started training so she wasn't very toned. Anyway I thought that by showing some of her thinner pics, it would make it easier to see her weird withers.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/rtlaurel/DSCF0401-2.jpg

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l8/rtlaurel/DSCF0601-1.jpg

Those are very clear pictures!  Want to photograph my horses? 

For my part, I'm seeing pretty much what I saw in the video.  Take a tape measure and measure from where her neck ties into her chest to where it meets her head.  Then measure from the top of her head just behind her ears to where her neck meets her withers (in front of the withers, not on top of them).  You could even measure in the first photo, where her head is held pretty naturally.  The specific length isn't important, but the ratio is.  The ideal ratio is 1/2--the top neck line should be twice the length of the bottom--for a naturally level or low head carriage.  I'm betting hers is closer to 1/1.  That's not a horrible thing, it would just make it really hard for her to keep her head low for any length of time.  As I said, my mare was far from 1/2 but she did fine at barrels.

The high withers also aren't the end of the world.  My daughter's grade gelding was top horse in the county both in barrels and jumping, and he had the withers from hell.  I tried riding him bareback once and thought I was going to be split in half by that ridge of spine!   It's all about how the parts work together and how you make allowances for the irregularities. 

 She may never be a halter horse, but her conformation is certainly workable.  My vet used to joke every time he visited my daughter's gelding that he couldn't even understand how that horse could stand up, let alone run and jump, but he did both very well. 

You can see what I mean in this photo:  http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Geyser/3382/Gradyrun.gif 

He was only 15 hh, over at the knee, camped out behind, pigeon-toed, had terrible feet from having been on the track, and those withers . . . !  But that horse did just fine in everything including dressage.  His only saving grace conformationally was that his  neck measurements made it possible for him to keep his head down.

 Cute horse! Thans for the info a was a little worried that it might be a bad confo flaw but now I know. 

Yes that gelding does have some intense withers! He look serious about his job in the picture though! 

Thanks!  Yeah, Grady was all business all the time.  Totally awesome, and totally my daughter's.  I tried taking him to a show once and he spent the whole time looking for her.  Too bad he's gone now.  He had a great 26 years! 

 BTW, that measurement info isn't original.  It came from a clinic I attended years ago.  Somewhere I have the whole list of measurements you can take and tests you can do to tell what your horse is best at and most capable of. 

 I think you're going to have a great time with your new horse. 

My Quarab mare does the smae thing. Her head is always high when I am on her back, but when I am walking beside her her nose almost touches the ground. My only sugestion is to walk her around the barrel until she get bored and then let her run around them.

She is cute and it looks like you and her have fun together!

With my horse that my daughter claimed we did lots and lots of trail riding and hill work then went for trotting and collection on the trails and after 1 1/2 years she can now do barrels again. Like your mare our gelding needed to learn to work off his/her rear and develop a neck that was not "upside down".

 

Suggestion from an old pro: 

The videos are very helpful! My suggestion would be to work on her responding to pressure of the bit as mentioned above. I also recommend the "bumping". Remember that you want her to keep her head low during transitions, too!  Work on it at the stop. When she understands it, work on the halt to walk transition BEFORE you work on it at the walk! Otherwise, you'll get a head toss inbetween gaits. She'll get frustrated at first and not quite understand, but she'll get it eventually.

Also, work on the barrels at a walk and trot as well as a CONTROLLED canter and gallop. The key word is controlled. You can get her mind on you by mixing up the pattern a bit. Do it "backward" and then try going up the middle first and then turning the other barrels. Work her in the pattern with her head down. Allow her to take the barrels wide and slow with bending and flexing.

For example, try taking her around the pattern, stop before the barrel, ask her to bend her neck from side to side (at a standstill) as far as she can, even to touching your feet with her nose, and then ask her to go forward at an easy walk or trot/jog. Ask her to bend around your leg. Repeat at every barrel. 

Remember that when horses are galloping, they go the fastest with the heads up!! That's why TB don't have tie downs when they're racing. Having her head up high enough to get close to your head is dangerous and scary, but I agree with not using a tie down. Teach her an appropriate height, and go from there!

 Best of luck!

I also run barrels and have a high headed horse. I do use a tie down though. My tie down is made out of cable. People have told me it is mean but thats not how I see it. Its decoration unless he uses it. He gets hyper and throws his head to try to go. Sorry but I'm not going to get hit in the face.

The last post about doing the barrel pattern at a walk. That is what you need to be doing. Horses that run barrels do more slow work than actually running barrels. There are videos and books you can buy that will really help.

When she was going around the barrels I didn't see her aiming for a pocket at all. A pocket is the space around the barrel that you are supposed to be turning in. You start out far from the barrel and go close. Put your barrels closer together so your focusing more on turning then the time between. She will be wore out faster doing a real pattern size. When are going for the first barrel you go towards the third barrel. Depending on the horse is when you go to the first barrel. My gelding was knocking barrels over because he was turning into them so I had to start pushing him further past it.

In doing your slow work when you stop make your horse take several steps back. I didn't see her really rating herself when she got to the barrels. She has to slow down some when coming into the pocket. Everytime you stop at a barrel during slow work back up then make her bend around the barrel. If she doesn't flex the way you want keep doing circles around the barrel till she does it right. Use pressure on your inside leg as a guide for your horse. When she gets to close to the barrel bump her to let her know to move away. Then when she does everything right move to the next barrel.

Your turns are more important than your speed. If you can't turn a barrel you will get seconds added everytime. Another part is you shouldn't hit a horse on the head. It will make them head shy. If she doesn't really know the basics you need to teach her that before running full speed. And I almost missed a very important part. Circles and figure 8's should be your best friend. Doing these figures will help her reining and also help her learn to change leads. Do them at a walk, trot and canter. Make her stay on the circle you pick and stay at one speed. If your cantering don't let her cut corners or try to speed up. Make her do what you want. After she masters rating and flexing you could try some roll backs to teach her to work off her hind quarters. Roll backs are when you go down a fence line and turn toward the fence to make the horse set back and turn. You can do this at any speed. Just don't let her turn before your telling her. They will start trying to turn in the same spot but don't let them. Stop at a different spot everytime.

Sorry this is so long. There is a lot to tell people about doing barrels. Its not just running and turning. One more thing, if you start poles the slow work is also used on them. Good luck. Hope to see you on here later saying I WON A BUCKLE!!!