The Round Pen
Written by: Jay O'Jay - Natural Horseman, Jay O Jay Inc.

I’m sure we’ve all seen or heard about a horse that’s seriously hurt himself by running through a barbwire fence or something of that nature. Horses are prey animals and when they get scared their strongest survival instinct is to run for their lives - at any cost! When horses enter into this “life-threatening zone” there is no thinking, just an immediate explosive right brain reaction that triggers flight. This is when the risk of physical injury to both you and the horse are at it’s highest! We must give our horses something better to deal with their fears than their natural instinct of “flight”.

The round pen is where I introduce myself to the horse. It is a place to listen and to communicate. It is a place to establish a leadership role, earn respect and gain control, all without force, bad attitudes or impatience. This allows the horse to stay mentally and emotionally relaxed so he can think and keep his attention focused on me. This is how I get a horse to learn how to learn!

Horses and humans are two completely different species. We are predators, we are direct line thinkers that focus in on what we want and then we go get it. Our instinctive behavior is to contain, hold down or out power that person or animal until it becomes submissive – no more struggling, no more resistance, no more movement.

Restriction of movement, in effect, stops the horse from acting naturally to a stressful situation. In other words, if we do not give the horse a place to go or allow freedom of movement, he has no choice but to feel threatened, fearful or trapped. The end result, the horse panics and runs for his life.

The round pen because of its circular design and lack of corners gives the horse the freedom of movement it needs to run from pressure. At the same time, it allows us to always keep up to, and be with the horse, leaving us in the perfect position to communicate, establish a leadership role and make a connection.

Three steps for gaining respect and control in the round pen

1. Cause movement
2. Control the direction of movement
3. Control the speed of movement

I cause movement by driving or herding the horse just like another dominant horse would. My goal is to prove that I am the strongest, fastest, smartest horse and that I am his leader. By causing movement, either forwards, backwards, left or right I can earn a horse’s respect.

Actually, the more times I can move a horse out of my personal space, the more respect I will earn. This is important because disrespect is the monster that causes so many people to lose their confidence while working with or handling horses. Be their leader, earn their respect and watch your confidence grow!

Secondly, I always want to be in control of the direction of movement. For example, if a horse changes directions on his own, I simply get him to change back to the direction he was going. This will give me yet another opportunity to prove that I have control, that I am dominant and that I deserve some respect.

When I ask for a change of direction, I’d like the horse to roll in towards me off the round pen fence. If he were to change directions by turning into the fence, the only thing he’d be offering me is a disrespectful hindquarter. In all honesty, if the round pen fence weren’t there, I’d be standing by myself. To say that I was more important to this horse, than the other things in his life, would be a stretch of the imagination. Obviously, his attention would not be focused in on me, nor would he be offering even the slightest bit of try or a willingness to please me.

Thirdly, I want to control the speed of movement. This is where I like to work on upward and downward speed transitions. Also, within each of the three gaits of walk, trot and canter/lope I like to focus on establishing a rhythm or a cadence in the stride. Not only is this is a great exercise for getting the horse to work off of the hindquarters, but again we add another level of control in our quest for leadership.

Whether we are desensitizing a horse to a scary object, or driving him forward to cause movement, we are raising his fear level. So, when adding pressure we should always start as light as possible and increase our pressure in a progressive rhythm. I like to think of it as turning up the volume on a radio dial, “smoothly and slowly”! The secret to all of this is to be “consistent” and always reward the slightest try with a release of pressure.

Horses don’t lie; a horse is not going to put his ears forward and pretend he’s, happy if he’s not. A horse’s mind and body are connected to the point of being “one”! By reading a horse’s body language we are literally reading his mind. Horses are constantly giving us signals of how they are feeling both mentally and emotionally. More times than not, their actions are actually reactions to how we move and work around them. By consistently reminding ourselves to move in a slow rhythm, our horse will learn to trust our movements. In reality, we’ll be giving him the necessary time to mentally and emotionally prepare for the movements that we make. The bonus - our horse will gain more and more confidence in himself. Put another way, fast movements cause “reactions” and slow rhythmic movements encourage “responses”.

Once we have established a pattern of respect and control, we need to expand our horse’s comfort zone. We do this by adding fears in the controlled setting of the round pen and letting the horse deal with them one by one. Anytime the horse chooses to stay with us, we reward him with a release of pressure for the slightest try.  Anytime the horse decides to leave, we make it our idea by driving him forward, or out of the herd - relatively speaking.

By allowing the horse to deal with his fears one at a time when he is with us, and driving him out of the herd if he chooses to leave, the horse learns it’s more comfortable to stay than to go. This is the way we become his comfort zone and this is the way we form our connection.

By allowing a horse the freedom to run, he will learn that running away will not be as good as staying. In effect we will be giving him something better than his natural instinct for dealing with fear. US! Pretty powerful don’t you think? Be a champion, be their leader and make a connection with your horse that will form a partnership for life!

Remember – “Success with horses, starts with us”!

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Jay O'Jay is a horseman who specializes in developing a respectful relationship and connection between horse and rider. His passion is the Western discipline of Reining, but through his clinics, videos and demonstrations, he aspires to teach "transferable skills" to riders and horse owners of all disciplines and experience. Those skills, based on the ability to earn respect and gain control of the horse, are the central elements in Jay's "common sense" approach to his training program.