How do I build my horse's speed and rate between balloons without sacrificing control?

Building speed in a mounted shooting horse while maintaining the control necessary for accurate shooting and safe course work is one of the central training challenges of the discipline, and it follows the same principle that applies to speed development in barrel racing and other timed events: speed is added only when the horse's control and the rider's accuracy are confirmed at the current pace level. A horse ridden faster than the rider's shooting accuracy supports will produce more misses; a horse ridden faster than its own rating and turning ability supports will produce inefficient course geometry that negates the speed advantage. The horse's rate — its ability to compress its stride and adjust its speed in the final approach to each balloon position — is more important to competitive times than raw flat speed between stations. A horse that runs between balloons at maximum pace but cannot rate and stop its momentum to allow accurate shooting takes more overall time than one that runs at a moderate pace but rates smoothly and allows the rider to shoot consistently. Developing rate is a training priority that receives less attention than speed in early mounted shooting development but that becomes increasingly important as the rider moves through the classification levels. Rate is developed through repetition of the same transitions that barrel racing and reining training use — asking the horse to compress its stride from a lope to a rated, controlled pace at a consistent location before each shooting station, then asking for acceleration immediately after the shot is taken. Finding the right rate point for each course position is part of what experienced mounted shooting riders develop over time. Building speed in a confirmed, rated horse happens gradually through practice runs at incrementally higher paces rather than through sudden attempts to run as fast as possible.