How many of you use round pens and what for?

Tarragon

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How many of you use round pens and what for?
Having seen a round pen being used to get excess energy off a sharp horse it has got me wondering how different horses may react to it. The person was using quite strong body language to send the horse on and cantering round and kept it up for quite a while, at least 15 minutes. At the end the horse was far more biddable and less reactive, but it was also quite tired!
Note, I am not talking about join-up here.
Thinking about my own native ponies, I have a feeling that in some it could just make them cross and possibly even aggressive and in the more sensitive souls it might reduce them to a quivering wreck.
 

planete

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I have seen people do the same kind of thing and winced for the poor horse. They are useful for natural horsemanship type exercises when they do not degenerate into a bullying session. I used one to play with my horse as a change from schooling and hacking from time to time. The strain on the horse will be harmful if he is chased around a tight circle for a long time, no matter where you do it..
 

Alibear

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Handy to use for lunging work without the need for ropes and using body positioning to stop and turn the horse. It's a good way to teach roll backs without the rider for western. Also handy for starting horses both in hand and ridden as they don't get stuck in a corner as there aren't any. Neither can there be a scary corner.

Again its a useful thing in the right hands and by the sound of your post its also a bad thing in the wrong hands. Which goes for everything really. There is no inherent wrongness in a round pen.
 

Tarragon

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I have seen people do the same kind of thing and winced for the poor horse. They are useful for natural horsemanship type exercises when they do not degenerate into a bullying session. I used one to play with my horse as a change from schooling and hacking from time to time. The strain on the horse will be harmful if he is chased around a tight circle for a long time, no matter where you do it..

I suppose if it is used regularly, the horse gets used to it and it becomes no more than an easy way to lunge without having the hassle of the equipment. But, I must admit that it made me wince a bit as what I saw was a horse reacting to a "scary" person and being unable to get away and there aren't that many situations where training involves that.
 
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Kaylum

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Personally I dont like them, but it depends how big they are. Horses go round and round in circles. Everything they do is in circles from schooling to showing jumping they werent meant to go round in circles.
 

MotherOfChickens

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Thinking about my own native ponies, I have a feeling that in some it could just make them cross and possibly even aggressive and in the more sensitive souls it might reduce them to a quivering wreck.

yes, I can't imagine my Fell thinking its something he'd want to do lol!

I do have one kinda, I don't use it as a round pen as such, I do lunge in it a bit (I don't have a school-I would prefer a school but heck, we can't all have what we want and this was cheaper-its on grass) and do some ground work such as ground pole exercises and a bit of ridden schooling. I am mindful its a circle and of the footing at all times-they aren't drilled on it or razzed around.

I did have a lusitano that loved a bit of loose schooling and we would also play tag although we'd do it in the field so round pen probably wouldn't have made any difference. I wouldn't do join up.
 

Dry Rot

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Well, what a lot of negative comments! I couldn't do without mine! For one, the trailer is permanently backed up to the second gate and everyone gets occasional loading practice. Most self load because there's usually feed in there. A round pen is a moderately confined space so all sorts of exercises can be done there without things getting out of hand. But I suppose if your horse is already broken and schooled, it is probably unnecessary.
 

MDB

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My three horses are at home and I have a round pen built into a wide section on our track. It is the only flattish place I have to work with my horses in a safe area whilst keeping the others out of the way. I am currently using it for backing my youngster but I do all sorts in there. If I am doing clicker work and am using treats it would be impossible to do this without being in the round pen as the other two would be all over us. It is always open and they use it as their sleeping place the rest of the time.
 

Tarragon

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I think that if I had one I would use it as a safe space, like a small arena.
I think it was more the chasing round aspect that I was musing on.
 

tankgirl1

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We have an indoor round pen, it's quite large as they go so most people on the yard use it like a mini arena. I don't go in it very often but when I do it's just to do inhand pole work or mess about with tarps and flags
 

conniegirl

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our yard owner is going to turn a very large unused grain silo into a covered round pen.
The plan is to use it for turnout on those days that they can't get out (very rare), for restricting intake of laminitic ponies, for anything on box rest or restricted movement, and for backing ponies in, maybe a bit of lunging.
 

