I run to the right first and I always have a very wide first barrel. I practice a lot and have tried changing the size of my pocket, changing the points where I check his speed, and doing lots of other things but nothing works. I've even run him up to the barrel, stopped him and backed him up before I allow him to turn like his trainer told me to do, to help me find my pocket, but that doesn't work either.  When I do figure eights he turns very well to the right and usually finishes it better than when he turns to the left, but when I run him he does the opposite. I have never had a problem with my second barrel, no matter how badly i turn my first. My horse and I are very synchronized on that barrel and never miss it. But on the third barrel he drops his shoulder several feet  before we reach the barrel, and I end up holding his shoulder up until it's time to turn. I don't understand this because he was trained to set when I sit, and I am still leaning forward and urging him to the third barrel when he sets and drops his shoulder. He finishes it very well but I am always holding him up until it's time to turn, which is very difficult and is affecting our times. Please help me

I won't promise that I can help that much but here is my take on this problem.  Most horses don't run as hard at home when workng as they do at a show.  You are probably going a lot faster to the first barrel than you normally do.  You can try coasting slower to the first or checking and finishing your turn a lot harder and sooner at the runs.  As for the third barrel this horse is anticipating that turn way to much.  You might want to try running him at home past the third barrel and stopping way behind it so that he doesn't think he has to turn all the time.  You may be forward while pushing but you still might be sitting and by the time he is getting to that barrel he already knows he has to turn it anyway.  Try a few different things and see how it goes.  Small improvements at a time and don't over practice it will just make him set up more.  Good luck and let us know how he is doing.

By the way, welcome to the boards

Thankyou very much for your help . You're probably right about not running as fast at home as at competitions because I have a 16 hand Appendix and he needs a bit of space to get up to speed, our arena at home is very small. We can't even set up the poles straight, they have to go diagonally across it. So that is probably part of the problem with our first barrel, but i don't get to compete much do you think there is anything else i could try at home that would help me to know at least how to run towards the barrel? Because I'm not even sure to take him into it wide or narrow. I'll try your idea on the third barrel, you're right he does know that he's turning it, and maybe he drops his shoulder because the pattern at home is so small and he remembers it when he goes to run somewhere else. Is that possible? He's very well patterned, and when i practice figure eights i only use barrels half the time because he remembers where he turns even without them. Thankyou again for your help.

Thanks

I have problems with my mare dropping her shoulder at the second barrel.  I haven't been practicing/ or running enough to work on it.  But I am interested in reading more on it!  So when I do start riding more I will know what to try!   

welcome also!

You can work your horse on his turns without actually running a full pattern, try loping huge circles out in your arena then just aim for any barrel full blast like it was the first and turn it, some times it helps to not work on the whole pattern, I used to do a lot of loping circles a few times around each barrel in the same directions, like just dropping in an making a turn then making them lope around it a couple of times.  You can put your barrels out in a field and do some basic work also.  As for the setting up about all you can do is to teach them to go past is a few times, or sometimes lope up to it, go past it, then stop and just walk off the opposite direction.  Get them to not think so hard on the turn issue