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Why Round Pen?
By Dan Ramberg
I just bought a two-year-old that I am going to try to break. I was told that I need a round pen to do this. Is that true?
Jenny,
No, you don't need to use a round pen to break a horse. There are many articles, books, and videos on how to break a horse. Not knowing your background, my best advice is to simply do what you know best. With that said, let me tell you a little about the round pen.
When you use a round pen, there are goals you are looking to achieve. The success of the round pen lies in the achieving of each goal.
1. Control.
This involves having the horse make inside and outside turns in the pen at the trainer's request. The horse's attention should continue to improve.
2. Attention.
Having the horse's attention will allow you to move the horse further along in the round pen. You are introducing the concept of teaching the horse to search for the correct answer.
3. Consistency.
What determines consistency is your ability to turn the horse at a specific spot using either an inside or outside turn, whichever one you choose, at a spot you choose. This is only possible if the horse is truly paying attention and searching for the answer to what you ask him to do.
4. Work ethic.
This plays a big part in developing the "want to" attitude in the horse. You could say that the success of everything you ask your horse to do in the round pen depends on his ability to search and to decide that is easier to make the right choice rather than the wrong choice. The trainer's responsibility is to establish a "yes" and a "no" to the horse. This is not an easy responsibility, and it is where most people fail using the round pen.
5. Stand still.
You want the horse to stand still. It is much easier to saddle, bridle, pick up feet, etc., if the horse will stand still. At this point, all of the work you have done will start to pay off. Applying a workload is probably the main exercise you will use to get the horse through this part of training.
6. Handle fear.
You want to teach the horse that it is better to stand still and face the fear rather than flee (the natural response).
Please be aware that all these goals are related, and overlap each other closely. These goals can be attained outside of the round pen. The round pen is simply a tool to keep your horse close enough to you to work while maintaining free motion of the horse, which allows him to make the correct decision. In simple terms, you are rewarding the horse when he does what you want, and reinforce with a workload, the behavior that you don't want. At Woodloch, we use the round pen almost exclusively to start horses.
However, it takes a lot of experience and knowledge to use a round pen correctly, and then the sky's the limit to be able to "stay ahead of your horse."