ILuvCowparsely

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How many of you use round pens and what for?
Having seen a round pen being used to get excess energy off a sharp horse it has got me wondering how different horses may react to it. The person was using quite strong body language to send the horse on and cantering round and kept it up for quite a while, at least 15 minutes. At the end the horse was far more biddable and less reactive, but it was also quite tired!
Note, I am not talking about join-up here.
Thinking about my own native ponies, I have a feeling that in some it could just make them cross and possibly even aggressive and in the more sensitive souls it might reduce them to a quivering wreck.
we have used our grass round pen for limited turnout as well as loose schooling
 

NinjaPony

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I use the one at my yard to loose school or lunge my little 11.2hh welsh a. He can’t be ridden, so it just adds a bit of variety, and I also find that the groundwork helps reinforce the ‘respect’, in the sense of pressure and release, lots of vocal encouragement and praise. I only use it once a week for 15 minutes though as he has hock arthritis, and most of that is walk and trot, unless he is having a mad moment!
 

Equi

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I actually find mine quite useful to train catching. They can’t get herded into a corner so don’t feel as defensive, but eventually (if you’re calm and stubborn like me) they understand if I stand still this silly circlling will end. It was a life saver for my mare who took a notion and would just NOT be caught. A few sessions in the round pen and she understood I’ll amble along behind her until she decides she’s ready to be caught. I don’t use it for join up and all that nonsense, it’s just simple walking down without the ability to run from one corner to the next. It’s very boring for both parties lol.

I do use it to exercise and free school too but I try not to do that too much cause I would rather them not get into the habit of bombing around as soon as they go in or my walk about training wouldn’t mean much!
 

Xanthoria

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The one at our ranch has very tall, solid sides. Means the horse doesn't get distracted. I use it for:

Backing babies
Clicker training sessions
Getting excess energy out
Ground work / join up
Fitness/muscle building in surcingle and de Gogue etc
It also has a viewing platform, which the vet likes to use to see lameness. Horse can trot on a big circle in the softer footing, or small circle on the somewhat harder middle.

Tarragon, I have certainly seen people use what my old, very sensitive, TB thought was very aggressive behavior in the round pen, and they were surprised when he galloped around nonstop. The same behavior would have just been everyday stuff for their quarterhorse, for example. So you tailor it to the horse, always trying to use the least obvious cues. And yes, a good part of join up is mental, but also a good part is a horse getting a bit tired TBH!

equi, I don't follow any join up or NH practitioner as I find them a bit much, but what you're describing in walking a horse down is an NH type technique. Sending the horse away until it relents and decides to be with you is easier.
 

Equi

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Yep I understand that, but it was not something I did after reading about it it just was common sense to me at the time lol
 

Dave's Mam

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How many of you use round pens and what for?
Having seen a round pen being used to get excess energy off a sharp horse it has got me wondering how different horses may react to it. The person was using quite strong body language to send the horse on and cantering round and kept it up for quite a while, at least 15 minutes. At the end the horse was far more biddable and less reactive, but it was also quite tired!
Note, I am not talking about join-up here.
Thinking about my own native ponies, I have a feeling that in some it could just make them cross and possibly even aggressive and in the more sensitive souls it might reduce them to a quivering wreck.


If you look back on Dave's page on FB, you can see how a round pen was used as a place of security. Familiar to him, where new things always started. No chasing, no stress.
 

canteron

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I have just made (and subsequently) dismantles a large grass round pen to teach a horse to canter on a lunge - was perfect for that. If I didn’t have a sand school would probably use them a lot more.
 

Horsekaren

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We built a round pen about 3 weeks ago, it cost £80.00 and is bloodey awsome! and it looks super smart!

We used 6ft fence posts from ebay, £60.00 in total for posts , a roll of electric tape and connectors, 3 gate handles and its amazing!

I use it at least 3 times a week for ground work, backing up, changes of direction ect just general respect training. I lunged in it briefly as had my field buddy and it is fine for that to and ive pottered around bareback in it.

The trick was to use string to mark the posts to perfection so it is actually round. Horses respect the lines as they think its electric and with the posts being about 5ft 3 above the ground they dont even think about jumping it. IMG_8431.jpg
 
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