Working in a round pen can be super helpful to calm a nervous horse, put a foundation on one, or just go back to the basics. I’ve found this specific exercise really helpful in getting horses to relax and be attentive to your communication with them inside and outside the arena.
Let’s start by talking about horse psychology. Because horses are herd animals, in order to feel safe and calm, they need to know they have an alpha or leader they can rely on. In the wild, or even when turned out in a pasture, the way an alpha or leader horse will assert its dominance is by being able to move the other horses around. Think about when it’s feeding time and the horses are lined up in their pecking order and then the alpha horse shows up. He moves everyone’s feet and makes them get out of the way so that he can be the first to eat.
Similarly, the basics in a good round penning foundation play off of this psychological place in a horse’s mind. In this round pen exercise, the goal is to get the horse to realize that being with us as the human or trainer is the safest most relaxing place and that if he pays attention to us, he can find rest near us and not away from us, obeying and connecting with us and not disregarding us.
Directions for the exercise:
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Put your horse in a round pen and move yourself to the center of the round pen. Have a lunge whip or training flag with you. Because our goal is to get the horse to face us, anytime the horse decides not to do so when we give him an opportunity to, we will add some pressure on him with our flag.
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Begin moving the horse out around the round pen until he’s trotting or loping at a good pace. (we want to mostly remain at the lope or trot because we want the movement part to work for them)
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When you are ready, step more in front of the horse’s shoulder and move towards the rail to try to get him to face you. If he faces you, back up and release the pressure. If he does not face you and turns into the rail giving you his hindquarters add more pressure and really get him to move his feet.
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Repeat the above steps until you get to where the horse is facing you every time.
Watch the following video for examples of the technique:
Teaching your horse to catch you
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