Tips For Training Horses In A Round Pen 

I have a feeling this horse, which had a troubled background, had too much mindless running in its background, so they were trying to teach it to draw toward people and have an interest in the work.

agree

Thank you Cathy.

I like to start with teaching outside turns for 2 reasons. 1. They teach horses to yield away from pressure, which is an important and easier lesson to learn for a horse in the beginning. 2. When starting work in a round yard, teaching inside turns can be quite confusing. This is because the horse is asked to yield towards the person, then told to go away. When a horse is starting to figure out this stuff it can be quite worrying to be asked to turn to the human and then be told to turn away. Keep it simple at the start. I teach inside turns only after the outside turns are well established and have not trouble in them. Then I break the inside turns into 2 steps - first turn in, get a pat and a gentle rub - now turn away and go back to the fence. When the horse gets it, then the process of smoothly performing inside turns becomes a non-issue and causes no anxiety. I hope that helps.

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It's hard to now for sure what to do without seeing her because her distant attitude could stem from difference causes. However, it sounds like she does connect yet keeps something in reserve for herself just in case things go wrong for her - which is fair enough. I might think about directing her quite a bit by drawing her to you and also quietly asking her to change eyes away from you, then draw her back within a few steps. Try building on that. Quietly move around the yard at random, changing directions/angles/speed every few steps and see if she can at least keep track of you and take an interest. If she ignores you, put a tiny bit of pressure on her to move her feet then go back to your random movements. When she takes an interest, stop and wait. If she is not touchy horse, then don't touch her - just wait for a change in breath or a softening of posture or change in focus - then move gain. Play with these ideas and see how you go. Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things. Good luck.

Thanks Amy. I suggest that when your horse turns to face you that instead of putting pressure towards his hind end, you focus on driving the front end. By directing the hindquarters, you send them away from you which draws his forehand towards you. Instead, just keep directing the forehand away towards the line of the circle and send him forward from behind the elbow. Everytime he tries to draw towards you, block it by putting a little pressure towards his inside eye, then send him forward. I hope that helps. Let me know if it is not clear after you've play with the concept a little with your horse.

Hi Ross, thank you for the quick reply. After watching this video I went and watched your 4 part series on lunging (fantastic by the way!) and I realised what I think I’m doing wrong. I have to admit I’ve only known about the ‘driving’ approach in the past. I’m excited to start trying your ‘directing rather than driving’ approach. Great advice, I’ll try this and let you know how I go.

I loved the horse though.

@@swkrissie I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. I suspect the teacher was trying to imitate some other trainer's approach to working a horse in a round pen and had the attitude that a horse wanting to be close to you was a sign of disrespect. I don't subscribe to that at all and I wish your experience had been a better one. If you put 10 trainers together, you'll 10 different opinions. You just unlucky to get one that didn't understand what you wanted from the exercises.

I am unsure what it is that you are asking for help with. Round pen work? Mounting without fear? I don't know what she is doing and what triggers it to be able to offer you some ideas. Can you be more specific?

She bucks under saddle and bolts off. sometimes she’s ok with being ridden and other times she blows up . I watched the owners ride and she immediately bucked them off but he sat on her hard and she freaked out. She’s afraid . How do you fix this without running them around a round pen? I apologize for not being clear

@@DARKhorses73 I don't have an answer for you because I would need to see what is happening before she bucks. But for sure you don't want to run her around the round pen. If she is already afraid, driving her in the round pen is likely to make her more afraid. It sounds like there are things going on with her that you are not aware before she bucks. There are trouble spots in her that are building and adding to her problems. You need to see the little trouble spots and eliminate the worry they cause as they come up. But I am guessing you are not seeing those little spots and not eradicating the worry they cause, so each little bit of trouble adds to her worry and the worry builds and builds until it is big enough to cause her to run off or buck. I suggest you have a look at my video The Cup Of Worry ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qYwJH1pfDrM.html. It sounds like you need professional help before you or your horse gets hurt or you lose your confidence in working with her. Ask around for the best trainers in your area, then go and watch them working other horses. Talk to each of them and then choose the trainer that best suits your needs and gives you confidence. While your horse is with them make sure you go along to watch as many sessions as you can and have several rides on your mare before taking her home. Keep in touch with the trainer and have lessons from time to time to ensure you are keeping up the good work. Best of luck.

