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Most round pens are fifty to sixty feet to
allow the horse to bend and achieve proper bend and balance at the walk, trot,
and canter. The round pen can be used for simply exercising the horse, as a
temporary paddock, a place to confine your horse while you work with it without
having it tied up, and many other ideas. You should concentrate on driving the
horse around the round pen at all the gaits. While you're driving your horse,
you should start to notice him consider looking toward you - when this happens
you should move, while backing - increasing the distance between you and the
horse. This is called drawing. If he doesn't pick up on this, move back behind
him and make him travel onward. Think of pulling him off the fence with an
invisible rope, and to pull you must back up...try approaching and petting him.
If he won't stand still, just start over and pull him in again. Remember that
the ability to drive the horse forward comfortably is something you never want
to lose because you've overdone the hooking on when starting out with the horse.
Always encourage the horse to stand still rather than relying on exhaustion.
For a really good and informative article on the round pen
while I'm working on my page, check out this website:
http://www.kersur.net/~santa/rp1.html
And this one:
http://www.naturalhorsesupply.com/roundpen1.shtml
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