Round Pen Training for Horses

In the previous two hubs I described Basic Horse Training and Leading a Horse. With the basics out of the way, it is now time to move on to teaching a horse the fundamentals to make it a useable horse.

While the round pen is the ideal venue to get the undivided attention from a horse, especially a young one, this training can be conducted without a round pen. Without an enclosure it only makes it more difficult for a multitude of reasons.

A round pen is used to teach horses your voice commands, teach it to whoa or stop. You can start saddling a horse in the round pen and place a bridal in its mouth. Initially lessons should be short and to the point. The attention span of young horses is limited and thus overdoing it, can sour the horse.

To conduct this training, you require a halter, longe line, a saddle, bridle and a horse whip.

Saddling and bridling can be incorporated into each round pen lesson. Personally I like to work the horse for a few minutes and then finish the lesson with saddling and bridling. Be careful not to do too much. Ideally horses should be at least one year old but preferable 18 months is better, because of the growing joints of young horses.

Starting to work a horse off a longe line can be a difficult task initially. The key is to get the horse to teach the horse to move around you in a circle. I like to start young horses with a normal lead line, approximately 6 to 10 feet in length. As the horse gets comfortable I use a normal longe line about 15 to 20 feet in length.

Let's get started

The horse gets lead into the round pen with a normal lead line on its halter. In my free hand I carry a horse whip, normally in my right hand. My left hand has the lead line in tow, while I urge the horse to move past me. This sometimes requires a little assistance of the whip with a little tab on the horses backside. Be alert though and ensure you have enough space between you and the horse.

Most young horses are a little excited at this point, let them move at their own pace at first until they are used to the routine. Once the horse moves readily around you in circles, give it the full extension of the lead line, i.e 6 to 10 feet. Once the horse consistently moves around you, ask it to slow down. This is accomplished by giving the voice command whoa and with a slight tug on the lead line toward you. The horse may not get the message immediately, don't get frustrated and keep trying. If needed, pull the lead line toward you and the horse will almost stop completely. Continue until the horse slows to a walk.

Speed it up again and repeat the process. Once the horse consistently slows to a walk, teaching it to whoa (halt) is the next step.

This would probably the time to best stop this part of the lesson, praising the horse constantly for its efforts.

Now that you have successfully moved the horse around you on the lead line, taught it to stop and generally have its attention, you can start moving it further away from you by using a 15 to 20 foot lounge line.

Walk the horse to the edge of the round pen and slowly extend the line as you move into the centre of the pen. Ensure the horse doesn't follow you. This is where your extension to your arm, the horse whip comes in. if the horse moves or turns toward the centre extend your arm with the whip outstretched and ask it to whoa. After a few times doing this the horse will get the message and remain in place.

Once you have positioned yourself in the centre, with the horse in place at the edge of the pen, you ask the horse to move forward. Try it with a clucking noise and if necessary step toward the horse with the whip extended toward its hind quarter. Once the horse starts moving try to contain its movement around the outer edge of the round pen. Keep it moving with the whip moving waving around the rear of the horse.

Some laid back horses may not respond to the whip motion and your cluck. You can fix this by attaching a plastic bag at the end of the whip. Most horses will react to the noise of a plastic bag making crackling noises. Of course 90% will react to your cluck and just the whip waving.

Horses, like most other animal, when interacting with humans try to please. As discussed in my previous hubs, you have to become the leader and it is important that you communicate clearly to the horse what you want it to do. The key is to be repetitive and consistent.

Once you have the horse moving freely around the round pen on the lounge line, you introduce the "Whoa" using the same method described when the horse moved closer in.

Again, don't overdo it and ensure you shower the horse with praise when it does what you want it to.The key to this part of foundation training, is to get the horse to respond to your commands to move forward and to whoa. Whoa being the most important command.

In the next step we introduce saddling. Stay tuned.