Working in the roundpen

[luvmyracker]

I have had large horses for a while and have always worked them in a roundpen. I have a 60 foot round pen. I use a lunge whip to drive them forward, etc. I have started working my 1st mini in the roundpen and it's a whole other ball game. She doesn't care about the lunge whip at all. All she does is move a few steps and starts eating. Of course, I would never hit her, but I raise the lunge whip behind her to move her forward, just like you would do with a large horse. I tap the ground behind her and even tapped her on the rear but she just looks at it and keeps eating. What's the deal? Are there any DVD's showing how to roundpen a mini?

 

[Leeana]

Get a bottle and put rocks in it, anything spooky. She will move

.

If your wearing a jacket, flat your sleeves around and make loud noises with your jacket.

That normally helps to get them going

 

[skanzler]

There are probably several different answers to you question on how to get your mini to work in a round pen. And I am sure there are probably some DVD's you could order. Don't know of any specific one's right off the top of my head.

But most horses need to learn to use the round pen. Most horses don't really like to work. Yes they do enjoy a romp, but once the romp is over most will just wander around. Unless motivated.

We generally start the horses off with just stretching and getting the kinks out. I let them set their own speed at first. If they want to run and buck and mess around that is fine. Gives them time to warm up and stretch.

Then the work begins. I will use the whip as a motivater. If the cracking of the whip does not motivate them, I will add a plastic bag to the end. Using it cautiously at first so that I don't frighten the horse in to hurting themselves by running paniced into the rails. I do not use running as much as I do long trotting. Long trotting works much better to work the halter horses. Most horses once they get tired will start switching lead and saving energy. It is hard to work specific muscles if they do this. It takes time to teach a horse to work at the long trot, as most will go into a canter. It takes patience to teach this. But I find that the halter horses become more fit with this type of workout.

That being said. I do work horses for cardio also, but this is after we have worked them up slowly from being off for the winter. And it is more for my driving horses to build their cardiovascular system for stamina for the driving arena. Most of my horses are younger and are strictly halter, so these I use the long trotting.

If you have another horse that has a good work ethic you could also ad them to the round pen to help teach the other horse to work. This sometimes helps.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

Having shakers or plastic bags might get her moving but more then likely it will not get the point across, all it will do is just scare her to death. I realize you don't want to hurt her, but a good spank in the butt once or a couple of times should get the point across to you horse that it needs to move. Your horse is showing disrespect by not moving and instead of paying attention to you she is eating grass! I'm not trying to tell you to whip your horse to death but you need to get her butt in gear and it might take a couple of pops on the butt to get her goin.

 

[_minihorses4ever_]

If one of the horses I am working in the round pen does not respect my commands, I will give them a tap on the butt with the end of my whip (I don't use a typical lunge whip, I use a Clinton Anderson one, if that makes any difference)... I will first ask them with my hand (Point in the direction I want them to go), then I will pop the whip, and if they don't listen, they get a little pop on the butt. This rarely happens once they learn how our system works (And they learn it quickly too!).. I use all of Clinton Anderson's techniques for the round pen, and they work extremely well for me; they learn quickly to respect ME. Seriously though, compared to what I have seen them do to each other in the pasture, a little tap on the butt won't hurt!

 

[MiniHunterHorseFan]

Ah, we had a round pen for bigger horses too. So when we got minis we just took down some of the panels and made it smaller. And as for the horse not running, I have a horse who was just like that. Whenever I used a lungewhip with a tassel and cracked it in the air, he wouldn't care. He would just try to eat. He didn't even care if I gave him a smack on the rear with it. I guess it was too flexible and just didn't really give him a motive to move, it bounced right off. So I used a long stiff buggy whip and when he would stop to eat I would give him a smack on the rear. That worked better. Now he is used to not being allowed to stop for grass even though he will still try. I can even use the one with the tassle now and don't even have to use the stiff one. Though he did used to think the tassle was a snake when it moved on the ground and he would strike at it. By the way a smack won't really hurt him. He still loves me. When I work the other horse, he will stick his head out of the gate and stare at me working the other horse. He is so jealous.

 

[Jill]

I'll sound harsh, again, but I'd "hit" her with the whip. When I've had ones that will not go, I will pop them on the butt and they go. After they get the idea, then just the popping noise from te lash of the whip will keep them going when they want to slow down. I do not think it is mean to pop a horse on the rump or lower legs to get them moving.

Additionally, once they get the idea and are going, sometimes they do not want to stop. That's happened with several of my young horses (it's not fear). What I do is give them chances to stay stopped but when they even move to step away, I will drive them on to a trot for another 5 or so minutes and then give them another chance to stop and stay still. It takes a while the first session sometimes, but they learn very fast that woah means WOAH.

Last year, I had one very tough customer. Getting her going was no problem, but stopping was. It was out there over an hour a couple times (when had aimed to work her for 10 minutes). She finally got it, but I was at my wit's end with her. Never had one so hard headed about woah. I kept swearing I'd sell her because I was so upset with this issue (so frustrating). It just can take time with some, but most of them do get the idea to stop and stay stopped much faster.

 

[carlenehorse]

I don't know if you have more than one miniature but what I did was put another horse with mine that knew how to lunge and worked them together and she followed the lead of the more seasoned mare and after awhile I took the seasoned mare out and she did wonderful. Now when I work her all I have to use is voice command.

Good luck Carlene

 

[kaykay]

We always start them on a lead rope first. They have to learn to give to pressure on the rope and to move off you. I find that much easier to teach first on a lead rope and then take the rope away and free lunge. When using the lead rope I will bounce the whip behind them while putting pressure on them to move forward. If they wont then we make circles which causes them to move even if they dont want to. They learn on the rope that when I walk tword the hip to move forward. I also teach them to whoa before they are trained to round pen

Its so funny because now those horses will immediately start going as soon as I put them in the round pen. They also learn that when I set the whip down to whoa which helps if do you liberty

It is much easier to work a horse in a pen with no grass if possible. Also I have found many people use round pens to put a horse in for the day. (i have done it too!) But if possible its better if they only know the round pen as a "working" area.