Round Pen Training

From: " Kim "

Dear Jessica,

Thanks for Horse-Sense. I am a first time horse owner and I have taken on the daunting task of training my Quarter Horse filly myself, under the tutelage of an experienced instructor of course. I have learned so much from simply reading Horse-Sense. Thanks!

Now my question. My filly is 10 months old. I have been working her in the round pen for about 15 minutes at least a couple of times a week for about 2 months. She has responded beautifully and I could not be more pleased with her confirmation and disposition. I have never had a more willing student. She responds to the vocal commands "walk", "trot", "lope", and "change" without any aids. I speak the command and she complies.

However, I have been given conflicting advice about how long I should continue this program. I realize that trips to the round pen for refreshers and further education will continue throughout her active life, but how often will/should we go to the round pen now that she has learned the basics. I know that it can be stressful on her legs and I don't want to push her to far. I am using resistance free training with great results and I don't want to jeopardize it.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Kim

Ten months is far too young for any round-pen work, even if you have a proper round pen that's at least sixty feet across, and even if you only do five minutes once a week. Your filly sounds far too nice to take this sort of chance with! Be patient -- back off and allow her to grow up a little more. When she's a coming two-year-old, she'll be ready to do walk and jog in the round pen for five or ten minutes at a time; when she's built some muscle and is strong and balanced, she'll be ready for you to add a minute or two of loping.

The only "basics" a weanling needs are the kind of basics that won't damage a baby's developing body. Here are some things she can learn: standing for grooming and for the farrier and vet, accepting clippers and hoofpicks and such, leading easily at walk and jog, on straight lines and on turns -- and doing all of it from BOTH sides. You can teach her to get into and out of trailers, you can teach her to walk with you -- on a long leadrope -- over tarps and poles and through water and mud. Keep the lessons short, and keep them at a walk, with just the occasional jog in hand on a straight line.

Round pen work, longeing, circle work of ANY kind is for older, more physically developed horses -- horses that are at least adolescent (coming two years old). At ten months, even a little work on a circle can do a lot of damage that will show up later. Don't be in a hurry, don't take the chance! Your filly needs to be out in a hilly pasture with other babies, exercising freely and developing normally.

Let her grow up, work with her from the ground, build a good relationship with her, and all of your work and patience will pay off when she's old enough to be asked for real work and/or work on a circle. Babies are very sweet and smart and malleable, and it's very easy to teach them to walk, trot, canter, stop, and turn in a round pen. But just because it's easy doesn't mean that you should do it! I don't know whether you've ever had ballet lessons, but working a weanling on a circle is a lot like taking a four-year-old girl and putting her into toe shoes because she is so coordinated and so good at her ballet lessons -- no reputable, competent ballet teacher will ALLOW this, because it will cause long-term physical damage to that child's joints and bones. It's the same problem! You need to think in terms of the long-term working life of your horse -- and if you think in those terms, you won't try to start it so young. You don't want to damage joints and bones long before your fily ever BEGINS her working life. If she has good conformation and a good disposition, that's wonderful -- and she's obviously a clever, sweet baby, but she IS a baby. Your best bet will be to drop back, turn her out with the other foals, and work with her in ways that will allow her to develop correctly and stay healthy and SOUND so that when she DOES begin work, she can go on doing it for a long, long time.

Jessica

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