Spring in the Round Pen

Springtime for me here at the farm often means spring training for my young horses and the horses I accept for clients. As I age, and after a few injuries, I have become more cautious with the process. The priority is both my and the horses well-being. I have a minimum 3 month program requirement, which ensures the best outcomes for the horses and sustainable management of my time.

In 3 months I have always been successful getting any horse (old, young or problematic) confident on the ground as well as beginning to feel comfortable under saddle.Although my system varies from horse to horse it has never steered me wrong and I have rarely found myself in a position where I have to compromise safety.

I must admit I am not always as motivated when it comes to starting my own horses and it came to bite me right in the ass when I found myself with two homebred 3 year, plus two 4 year olds that were well past due their time to be started on my hands. I have picked both four year olds up and put them down several times since they were 2 but could never seem to find the consistency when clients pulled my full attention. Simply put, through no fault of their own, those four year olds have found themselves on the back burner.

In a perfect world, spring arrives and I introduce the 2 year old horses to lunging, in hand groundwork and posture skills, tack, light side reins, ground driving and often times a light backing, sometimes at the walk. They would then go back out to pasture, do some growing and come back in when they were three, either in the spring or the fall when they are closer to turning four. At this point they would be refreshed and finally the backing where we left off the previous year would progress to under saddle flatting at the walk, trot, and canter (once the muscle development and mentality allowed for it).

I have said it once and I’ll say it again, I don’t believe in forcing the canter under saddle. Rather, I wait until it is easily offered. For anyone who doesn’t know what I mean, a volunteered canter arises naturally as you ask for more energy in the trot, they find the canter and you simply support it. It is a wonderful feeling. If you know you know.

With now four horses placed on the back burner, I have found myself this spring in a situation where I have multiple 2, 3 and my 4 year olds to start under saddle. It doesn’t matter how many horses I start over my career I still find myself with the same anxious feelings and it takes me a little time to shake the rust off. As soon as I am on their backs I remember just how much I actually love doing it. Until that moment I am a ball of anxiety.

The youngsters I have this spring have been taking to the program progressively without a hitch. They are on the way to their first backing yet, my 4 year olds are completely wild. Hello procrastination! I have found myself in a predicament wishing I finished the job when I started it and wishing I had given them the consistency I would have given my paying customers.

I found myself getting creative and put together a makeshift round pen in my arena. My thought was to revisit the basics and to rebuild myself a foundation based on trust and understanding between myself and these youngsters. One that I felt I had dropped the ball on so many times over the past couple years.

A round pen can accomplish a few things that lunging simply cannot do. First of all, in a round pen the horse must self regulate without influence from the lunge line. They have to use the wall of the round pen to self balance and self regulate their own rhythm. Although I find it harder on their joints than a structured lunging session, if used correctly, the benefits of round penning can give way to a whole new avenue of learning for the horse.

Secondly, when you establish yourself in the middle of the arena, based on your guidance, you are giving your horse an option. The middle of the round pen where you are situated, signifies an area of comfort and calm, or even reward. The horse can only enter this area when you allow them to, and only when they begin to give you very subtle signs that they are ready to focus on you, and receive this reward or, receive the break from the physical work.

Thirdly, by sending your horse to work you are showing them that you intend to be the leader in the relationship and without their focus and attention on you, they will only have to work longer, harder or without purpose.

The beauty in the round pen work is the confidence that it can build in the horses ability to learn from you and the rewards they receive by engaging in the conversation that you have initiated.

A specific example is my gorgeous Warmblood gelding, Oliver, who has proven to be an exceptionally spooky, timid, and nervous horse despite my many hours invested into his starting process. The round pen idea was the best idea I could have had for this horse. During and after our session I was flat out giddy seeing him enjoying the exercise and showing me how confident and proud he was in figuring out what I wanted from him over and over again. He absolutely thrived during this session.

I started by sending him out to the wall of the round pen. At first he wanted to scoot away as he tends to do and ignore my cues to regulate his rhythm and to help find relaxation. It was only after a few moment of gauging each natural bend in the round pen that he started to slow his own rhythm down to find balance.

Any time he was focusing outside of the round pen or hyper focusing on the track in front of him, I would drive him a little more. As soon as his focus would shift to me, even temporarily, I would cease the pressure and create the start of an invitation to the comfort of the middle of the round pen which had the added bonus of him having me as company. I would change his direction to keep him focused and anytime he decided to change direction by turning away from me, or rather the middle of the round pen, I would increase my pressure. But anytime he turned towards me to change direction, I would let him do it with virtually no pressure at all. Soon enough he started to recognize that he received less pressure when he entered the boundary of my space and was put under consistent pressure when he was outside the middle zone.

The smart boy even started to figure out that the pressure was receded when he so much as gave me focus and attention from on his track on the wall. And like magic, Oliver started to actively tune into me and my body language. He began testing the waters out by exploring just what kind of pressure would be received when he started getting closer to me. The ultimate test came when I saw him lower his head, tip his ear towards me, lick and chew, slow his pace and ask for the invitation into the comfort of the middle of the circle. I turned around, dropped my intention of pressure and direction, and allowed him to rest in the middle of the circle. He realized quickly that this was where he wanted to be. I exercised patience and he came right beside me and let out a sigh. After some period of time I wanted to test whether he could keep figuring out the answer to my question. I sent him away on the circle and sure enough after showing me that he respected me as his leader and trotting away, he was in no time at all asking me to be back in my space of comfort.

I realized the reason I needed to do this with this horse in particular was that if I had any chance of getting on this scared young horse, I would have to show him that as long as he was in my presence, he was safe and could trust me to guide him in any way that I felt necessary. I will repeat this again tomorrow until I feel like I can turn the comfort zone into the mounting zone, and finally the confident space in which I can hold for him under neath me during rides. I am thankful for my instincts and not rushing things just because it seems like it “should” be the time, I am feeling motivated and ready to tackle the spring season again.

-Brittany