Round Pen

[Heart4horses]

Today I worked with a horse for the very first time in the round pen. (Yippeee!) I have to say it was a little intimidating, but we both got through it safely. My question is....how should I handle the horse when he cuts the pen short? He only does it on one side. Also, he doesn't pay attention to me (he does listen to my voice commands though), so when I turn my back to him, he stops, eats grass, and doesn't attempt to come to me. I must add, we were only working for a very short amount of time--no more than 10 min.--just so I could get a feel for things, since I had never done anything like this before. I'm attending Horse classes for the next several weeks and they will not cover this until the final session (which they will devote 3 hours to). However, I'm curious about it now, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :) :)


Heart4horses

[horselover]

I love using a roundpen- it is probably one of the most useful training tools I learned from my last riding instructor.

There might be something about that side of the pen that makes the horse nervous. I would try to bringthe horse over in that area to start with and watch his reaction.

Also, you will probably learn how to utilize your body to control the horse in the class you are going to take. My trainer would use his body presence to "force" the horse into the corners by moving closer to the side of the horse when he wanted to "push" him closer to the side of the arena. I have hard time explaining it, I am sure it will be much clearer when you see it.

Also, I sometimes use a longe whip in the roundpen if I have a horse that tends to misbehave. This works well too- do you have experience with longing because some of those techniques transfer to roudpen work? (like 45 degree angle, standing in front of the shoulder, behind the hip stuff- do you know what I am talking about?)

[Heart4horses]

Hi horselover! Thanks for your response. I, too, enjoyed using the roundpen. The horse that I ride doesn't belong to me, but I have full access to him whenever I want. Working him in the roundpen would be great for those days that I want to be around him and am not able to ride him. (Days when my friend (its her horse) is unable to go trailriding with me) Anyway, I have seen some of the techniques that you are talking about--but only briefly and am very excited to learn more! I have no experience with the longe whip, but that is another thing I want to learn over time. To be honest, I've really only had experience riding and in that I was very spoiled! I never had to tack my horse or do anything other than brush him occasionally. My trainer took care of all of that. My loss though, because I'm having to learn everything, since I'm finally at a stage in my life where I can start preparing myself to get my own horse. I've learned so much in the last 6 months or so and am still learning! I'll try starting him on the other side of the pen and see what happens. It's weird that its only that side and certainly no difference between sides that I can see, but, of course, I'm not a horse! Thanks again for the info! :)

[horselover]

I am glad the info helped! Good for you for trying new things and wanting to learn! Hope you have fun!