For a fuller explanation I suggest you read my FB post of October 4, 2020. facebook.com/Good-Horsemanship-Ross-Jacobs-275719312528545/ Inside and outside turns should both be available and it is really important that you can direct a horse away from you and change eyes. I think the essay will help[ clear it up for you. If not, ask me again.

In a horse's world there is no such thing as respect and disrespect. A horse's behaviour is entirely shaped by THEIR PERCEPTION of what is the response that offers the safest and most comfortable option.

I'm very glad you have been able to help your horse and if using Monty's technique helped you, that's great. But please don't dismiss or diminish the approach demonstrated in the video. because you clearly don't understand it. There is a very high probability that I have worked horses as bad and probably worse than your horse from the several thousand I have worked with over the past 50 years. So I come to these ideas from decades of experience with all types of horses. It's not a fanciful approach and from a horse's perspective it works on creating good feelings in a horse rather than pure submission as Monty's method does.

@@RossJacobs would be good to see first encounter videos and further strategies with real aggressive horses. Most end up at slaughter. I don't follow techniques as such, I follow my wits and my horses. Something irritated me about the woman on the video, apologies, I like your work, for the most part.

When somebody uses the word "respect" when referring to horses I instantly think they are into making a horse obedient.I can appreciate this is probably sometimes jumping to conclusions, but experience has taught that this assumption is 95% true. From you comment about the ears, it appears it is true for you. The horse is listening to her. She knows everything Melissa is doing and is totally aware of it all. But what Silvie is not doing is feeling okay about everything Melissa does. The good part is that Melissa is allowing Silvie to express her feelings and explore her options. That's how Silvie will eventually learn that Melissa offers her a good deal instead of demanding slavish obedience. It is a mistake to look at one behaviour (such as the ears) and use that to make a blanket assumption such as "the horse is not listening." You need to see every behaviour in context and the bigger picture in order to give it meaning. You are wrong to think Silvie is not listening to Melissa because the ears are not pointed at Melissa. You know the horse is listening and attentive because of how she reacts when Melissa quietly talks to her with her body. If the hrose was not listening, Melissa would constantly be needing to use large movements and lots more energy.

Yes, it was MR. I have seen him work and the results that come from it. That's what motivated me to approach it very differently. In your opinion, what am I missing that I have to learn from MR?

Your approach has credibility but the horse in Monty's video had a completely different problem and for you to put that part in there is definitely uncalled for. Your horse is placid and defenatly not the same horse behavior in Monty's video. . You are missing a whole lot. Go and attend and learn !! and then ask m again what is t that you are missing. If you can't see it maybe go and see your optometrist cause you clearly miss a lot

Chrisjan, you are wrong in thinking the horse in this video was placid. The opposite is true. She was a very frightened and nervous horse who began the clinic constantly fleeing. Secondly, it would be interesting to sit down with you and watch MR clip of working the horse because in my view MR trained the horse to be afraid of mistakes. If you watch the whole video you'll see a horse that just gives up from futility. In my opinion, MR tries to kill the 'try' in the horse and turn him into a robotic slave. Watch the whole video of MR and you'll see what I mean.The approach used in my clinic that Melissa demonstrates in the video is designed to keep the horse searching and trying without driving and driving to force submission and obedience.

No you are wrong !! Everybody is entitled to their opinion. You are defenatly nor convincing me or others as you clearly can read

That's fine, but it tells me you are not seeing the trouble inside the horse that MR is creating. Maybe one day some other trainer will help you see it. Good luck.

Really? Would you like to point out those times in the video? Perhaps we can both learn something.

In which part of the video did that happen? I've watched it twice now and just can't see it. Can you detail where by time stamp?