Natural "breaking" without a roundpen

Hi Jared, here is how I look at it. First, I don’t have a round pen. I would take one if some one was giving them away, but I have never felt I needed one bad enough to build one. I will tell you what I think they “do” and tell you how I go about working with out one. Almost all our training of a horse depends on their ability to “pay attention” and our ability to ” keep their attention”. With a horse that has never been trained at all, or perhaps a horse that has had some bad training, a round pen serves as an object you can push against, (read push horse away from you), until it learns that it wants to pay attention to you. This step is critical and should not be skipped. In some well handled horses it is no big deal, it all depends on their nature and temperament. In some horses, even very good horses with little or no previous handling, it can take skill, timing, and something solid to push against (like a round pen) to convince a horse that you are a leader to be trusted and followed. Don’t forget patience.

I start a horse that isn’t paying attention to me with a rope halter. As the horse doesn’t have quite the freedom of a round pen, I try to work slowly and concentrate on getting and keeping their attention. There are a wide array of skills that folks use with a rope halter to teach a ton of stuff. I keep it very limited (to my skills and interests). In most cases I can then turn this horse loose in a small paddock with normal fencing. for further training. This is important, I know I can’t push a horse against that fence. If I can make the animal move around me, with an eye on me, then the round pen has become unnecessary. I will continue to train the loose unrestrained horse. Pick up all it’s feet, trimming the feet, grooming. harnessing, Bridles, etc. I just keep adding pieces as I gauge the animals acceptance and preparation for each next step.

I haven’t mentioned standing, but in all this work, teaching an animal to stand is central. It is something that we are working toward in a round pen. With a rope halter I will throw the rope over the back (so I can reach it) as I work around the animal. Obviously with the loose, unrestrained horse it is all about teaching them to stand as I work around them. All of this is done by getting and holding their attention.

Finally, when really desperate I have used some nasty cow pens as round pens. Don’t worry about the corners, you can put enough pressure on a horse so he is not thinking about the corner. You want him to end up standing in the middle (with you free to move around him). Then get out of there!

I have trained a lot of horses and never used a round pen. I just hook with a trained horse and go.Sometimes it gets a little exciting but not bad. I do buy weanlings and use a straight stall for them. They are handled every day with backing and gee and haw as I let them out in a pasture. They are in a straight stall for half a day and pasture half a day.By the time they are to be trained in harness it is pretty easy with most. I do have one now that is a challenge but he will come around. Already has some. I also use tiebacks until I know how they will be. I also want a decent load but not a big load for them. Enough so they know they are pulling but there teamate can pull on his or her own.We have been know to have them moving rd bales on a skid on the 2nd day of work training. I really have no use for a rd pen but to each his or her own.

I have a round pen so I use it, and for many purposes. I use it because I feel comfortable in it and I hope that helps me make the horse feel the same. It’s a round pen to me and that’s about all. As an enclosure we’ll use a long lunge line or work free of a line, just depends on what stage the horse is at. We have had over the years any number of 2 and 3 year olds which basically come in from the pasture green as the grass they’re running on. What I’m looking for is an introduction, as I like to tell them, “to becoming a big horse now’. If they are going to auction that year, or someone wants to buy them I’ve got to get them on a trailer and lord willing have a safe expirience for the horse, me, new owner and such. Now we’re going to have to go elsewhere to practice with the trailer and we’ll tromp all over that thing and sniff until we’re bored with it. But we start here in the round pen.

The round pen for me is not anything more than a space where we work together. First off, mine isn’t round it’s oval. I don’t look at it like a round pen and I don’t want the horse to either. I do a lot of harnessing in there, we tie for standing practice, we’ll even do some limited hay feeding in there, and of course it can serve as a quarantine area if need be. In the pen I want them to pay attention to me. I don’t have anywhere to go and until we get a relationship neither do they. If we get jumpy while I’m throwing harness on them the first time or two they can run off and turn around and see what that thing was and I can pay attention to both the horse and harness and bring it over to start the process again. Maybe I don’t know any better but I want a young horse to be able to make a mistake (spook) and with it teach me about what he/she does when, and maybe why. Above all I want to wind up with the horse nuzzling with me in the center of whatever that place is called. I want him to know we’re working in this pen, thing, place whatever you want to call it …. and here’s the deal with our relationship, I can help get us out of about any tough spot we find ourselves in. But we’re working here and you’ve got to give me your attention.

If I’m selling you a horse the round pen gives me a place where I can watch you too. Strange as it may seem, maybe after we all get together if this isn’t the right horse, maybe I can find a horse that’s a better fit for you, or maybe I don’t want to sell you one of my horses at all. So I guess the long story short here is “WE” all feel comfortable in the round pen as a meeting place.